School Readiness Initiative
Working to close the achievement gap for children in Boulder County
About the School Readiness Initiative
The School Readiness Initiative was created to work towards closing the achievement gap in children ages 0–5 by funding school readiness work benefitting low-income families in Boulder County.
What does the Community Foundation mean by educational equity? We strive for the day when it’s no longer possible to predict students’ success by where they live, their family’s income, or their race or ethnicity.
Initiative Information
The foundation’s School Readiness Initiative (SRI) developed, launched, incubated, and spun off ELPASO – Engaged Latino Parents Advancing Student Outcomes – a movement designed to build the Latino parent voice for improved early learning outcomes. Additionally, SRI helped double preschool and make free, full-day kindergarten universal in Boulder County, and secure more than $37M in annual public funding to our schools. SRI also facilitated collaborative efforts to improve educational outcomes, such as BVSD’s Success Effect, Dream Big, and The Raising of America Partnership in Boulder County.
Consistent with its longstanding commitment to education, the foundation endorsed legislation to fund full-day kindergarten and ban the practice of public schools charging tuition. The Colorado General Assembly passed the bipartisan measure in 2019. To date, we have supported eight ballot initiatives related to protecting or increasing funding for public education.
The 2025 School Readiness Initiative Fund Grantees
The 2024 School Readiness Initiative Fund Grantees
Former St. Vrain student’s higher ed advice: Take the first step, break the barriers, seek support if you need it
When Giovani Hernandez first saw Skyline High School shortly after moving to Longmont from Chihuahua, Mexico, he thought he’d arrived at a university. The middle school where he’d come from had broken windows and no air conditioning. Skyline was gleaming by comparison. But it was also tricky to navigate for Hernandez, whose only English vocabulary […]
Partnering for educational equity
Two Boulder County children enter kindergarten. One has well-educated parents and a family with an income that is middle class or higher. The other has parents with less schooling and a lower income. Odds are, their futures look different.
Grantee update: ELPASO improves early learning outcomes, advances educational equity
“Our mission is to create a critical mass of Latino parents who are well informed and skilled to help their children enter kindergarten ready to learn,” says ELPASO Executive Director Tere Garcia.
A donor’s perspective: “for equity in education, support Colorado Amendment 73”
“It’s shocking to me that Colorado ranks 46th in teacher pay and 42nd in per student funding, nationally. Put another way, the state’s school funding lags behind the national average by $2,800 per pupil! So while Amendment 73 may raise taxes for some of us (8% of tax filers earning more than $150K), it’s an […]
Community Foundation Boulder County Endorses Amendment 73
Consistent with its longstanding commitment to education, Community Foundation Boulder County is endorsing Amendment 73 which, as described by the Bell Policy Center, proposes to “raise funding for public education by enacting a graduated income tax increase and adjusting the property tax assessment rates for school districts.”
