Voces Unidas endorses school funding measures in Summit, Eagle and Roaring Fork

For years, Latino students in Western Colorado have faced enormous achievement gaps compared with their White classmates. Those gaps have widened, not narrowed, despite the best intentions of well-meaning school district leaders.

Voces Unidas is endorsing Summit School District 4A, Eagle County School District 5B and Roaring Fork School District 5C because all three districts have taken an important step: connecting new, ongoing local funding to stronger student outcomes.

Latino students make up nearly 40% of enrollment in Summit, 54% in Eagle and 57% in Roaring Fork.

The disparities are stark. In 2025 English Language Arts results, only 16% of Latino students in Summit were proficient compared with 61% of White students. In Eagle County, proficiency was 24% for Latino students compared with 62% for White students. In Roaring Fork, it was 18.5% compared with 60.3%. Math gaps were also between roughly 35 and 40 percentage points.

These are not temporary setbacks. They are chronic disparities that have persisted for years, and in many cases they are getting worse.

Closing gaps this large will require more than maintaining existing programs and meeting payroll needs. Many Latino students are already two or three grade levels behind. Districts need the financial capacity to change practices, invest in bold reforms and provide intensive academic support that helps those students make up lost learning while they are still in school. We cannot simply move students from one grade to the next while they fall further behind.

That is why the language in these measures is important.

Summit’s 4A dedicates $1 million annually to academic outcomes and explicitly calls for strengthening academic outcomes and reducing achievement gaps. Eagle County’s 5B includes funding for strengthening reading, writing and math instruction to improve student achievement. Roaring Fork’s 5C similarly calls for new revenue to strengthen academic outcomes to eliminate achievement gaps.

Voces Unidas advocated for this intentional connection between new revenue and student outcomes. If these communities create new, dedicated funding streams, lack of funding cannot continue to be used as an explanation for why longstanding gaps remain unresolved. New revenue must create room for new strategies capable of accelerating learning for students who are already years behind.

Latino families are asking for that accountability. The 2025 Colorado Latino Policy Agenda found that only 55% of Latino respondents were confident their local school district had the expertise, knowledge and willingness to eliminate the Latino-White achievement gap.

Our 2026 research also found that Latino voters were nearly four times more likely to support a local school tax increase when the funding was explicitly connected to closing achievement gaps and accelerating learning for Latino students.

“We appreciate these districts for listening to Latino families and for connecting new funding to stronger student outcomes,” said Alex Sánchez, president and CEO of Voces Unidas. “Creating a dedicated funding stream gives our communities the opportunity to invest in bold reforms and finally demand better results from our school districts.”

These measures, if approved by voters, will not eliminate achievement gaps by themselves. But they can create the financial capacity to do the harder work ahead: changing practices, accelerating learning and helping students who are already two or three grade levels behind catch up before they leave our schools.

Voces Unidas is endorsing 4A, 5B and 5C because each creates a path to fund that work.

To read about all of our positions and endorsements, visit www.vocesunidas.org/2026-election.