{"id":15575,"date":"2025-11-21T23:54:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:54:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/phil-weiser-talks-education-plan-in-governors-race\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:49:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:49:04","slug":"phil-weiser-talks-education-plan-in-governors-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/phil-weiser-talks-education-plan-in-governors-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Weiser talks education plan in governor\u2019s race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Attorney
Attorney General Phil Weiser speaks at 2022 Candidate Forum, held at the University of Denver, on Oct. 12, 2022. Weiser is leading a statewide task force targeting organized retail theft and the reselling of stolen goods online. (Carl Payne for Colorado Newsline)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Candidate for Colorado governor and current Attorney General Phil Weiser released his \u201cOpportunity Agenda\u201d on Oct. 30 as part of his wider \u201cColorado Blueprint\u201d vision.<\/p>\n

The plan has six main parts: reinvigorating the economy, quality jobs, supporting rural communities, improving education, tackling the young mental health crisis and building a \u201cColoradoCorps\u201d program.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bThe ColoradoCorps, a statewide service and career-building program, would give young people the opportunity to earn a paycheck and gain experience in sectors like education, conservation and public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, too many Coloradans growing up are not getting set up for success and we\u2019re in a changing world with changing technologies (and) new challenges,\u201d Weiser said in an interview with The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cIf we aren\u2019t making sure our education system is up to the challenge of preparing our kids for the future, our kids are not going to have a strong future.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said some school districts, such as Durango, are models for what he hopes to accomplish. The Durango \u201cPortrait of a Graduate\u201d plan was adopted in 2022 and guides the district to prepare students for life after graduation, including a range of important skills that people need to develop, he said.<\/p>\n

Weiser spent time across the state this year meeting with stakeholders like teachers and aspiring teachers, high school and middle school students and school leaders to hear directly from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sharing this plan so that people can get a sense of what my vision is and they can give me feedback on it,\u201d he said. \u201cAs I build out my plans for Colorado, this is going to guide us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Weiser, a big aspect of his plan is addressing youth mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cCreating an awareness about mental health, an awareness of youth mental health challenges and providing support systems is foundational for effective learning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mental health is not just about counseling but also connection, he said. He wants every Colorado kid to have multiple mentors in their lives and said parents can\u2019t do it all on their own.<\/p>\n

Also among Weiser\u2019s top priorities is school safety, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids are feeling often scared,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Evergreen shooting is still very much with us and on our minds, and we\u2019ve got to keep viewing this challenge as a public health crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiser wants to make sure that rural communities \u201care not left behind\u201d and that they have access to valuable training and skills development that will serve all of Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what we\u2019re going to need to make sure is that we\u2019re grounded in different communities and we\u2019re building programs in communities that work for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Artificial Intelligence is becoming a challenge on the student and teacher sides, he said. Students have to be taught both how to use and how not to use AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to prepare students to learn how to use AI skills. They\u2019re going to become 21st century skills and it\u2019s not something we can \u2026 ignore,\u201d Weiser said. \u201cWe have to recognize these are valuable skills that people are going to be using (and) teach them how to use them properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretending AI isn\u2019t there is a big mistake, he said. Incorporating AI into schools is going to be a \u201cformidable challenge,\u201d but he wants Colorado to be a leader in this area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want us to ever lose the critical humanity that is core to the teaching experience and so AI is a very important technological change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Weiser wants to expand funding and access to early childhood education. There are two critical periods for children as they develop, ages 0 to 5 and 5 to 13, Weiser said. The brain is most adaptable before age 5, and 46% of Coloradans live in child care deserts, according to the Center for American Progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t ignore 0 to 5 from a learning perspective, we can\u2019t ignore 0 to 5 from a societal infrastructure perspective because if we don\u2019t have child care available, then we\u2019re setting up young people with a terrible choice,\u201d he said. \u201cEither don\u2019t have kids so you can stay in the workforce or leave the workforce when you\u2019ve got kids, and we shouldn\u2019t put people in that position, so we need to build that childhood learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Attorney General, Weiser said he has \u201cproven executive experience\u201d and proven experience as an innovator. Going forward, he wants to develop the best approach for Colorado and keep learning as he goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all areas that we need to continue to work to improve on and continue to learn how we go forward,\u201d Weiser said. \u201cI believe the state has an important role here and I\u2019m committed to leading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abigail Hatting is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a senior at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ahatting@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Colorado Blueprint\u2019 addresses schooling, jobs and mental health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,28,1509],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-state-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15575"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20951,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15575\/revisions\/20951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15575"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}