Non -profit ready to lose 40% of its financing following the adoption of the federal budgetary invoice
The Durango Adult Education Center will probably lose 40% of its annual operating budget following the adoption of the Federal Budget Reconciliation Bill, which included reductions on two federal subsidies on which the center relied on paying staff wages. (Durango Herald File)
The Durango Adult Education Center faces significant financing reductions following the adoption of a federal budget reconciliation bill signed by President Donald Trump last week.
Two federal subsidies which finance the English language of the center and the basic programs of adult education should disappear, leading to a reduction in course offers and the elimination of personnel posts, said Susan Hakanson, executive director of the center.
The non-profit organization, which serves adult learners in five counties in southwest Colorado, mainly helps students obtain their secondary school equivalence diplomas and to improve their skills in English.
Hakanson said that the language of the bill removes all of the financing of the programs focused on learning the English language – the aim of one of the two federal subsidies. The other, which provides funding for general adult education programs, is also likely to dry, she said.
The two are four -year subsidies, said Hakanson, and the center had built its 2026 budget – as well as projections for the following years – assuming that these flows of income were ensured.
This year, the lack of financial support from the Center is completing the center’s financial challenges. Previously, the Durango Adult Education Center received $ 90,000 at $ 130,000 per year thanks to subsidies administered by the state funded by federal sources of income. These funds were considerably reduced after the federal cuts – and this year, the center has received nothing.
“We had a very happy new year with the success of the students and the students’ numbers, and we did not receive anything from the State of Colorado,” said Hakanson. “So that aggravates what is happening, and a large part of it was motivated by what is happening at the federal level.”
If federal subsidies are also lost, the center will see a 40% reduction in funding – around $ 400,000, Hakanson said.
“It is a giant piece, and he would have almost exclusively spent the salary of teachers,” she said.
Earlier this year, the center dismissed four part -time instructors when the public funds sank. If federal subsidies are also cut, the center will probably eliminate four to six additional teaching stations.
“We are going to try to serve students as best as possible, but we will certainly have been different from us for many years,” said Hakanson.
This means fewer lessons and a return to rely strongly on volunteer teachers, she added.
Founded in 1987, the Durango Education Center mission is to help people become economically and socially self -sufficient thanks to education.
“Our goal is to give everyone the opportunity to be socially and economically mobile and to move in our economic and social systems,” said Hakanson.
The center will take care of donors and private organizations to try to compensate for part of the loss of income, but Hakanson said that he would not be able to replace nearly half a million dollars that could be drawn.
And with the large number of non-profit organizations in all sectors also faced with dried federal sources of income, there will be a supersaturation of organizations looking for additional funding in the coming months and possible years, she said.
“We are not the only types of services that lose funding, so I plan that many, many of our regional non -profit organizations will also lose federal and state funding on which they have relied over the years to do really essential things,” said Hakanson. “I think there will be a good number of services that are no longer offered in our region.”
jbowman@durangoherald.com
