education

A Colorado bill aims to protect books in school libraries from bans by requiring policies for book challenges and protecting librarians from retaliation.

The Southwest Colorado Education Collaborative provides programs and resources to help students in rural areas explore different pathways as they start their careers.

Founded in 2015, Dził Ditł’ooí School of Empowerment, Action and Perseverance (DEAP) is in Navajo, New Mexico, nestled in the Chuska Mountains. One of the school’s administrators says it was created out of a desire to Indigenize education for students by including traditional Navajo practices and spaces in the curriculum – especially after decades of cultural erasure due to the U.S. Indian boarding school system.

Last month, Navajo Nation officials launched Operation Rainbow Bridge, a program designed to help Navajo citizens caught up in fraudulent rehab centers that cheated Arizona’s Medicaid program millions of dollars by preying on and scamming Indigenous people. Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch says that in Navajo culture, a rainbow is used to indicate movement from place to place, hence the operation’s name. Governor Katie Hobbs announced in May that the state would take action against over 100 of these predatory sober living homes, which have sent recruiters to tribal communities across the western United States, targeting the unhoused and those struggling with substance abuse, and taking them to facilities in the Phoenix area. And the Colorado Board of Education informally chose the state’s new education commissioner last week.

Drought is still persistent in the Four Corners but pasture and range conditions are better than expected, the High Desert Conservation District announces a Master Land Steward class, and the benefits of fallen leaves for soil health.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis says the state is moving to a new, less restrictive phase of the pandemic response because of rapidly dropping case numbers. And the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District is holding a special board meeting on Tuesday with only one action item on the agenda: to appoint an interim superintendent for the school district.

Colorado has become the first state to do away with legacy admissions in public colleges. The governor also ended a requirement that public colleges consider SAT or ACT scores for freshmen.

Educators tell NPR that the stress of teaching through the pandemic has affected their health and their personal lives. "It's like nothing I've experienced before," one teachers says.

The Montezuma County Commission has finalized a $51.7 million budget for 2021 and is expected to approve it in two weeks. At Tuesday’s meeting,…

Lawmakers also gave Gov. Jared Polis an additional $100 million to respond to the pandemic and rejected Republican lawmakers’ attempts to limit Polis’ power to issue more executive orders during the virus outbreak.