Denver taxpayer program that supports students says it will generate $1.25 billion impact

Denver students are reaping the benefits of a fund approved back in 2018. The Prosperity Denver Fund helps make education more affordable and accessible. However, it's also seen its fair share of challenges since the fund's approval almost 10 years ago. That includes an audit report in 2023 citing several issues, such as lack of oversight. 

The program says it's addressed all eight recommendations from the auditor's office, and it's sharing the billion-dollar impact the fund has made on Denver's future. 

Students in Denver Health's dental assistant program are on the path to a new career.

"Everybody's story is a little different," said Milagros Medina, who helps oversee the dental assistant program. "But, like I always tell them, when I see that light in their eyes, like, 'I got it!' you know that feeling that you get, it's good," 

Many students going through the 6-month program are receiving scholarships. That includes student Amari Montoya, who graduated from North High School.

"It's super, super helpful," Montoya said. "I feel like that's the financial part of it is what kind of helped me choose the program as well. College kind of seemed like too much for me personally."

The Prosperity Denver Fund has partnered with Denver Health to contribute to its financial aid. It's one of more than 100 programs the fund is actively supporting.

"In Denver, thousands of students graduate each year, and thousands of students are looking at what their future might be," said Rebecca Arno, the Fund's CEO. "Not everybody has the same financial resources, so we have all of these amazing community organizations that are jumping in to help, and the Prosperity Denver Fund dollars are rocket fuel for those organizations."

According to Prosperity Denver's recent economic impact study, taxpayers' investments will generate $1.25 billion in future earnings for thousands of Denver students through 2030. That's when the program will expire, unless Denverites vote to extend it. The issues Prosperity Denver has faced, it says, are in the past. 

"When I came on board a couple of years ago, we got a list of things that the auditor thought we should beef up, Arno explained. "We've taken care of all of those." 

That means more students like Montoya will enter the workforce with new skills and the confidence to create a stable future.

"I feel like dental assisting, from what I've seen and the people that I've worked with, it'll take you far," Montoya said.