“We need more Black teachers in Colorado”: Effort to diversify educators includes $10,000 stipend

When Kyra Solomon, who just finished her first year of teaching, moved to Colorado, she noticed there weren’t many Black teachers.

“One thing I’ve kind of been missing since I’ve been to Denver is not seeing a lot of educators that look like me,” Solomon, who teaches Spanish immersion at Stedman Elementary.

But a new initiative between the Sachs Foundation, which provides scholarship programs for Black Coloradans, and Teach for America Colorado is aiming to “build a community of Black educators” by supplementing their salaries for at least the first three years of their career and providing other support, according to an announcement by the organizations.

“We need more Black teachers in Colorado classrooms,” said Ben Ralston, president of Colorado Springs-based Sachs Foundation.

Solomon, who moved to Denver from Atlanta, Georgia to teach, is one of the first educators to participate in the program, which starts this summer. The first cohort in the program is comprised of 14 teachers.

Colorado has a dearth of Black educators, with about 150 of the state’s 178 school districts not having a single Black teacher, according to the news release.

Pay is a persisting barrier for students of color who want to become teachers but have student loan debt so to recruit more Black educators – and retain them – the Sachs Foundation is paying teachers in the program an annual $10,000 stipend to supplement their salaries for at least three years. In total, they can get up to $30,000, Ralston said.

The program will also provide other supports, such as cohort groups; professional development opportunities for educators to improve their skills; and will help them purchase classroom materials that teachers often purchase out-of-pocket, he said.