Colorado lawmakers receive a dire message from former Department of Education employees

Former employees at the U.S. Department of Education are warning state lawmakers that Colorado could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for schools.

The state receives about $870 million a year from the federal government, which is about 13% of the total funding for K-12 education. Nearly half of the money goes to help educate low-income students and students with disabilities.

The job of the Department of Education is to ensure the dollars reach those kids but, after the Trump administration eliminated nearly half of the department's workforce, state Sen. Chris Kolker, the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, worries that may not happen.

For the last month, he has watched as the administration has dismantled and defunded the department and has expected Congress to intervene. It hasn't. So, he is taking action. He called a hearing that included former Department of Education employees to find out what the cuts mean for Colorado.

"This is not meant to be confrontational at all. It's informational, and we want to learn what we need to prepare for," Kolker said.

Former data analysts Joe Murphy and Sarah Newman are among those who testified.

"There hasn't been a transfer of duties. We're not seeing, you know, a transition plan. And I'm worried that, you know, come this next school year, children are ... they're not going to have what they need to thrive," Newman told CBS Colorado.

She and Murphy urged legislators to pass a law to ensure federal funding continues to reach students most in need.

While the federal government could allocate the money to states as a block grant, the legislature would need to pass a law that stipulates how it's to be dispersed, and the Colorado Department of Education would likely need additional staff.

Emily Harvey with Disability Law Colorado told the Education Committee the state also needs a pass a new civil rights law. She says the Education Department's civil rights office in Denver now has just 24 employees to handle more than 2,800 complaints.

"For many students with disabilities and their families, that means bullying, discrimination and other civil rights violations may continue without remedy or recourse," Harvey said.

Colorado not only receives money for specific student populations but grant money for things like drug and violence prevention, counseling, and career and technical programs. That money is usually distributed by the Department of Education in July.

While Democrats have condemned the cuts as reckless, Republicans, including state Sen. Paul Lundeen, say change is needed, noting the Department of Education has grown even as student assessments have plummeted.

"Public education, as it is now, is failing more than 50% of the students, and a substantial percentage larger of Black and Brown students. Is it an elegant process? No. But we have to rethink how we're doing public education, and this is part of how that may happen," Lundeen said.