St. Vrain Valley Schools is launching a flashy new space pathway at its Innovation Center, backed by $1.3 million in NASA funding over three years — another shiny STEM initiative while American kids can barely read or do math.
The Boulder Daily Camera reported that St. Vrain Valley was named a K-12 partner in the Colorado Space Institute at Arapahoe Community College, which NASA tapped as Colorado's Aerospace Skilled Technical Workforce Hub. The district is developing the new space pathway with an advisory board stacked with industry and higher-education representatives alongside St. Vrain educators. NASA announced in August it would invest roughly $10.5 million across seven institutions nationwide to strengthen state-based pathways into skilled technical aerospace careers.
Here's the problem: nobody's asking what this actually buys for the average student. The district gets to slap a NASA logo on a brochure and administrators get to tout their "innovation" credentials. Meanwhile, national reading and math proficiency has been in freefall for years, and there's no indication St. Vrain is an exception. Every dollar chasing a boutique aerospace pathway is a dollar not going to the classroom teacher trying to get a seventh-grader to grade level.
Follow the money. NASA is putting $1.3 million into Colorado over three years — that's roughly $433,000 a year split across institutions, not just the school district. St. Vrain's slice funds an Innovation Center and an advisory board heavy on industry insiders. The district gets a program; industry gets a pipeline of subsidized trainees. The taxpayer gets the bill for a federal agency moonlighting as a workforce recruiter.
The Camera framed the announcement as straightforward good news — a "partnership" and a "pathway." What got buried: any scrutiny of whether this delivers measurable outcomes for students, any mention of what St. Vrain's current proficiency rates look like, or any voice from parents asking why the district is prioritizing aerospace career tracks over basic literacy.
Meanwhile, 1,000 miles away in Amboy, Illinois, a high school senior named Leighton Gulley told Shaw Local that the class she finds most engaging is Government — because she enjoys learning "how laws are created and enforced" and "the rights and responsibilities of citizens." She plans to study criminal justice and become a police officer. No NASA grant required. No Innovation Center. Just a kid who wants to learn how her country works and serve her community.
One district chases federal aerospace money. One student studies the Constitution. Ask yourself which one is actually preparing a citizen.
The open question: when St. Vrain reports back on this pathway's results in three years, will they have proficiency numbers to match the press releases?
