Section 22-55.5-101 - Legislative declaration(1) The general assembly finds that: (a) Research demonstrates that, when considering the elements of the education system within public schools, the classroom teacher has the most significant effect on a student's learning and academic growth;(b) Each adult working within a school and interacting with students has the potential to positively influence the students within the school and increase learning and academic growth;(c) For the 2019-20 school year, the department of education reported that Colorado had an average teacher salary of about fifty-seven thousand seven hundred dollars;(d) In 2020-21, school districts and charter schools in Colorado paid a minimum teacher salary that ranged from a low of about twenty-five thousand dollars to a high of about fifty-three thousand dollars;(e) For the 2020-21 school year, of the one hundred seventy-eight school districts in the state, all but thirty reported a minimum teacher salary of less than forty thousand dollars;(f) Many of these school districts are rural school districts with low assessed property value and therefore limited ability to raise local property tax revenue; and(g) The total program amount calculated for each school district pursuant to section 22-54-104, which represents the financial base of support for each school district, has been reduced for most school districts by the budget stabilization factor each budget year since the 2010-11 budget year, further restricting the ability of some school districts to increase their teacher salaries and the hourly wage for other employees.(2) It is therefore the intent of the general assembly to establish a fund to assist school districts and charter schools in increasing the salary paid to teachers and the hourly wage paid to nonlicensed employees. It is further the intent of the general assembly that a school district or charter school that receives money from the fund must use the money received to supplement, not supplant, the amount that the school district or charter school would otherwise budget for educator salaries and wages.Added by 2021 Ch. 485,§1, eff. 7/7/2021.L. 2021: Entire article added, (SB 21-172), ch. 3470, p. 3470, § 1, effective July 7.