The governor doesn’t show up at the microphone every time a lobbying group rallies on the Capitol steps.
But the odds are better if one of the group’s leaders is the governor’s son.
“I know a lot of his staff,” said August Ritter, a Colorado State University junior who helped organize a Monday rally to urge the state to increase higher-education funding $58.5 million to match a possible $58.5 million tuition hike.
Gov. Bill Ritter found a few spare moments to stand among about 70 suited- up college students, their backpacks lining the front steps of the Capitol. He asked Coloradans to consider the economic impacts of higher education and said investing in it sends a message “to generations we may never meet.”
His oldest son, a 20-year-old global- tourism major, said he went through his dad’s scheduler, Scott Hutchings, so as not to “push my priority because I was the governor’s son.” August Ritter really didn’t have to worry – he said he and his dad agree that “higher education is a priority in Colorado.”
The problem is that the elder Ritter has lots of priorities but not enough money to pay for all of them. His higher-education budget calls for an increase of only $55.7 million.
A new group dubbed Associated Students of Colorado, representing 15 schools, is asking for an extra $2.8 million to bring the higher-education budget to a point where it matches the potential tuition increase.
The students want to ensure that when they’re forced to pay more, the state pays more too.
A shrinking share
The portion of the state’s budget for higher education has been shrinking as K-12 schools, prisons and health care eat up increasing percentages of the general fund.
The governor said he and the legislature would weigh the request against a “host of other things” and “we’ll see at the end of the day.”
Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, called it a “very reasonable request” but a short-term fix.
Johnson urged the students to help sell voters on a long-term solution to dwindling higher-education dollars.
“The world is getting smaller,” Johnson said. “We’re competing with other nations that are educating their students better and better. We need to make the case to the voters of the state.”
Conversation is buzzing around the Capitol about hitting voters up for a tax increase to fund colleges. This year the state general-fund budget for higher education is expected to be $745 million. Colorado schools would need an additional $832 million per year to get the average state funding of their peers, according to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.
“When it comes to funding higher education, Colorado is falling behind,” said Ryan Biehle, an Associated Students of Colorado representative. “The time is now to begin fulfilling this promise.”
From around the state
College students trekked from around the state for the rally, including 13 from Trinidad State Junior College who spent the previous night on couches at a Colorado School of Mines fraternity house.
August Ritter, who took time off from college to help his dad campaign, introduced students to the Capitol crowd as first lady Jeannie Ritter snapped photos.
August Ritter didn’t speak during the rally and faded into the background, deflecting attention to other student leaders.
The reason he participated was simple. “I’m a student. My friends are students,” he said. “I just want to make sure students’ voices are heard at the Capitol.”
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
