West
Colorado public school enrollment drops by 10,000 while homeschooling increases statewide
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More Colorado parents are opting for homeschooling, pulling their children from public schools, state data shows.
The Colorado Department of Education on Tuesday released state data based on fall’s student count. The state reported a 1.2% drop in enrollment compared to last fall, with a total of 870,793 pre-K-12th grade students enrolled.
Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova attributed the enrollment drop to several factors, including a decline in the school-aged population.
The Colorado Department of Education on Tuesday released state data based on fall’s student count. The state reported a 1.2% drop in enrollment compared to last fall, with a total of 870,793 pre-K-12th grade students enrolled. (Getty Images)
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“Colorado continues to experience enrollment trends shaped by a declining school-aged population, increasing racial and ethnic diversity, and shifts toward part-time and online learning. These changes require thoughtful adaptation, and our schools are working diligently to continue serving students effectively across the state,” Córdova announced in the press release.
While enrollment decreased in public schools, students being homeschooled and enrolling in online educational programs rose.
The state reported that full-time home-school students increased by 5.5% from last year. Children registered in online educational programs and online schools increased by 2.9% since last year.
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Colorado reported that full-time home-school students increased by 5.5% from last year. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Colorado’s drop of 10,000 students this year is the steepest drop in enrollment since the coronavirus pandemic when enrollment dropped by 30,000 students.
Colorado Department of Education sent Fox News Digital the following statement.
“Colorado has long been a state that supports school choice. We have vibrant traditional, public schools, innovation schools, and charter schools. New and innovative models reflect the changing landscape of schools. We are certainly monitoring the number of families who select homeschool and online schools for their students,” a spokesperson said.
A teacher gives a lecture as students look on. (Jeff Pachoud/AFP via Getty Images)
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The drop in enrollment reflects national declines in public school student enrollment. Colorado’s public school enrollment challenges reflect a broader shift in American education, where families are increasingly exploring alternatives such as homeschooling, microschools and school-choice programs. Homeschooling in particular grew after the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating more parents are looking beyond public schools.
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San Francisco, CA
Supervisors urge California to expand S.F. speed-camera program
San Francisco supervisors authorized a resolution Tuesday urging California lawmakers to expand the city’s automated speed camera program, which currently has 33 cameras operating in the city under a state pilot.
The board’s 10-to-1 vote on Tuesday, with District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton voting against it, will not add cameras immediately, but formally asks the state to explore changes to the program. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has identified at least 80 additional high-need locations that could benefit from automated enforcement, according to a report filed with the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee.
Richard Zieman, whose son Andrew, a paraeducator, was killed in November 2021 by a speeding driver outside Sherman Elementary School on Franklin Street, told Mission Local that city officials should do more. “They waited for a tragedy,” Zieman said. Parents and school leaders had repeatedly asked the city to slow traffic on Franklin Street, where drivers barreled downhill toward the Marina, said Zieman.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who introduced the resolution, has said the city’s first year of automated speed enforcement shows that the technology works. The SFMTA reported nearly an 80 percent reduction in drivers traveling at least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit at camera locations after the program launched in March 2025. San Francisco was the first city to implement the pilot authorized under Assembly Bill 645.
The pilot, however, is capped by state law at 33 camera locations. Tuesday’s resolution asks California lawmakers to consider allowing more, prioritizing corridors on San Francisco’s High Injury Network, including Franklin Street.
Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy group which spent roughly eight years advocating for the state legislation that created the pilot, called the resolution an important first step toward broader expansion.
“Thirty-three cameras is nowhere near the number of cameras we need for people to realize that San Francisco is a safe-speed city,” said executive director Jodie Medeiros. “This tool is working. People are lowering their speeds.”
District 6, represented by Dorsey, currently has seven of the city’s 33 cameras, most of them in SoMa. The district also records the highest number of crashes involving injuries or fatalities in San Francisco, making it a focal point in the debate over expanding automated enforcement.
The resolution advanced unanimously from the Board of Supervisors’ Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee last week, where Dorsey said the cameras have made streets “feel safer” and argued the early results show “why we should have even more of this life-saving technology.”
Zieman, whose son’s death prompted traffic-calming improvements and eventually a speed camera near Sherman Elementary, said the issue is urgent.
“There are probably other Franklin streets out there,” he said. “I just hope they don’t wait for someone else before they expand the program. It’s too late for Andrew.”
Denver, CO
Five Points affordable housing building honors Dr. Justina Ford | Rocky Mountain PBS
DENVER — Dr. Justina Ford’s name adorns plaques and statues across Denver, where she delivered more than 7,000 babies as the city’s first licensed Black woman physician. Now, an affordable housing building in Five Points, the neighborhood where she lived and worked for 50 years, bears her name.
The newly christened Justina at Five Points, formerly Brunetti Lofts, offers a rare commodity in Denver’s housing market: family-sized affordable housing units.The 23-unit building, built in 2005, has 19 three-bedroom units. Rents range from $840 to $1,893 per month. Residents must make between 30% and 60% of Denver’s area median income, and specific income requirements vary depending on the unit.
“I do believe that in the last, five, ten years, maybe a little longer, housing here in Colorado has just gone crazy. I mean, I have a little two-bedroom townhouse, and I can’t afford to move back in the neighborhood I grew up in because of the pricing. And it’s just crazy,” said Daphne Rice-Allen, chair of the board at the Black American West Museum and Heritage Center, which is housed in Ford’s historic home in Five Points.
Rice-Allen grew up in Clayton, which is northeast of Five Points. This cluster of neighborhoods in north Denver — Five Points, Cole, Whittier and Clayton — were among the areas deemed “hazardous” and “definitely declining” on the city’s 1938 “Residential Security Map,” which redlined neighborhoods with Black, Mexican and lower-income residents.
At that time, Five Points flourished as a cultural and entertainment hub, known as “the Harlem of the West” and serving as “the seat of Denver’s African American community.” Black social clubs, such as the Owl Club, emerged. And Ford, who arrived in Denver in 1902 and was not allowed to work in a hospital, continued to provide medical care out of her house and deliver babies at her patients’ homes.
“This was a family neighborhood, Rice-Allen said about Five Points during that period.
“There were a lot of families that lived in the area and lived in the neighborhood.”
But Five Points’ demographics have changed a lot since Ford died in 1952. About 30% of households in the neighborhood were families in 2020. By 2024, that percentage dropped to about 20%.
The neighborhood experienced a drastic shift in racial demographics as well. In 2000, about 27% of the residents were white, 26% Black and 43% Hispanic. The 2020 census told a different story: 64% white, 10% Black and 17% Hispanic.
What was once a Black cultural hub is now a majority-white neighborhood, which raises concerns about gentrification and displacement of long-time residents. Despite the large supply of affordable housing units in the area — 2,796 in 2024 — about half of renters in Five Points are cost-burdened, meaning they spent more than 30% of their income on housing.
Seattle, WA
Seattle weather: Hot and sunny day Wednesday, highs in the 80s
SEATTLE – Wednesday will be another warm day with highs in the mid to upper 80s for parts of western Washington. Eastern and central Washington will reach near 100F with high fire danger. The coast and north interior will be cooler, only in the 60s to 70s.
Wednesday will be another warm day with highs in the mid to upper 80s for parts of western Washington.
Fire Weather Watch
A Fire Weather Watch goes into effect Wednesday evening through Thursday evening for thunderstorms and gusty winds. Lightning strikes could create new fire starts and, with very dry conditions in place, any new fire could spread quickly.
A Fire Weather Watch goes into effect Wednesday evening through Thursday evening for thunderstorms and gusty winds.
What’s next:
An upper level low will move into the Pacific Northwest, bringing scattered showers and a chance of thunderstorms. The heaviest showers will be in the morning hours and will turn more scattered into the evening hours.
An upper level low will move into the Pacific Northwest, bringing scattered showers and chance of thunderstorms.
Looking Ahead:
High pressure will build again Friday and into the weekend, increasing temperatures and sunshine. We will start to see highs reach the upper 80s to low 90s by early next week.
High pressure will build again Friday and into the weekend, increasing temperatures and sunshine.
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The Source: Information in this story came from the FOX 13 Seattle Weather Team and the National Weather Service.
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Five Points affordable housing building honors Dr. Justina Ford | Rocky Mountain PBS
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