Recently, a letter writer suggested that reserves in the Colorado Education Fund be used to provide better pay for teachers. It is clearly critical that we improve teacher pay and embarrassing that Colorado teacher pay is 49th in our nation.

All of us are responsible to assure our state’s children have access to quality education, which they can only receive if excellent teachers can afford to continue teaching. But using reserves – one-time money – to pay for salaries, an ongoing expense, is short-sighted and irresponsible.

In addition, the reserve fund is the only source that the state can go to in lean or emergency budget times to keep paying teachers, such as during a recession or when the ratcheting down effect of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights kicks in.

While Proposition HH is a complicated measure, it will not only reduce the coming property tax increase, it will also provide additional desperately needed funds for education. Please vote “yes” on Prop. HH.

Bonnie Miller

Durango