Our Accomplishments
2023
2023
- Great Ed turns 20!
- We undergo an extensive strategic planning process. Internally, we prioritize making our workplace more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Externally, we revise our mission and vision to center creating welcoming and adequately, equitably and sustainably funded schools.
- We resume our annual Action Summit after a 3-year hiatus due to COVID-19 themed “Creating Welcoming Schools.”
- Executive Director Lisa Weil is appointed to a legislative School Finance Task Force.
2023
2022
2022
- Great Ed co-ran a successful, comprehensive campaign with the School Policy Coalition to get the Colorado Board of Education to adopt inclusive social studies standards.
- We executed a signature-gathering campaign to help get Initiative 63 (Prioritize Education) on the ballot, gathering enough names to fill the Ball Arena...twice! But signature-gathering is halted due to a lack of funding. Sadly, polling shows that more than 60% of Coloradans would have supported the initiative.
2022
2021
2021
- Great Ed launches Advocates Network, a monthly video call that brings together community advocates for public education to learn from and connect with each other.
- We form our Youth Coalition to support youth-led and youth-serving organizations.
2021
2020
2020
- Great Ed facilitates a signature-gathering campaign to help get Initiative 271 (Fair Tax Colorado) on the ballot. Due to the COVID-19 shut-down, signature gathering is discontinued — but initial polling shows that 70% of Coloradans would have supported the initiative.
- Because we couldn’t host a Luncheon during COVID-19, Great Ed hosts an online event, featuring a virtual Escape Room that provided participants with interactive ways to learn about school funding obstacles and Great Ed’s efforts to overcome them.
2020
2019
2019
- Great Ed gets a Director of Equity!
- We launch our first Public Education Voter campaign and get out the vote for Proposition CC. Prop CC is defeated, but the Public Education Voter slate has continued to play an important role in elections since.
2019
2018
2018
- Great Ed launches a Parent Advocacy Training Program, an 8-week course on how to be a public education advocate.
- Great Ed and Great Schools Thriving Communities Coalition (GSTC) volunteers gather signatures for Amendment 73 (Establish Income Tax Brackets and Raise Taxes for Education), which becomes the first citizen initiative to qualify for the ballot under the new “Raise the Bar” rules. Though the measure is defeated, it receives a higher percentage of votes than any school funding tax measure to date!
2018
2017
2017
- Great Ed launches the Colorado Education Network, debuts a video on What Makes Colorado, Colorado, and rolls out the “Promise of Colorado” campaign at its 2017 Action Summit to provide Coloradans with the tools to advocate for public schools.
2017
2016
2016
- Great Ed forms the Great Schools Thriving Communities (GSTC) — formerly known as the 2018 Table. The coalition spends the next two years learning about school finance and tax policy, in preparation for what became Amendment 73.
2016
2015
2015
- Lisa Weil becomes Great Ed’s Executive Director, following 10 years of Liane Morrison’s steady and inspiring leadership.
- We publish our Finding Common Ground on Common Core report.
- We organize 11 Advocacy Days at the Capitol.
2,000 people sign our Keep the Surplus for the Kids petition.
2015
2014
2014
- Great Ed brings dozens to the capitol (including future Joint Budget Committee Chair Representative, Shannon Bird) to lobby their legislators for funding for public schools.
- With 30,000 subscribers in 220 communities, Great Ed focuses on turning out public education supporters for a local mill and bond elections through telephone town halls, emails, postcards, and social media.
- Low-propensity voters on Great Ed’s list vote at a rate 10% higher than the statewide level.
2014
2013
2013
- Great Ed gets published again, calling on the legislature to make 2013 the “Year of the Student.”
- 7,500 individuals and 170 organizations sign on to the Year of the Student pledge. Supporters deliver signatures and meet face-to-face with legislators, and send 26,000 emails to their legislators.
- “Year of the Student” leads to 3,200 new preschool slots and, $20 million in funding for Special Education.
- We endorse and gather signatures for Amendment 66...it’s defeated
...but Great Ed supporters vote at a rate 10% higher than the Colorado average!
2013
2012
2012
- Great Ed and the Great Futures Coalition recruit endorsers and supporters for the “2013 “Year of the Student” campaign, in advance of the 2013 session.
- The 2012 Great Futures Action Summit draws 140 activists from across Colorado.
2012
2011
2011
- Great Ed and Great Futures Coalition volunteers deliver thousands of signatures and 435 pages of stories to legislators through the “Is It OK?” campaign, detailing the impact of poor funding on students, families, and teachers.
- We host our first Action Summit: Great Futures Organizing Conference!
- Ed board member Kathy Gebhardt sues the State of Colorado, arguing that the public school financing system violates the Colorado constitution’s Education Clause. Great Ed blogs the trial and submits amicus briefs in the litigation. A district court found after a five-week trial that Colorado’s system was not only unconstitutional but “unconscionable,” a decision that Great Ed supporters asked the Governor and State Board NOT to appeal. The Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the case.
- 400 Great Ed volunteers collect 20,000 signatures for Proposition 103, Great Ed’s first foray in petitioning. Though it was defeated by a margin of 2:1, it created infrastructure for future efforts.
- Great Ed hosts its First Annual Great Education Colorado Luncheon, honoring former State Treasurer Cary Kennedy.
2011
2010
2010
- Great Ed creates an interactive map with information on local education budgets and how underfunding affects local schools.
- Supporters of Great Ed and the Great Futures Coalition lobby and testify to get the DECIDE amendment referred to the ballot. Though it passes the House, it does not receive the ⅔ vote in both chambers to be placed on the ballot.
- Great Ed’s dozens of volunteers handwrite and send thousands of postcards to voters, asking them to vote “no” on “The Bad Three” tax cuts: Amendments 60 and 61, and Proposition 101, all of which are soundly defeated.
2010
2009
2009
- Great Ed forms the Great Futures Coalition made up of over 30 other organizations who share a goal of creating adequate and equitable funding for Colorado’s public schools
- Great Ed gets on social media!
- We publish “the graph”, showing how the Gallagher Amendment, TABOR, and the BS Factor has affected school funding
- We formalize our mission and vision
2009
2008
2008
- Governor Bill Ritter signs the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) legislation into law, resulting in over $1 billion in school construction, repair, and renovation in communities that otherwise could not afford to finance those improvements
- We endorse Amendment 59 (Savings Account for Education)...it’s defeated. If it had passed, state funding of schools would have been increased by billions of dollars as a result of Colorado’s nation-leading economic growth over the past decade.
- Great Ed hosts the first of three annual Great Ed Tennis Open fundraisers.
2008
2007
2007
- Great Ed takes legislators on tours of crumbling schools throughout the state, which results in the creation of the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program, the first state funding of school construction in Colorado history.
- Now Executive Director, Lisa Weil sits on the P20 Education Coordinating Council, which gets Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids (CAP4K) passed.
- Great Ed gets published!
2007
2006
2006
- Great Ed hires our first employee!
- We launch our first campaign: School Stories Project.
- We hold our first rally at the Capitol: Bigger Than a Bake Sale
2006
2003-2004
2003-2004
Great Education Colorado’s predecessor, “Colorado Protectors of Public Schools (COPOPS),” is founded in a living room in Denver by a group of parents alarmed by the lack of interest shown by legislators for the critical issue of school funding.
2003-2004
Press + Media
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Lawmakers spare K-12 education from budget cuts in 2020-21
by Sterling Journal-Advocate
Read Article
February 5, 2021 -
Cortez schools plan vote on school closures amid ‘critical’ staff shortage
Thursday, Jun 23, 2022 1:15 PM Updated Monday, Jun. 27, 2022 5:03 PMRead More -
Students speak out for more inclusive social studies standards ahead of the State Board of Education’s vote
· Nov. 9, 2022, 5:39 pm
Read More