Ramberg: What your gift to AEF actually buys

Ask around town what the Aspen Education Foundation does and you’ll usually get some version of “helps the schools.” Here’s a more precise answer.

Last year, AEF raised $2.5 million for the Aspen School District — the largest amount in our history. A partial accounting of where it went:

• $328,000 — Outdoor and Experiential Education (full time coordinator, Ex Ed fee cost equalization, scholarships)
• $202,500 — Mental health counselors
• $160,000 — Aspen Family Connections
• $111,000 — Partnerships with Aspen Words, the Aspen Institute, Anderson Ranch & the Aspen Science Center 
• $106,000 — College and post-secondary counseling
• $105,000 — International Baccalaureate (IB)
• $100,000 — Special education
• $97,000 — Innovation labs
• $65,000 — Aeronautics
• $59,000 — Middle school robotics and STEM
• $40,000 — Theater programming
• $24,500 — Teacher appreciation
• $17,000 — Free and reduced-price student breakfast (need based)

Those 12 line items account for a little over half the total. Importantly, without AEF, these programs and positions would not exist.

AEF began as a small group of parents who wanted more for their kids than a budget line would allow. It has since become something larger: a community-wide effort to keep our public schools among the strongest assets this town has. The work is no longer supplemental. Ask a teacher what happens to the counseling office, the robotics lab or the outdoor ed season without AEF, and you’ll hear the same answer — those programs shrink, or they disappear.

Our vision is not a modest one. Every child in this valley deserves access to an extraordinary public education: rigorous academics, and the experiences beyond the classroom that turn a student into a curious adult. A town that can fund that, and doesn’t, has made a choice.

Aspen keeps choosing otherwise, and we are grateful for it. If you’ve ever wondered whether a donation to AEF actually reaches a classroom, the list above is your receipt.

Learn more at aspenaef.org.

Ken Ramberg

Aspen