A former Steamboat Springs High School teacher turned state legislator will be back in the classroom to co-teacher a civics course at Steamboat Mountain School in the fall semester.

State Rep. Meghan Lukens said the 12th grade curriculum will bring students together three times a week starting Sept. 4 with a focus around, “how, as a student, can you be politically and civically engaged and how does understanding our political systems help you to be engaged?”

Lukens, a Democrat who won the District 26 seat in November after campaigning on a platform aimed at bringing more teachers into the ranks of the state legislature, credited her own Steamboat Springs High School AP U.S. History class, taught by longtime Steamboat teacher Deirdre Boyd, for inspiring her to become a teacher and, ultimately, run for state office.

“I just loved her class and learned how to be civically engaged there,” Lukens recalled. “And I wanted to take that into the capacity of being a teacher.”

Lukens holds degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Colorado Denver, where she graduated with a master’s in leadership in educational organizations. Her career in education includes a year teaching at the American School of Kosova in Pristina, Kosovo, five years of high school social studies instruction at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette, and two years teaching social studies at Steamboat Springs High School.

As a teacher, she said encouraging her students to understand and lean into the democratic process inspired her to become more engaged in it herself.

“Colorado is 50th out of 50 (states) for lowest teacher pay, and we have teachers fleeing the state because they can’t afford to live here,” Lukens said. “I thought that we needed more educators’ voices at the state legislature advocating for our students and teachers and the education system overall.”

Lukens, a member of the House Committee on Education, said that in her first legislative session she was proud to contribute as a co-sponsor of a public-school finance bill, signed into law by the governor in May. The legislation increased per pupil funding by $1,000 in Colorado, while adding an additional $30 million in funding for rural education and another $30 million for special education.

While working as a co-teacher this fall at Steamboat Mountain School, Lukens said she will be able to continue her work as a legislator during a time of the year when she plans to keep busy locally as she attends various events, meets with members of the community, and works on preparing for when the next legislative session begins in Denver in January.

Last fall, Lukens led middle school students in Steamboat through a “mock education committee hearing” based on the same process lawmakers take to produce legislation when they are in session. She said she hopes to continue to bring real-world experience with her more expansive instructional role this fall and is planning to bring her students to the state Capitol building to see the process in action.

Lukens does not necessarily deny being a tough grader, saying she “certainly will have rigor and vigor be part of the class,” but the teacher and state lawmaker said that a student’s personal political beliefs will never be an indicator of performance for her curriculum.

“I want to be super clear that I am very nonpartisan in the classroom,” Lukens said. “I support kids with whatever political identity they may have, and we learn together on ways that students can be politically and civically engaged and then take that into the future as global citizens.”