George Washington’s Budget cut – What you need to know.
By: Riley Duignan
As most students and parents know, George Washington High School is undergoing major budget cuts for the 26-27 school year. I asked the questions so you don’t have to, and here’s everything you should know.
Dr. Davis had stated that around the 2023-2024 school year, over 200 new students from Columbia and Venezuela came to GW during the surge that the Denver Metro area saw in this year. According to the Common Sense Institute of Colorado, since December 2022, Denver metro area schools have seen a total of 15,725 migrant students coming in, 44% of whom came from Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. DPS saw around 5,322 of those students in the 2023-2024 school year, and 55% of those were migrants who came from the countries stated above. Because of this major increase in students at GW, recording up to 1,322 students, the school found a need to hire numerous teachers to support the influx of students.
As GW averages around 1,250 students, the 2025-2026 school year has seen the population at GW begin to go under the average rate, and the 2026-2027 school year will likely see around 1,209 students, 41 under the average population. But what does this mean for the overall budget?
In the interview with Dr. Davis, she quotes, “The money is gone in many ways [referring to the general decreasing student and migrant population in Colorado]. So, we had to cut our budget by $1.6 Million dollars.” This budget cut is causing a process called “Reduction In Building,” where all staff/teachers at the school have to reapply for their role at the school, and many will not be able to come back. According to Dr. Davis, around 10 teachers will be let go of and around 5 support staff members, including one Assistant Principal, 2 counselors, and special education staff, making a total of 15 staff members being let go from GW.
“Is anything[population] affected by ICE right now?”
“100%,” Dr. Davis says, “We are either seeing them not coming at all, or they’ve literally moved back to their home country.” She later stated that either they have been deported by ICE, parents are scared to send their children to school, or they are willingly moving back to their home country. Parents being fearful to send their children to school because of ICE has been a common occurrence as of recently, with a total of 22% increase in absences from students after the increase in raids. In addition, a 2025 Stanford study showed that a total of 113,000 students in numerous California school districts missed more than 81,000 days of school and instruction in the months after the January ICE raids.
Schools all over the country have been impacted by the decreasing immigration population in their schools, and GWHS is only one of them. The best we can do is not only support our fellow students and staff, but also protect and protest for our community against these intense and corrupt political times.
Sources
https://www.commonsenseinstituteus.org/colorado/research/housing-and-our-community/the-ongoing-cost-of-denver-migrants#:~:text=In%20total%2C%20since%20December%202022,countries%20will%20cost%20$98%20million.
As ICE Actions Ramp Up, Study Cites 81K Lost School Days After California Raids