Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced Tuesday that the state is giving $2.7 million to teachers to help them buy classroom supplies for the upcoming 2024-25 academic year.
The governor’s announcement comes as a new school year kicks off this month. Individual educators can receive up to $600 in supplies — everything from calculators to projectors — for their classroom, Polis said.
“We want to make sure (teachers) shouldn’t have to reach in their own pocket,” Polis said during a news conference held at Adams 14’s Dupont Elementary in Commerce City.
Polis said “thousands” of Colorado teachers will benefit from the $2.7 million, which is coming from the Governor Emergency Education Relief fund. The state is partnering with DonorsChoose, a website for teachers to post requests for classroom supplies, to distribute the money.
Teachers can go to donorschoose.org to receive money for supplies. Once on the website, they can enter the code COLORADO during the project creation process to receive a part of the $2.7 million.
Daniel Stone, a fourth-grade dual-language teacher at Dupont, said he plans to use the money to buy science-based activities for his classroom. Last year, he bought about 16 e-readers for his students via DonorsChoose.
The governor urged educators to sign up for the money as soon as possible, saying he expects to be gone within the “next day or two.”
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