Teachers from across Colorado are rallying today, March 20, to call for better funding for Colorado’s K-12 schools. At a moment when federal investment in education is uncertain and at risk, Colorado’s leaders must do all they can to make sure our state gets education funding right.
For nearly 15 years, Colorado regularly spent less on public education than the state constitution required. And for more than three decades, Colorado used an approach to funding public education that distributed resources in a way that increasingly did not match students’ real needs. Two studies released early this year found that Colorado is $4 billion – or more than $4,000 additional dollars per student – away from adequately funding its schools.
The Colorado Children’s Campaign believes that our children deserve better – and last year, state leaders made a commitment to stop underfunding schools and to start using a new, more modern, more equitable school funding formula (House Bill 24-1448). The new formula prioritizes students living in poverty, students who are learning English, and students with special needs as well as rural districts.
This year, the state is facing serious budget constraints. The legislature must cut state spending by $1.2 billion dollars. Funding the school formula in the way it was intended would require dramatic cuts to Medicaid, another program that provides critical services to kids and families.
Policymakers have been searching for a solution. Earlier this year, Gov. Jared Polis proposed changing districts’ approach to counting students by switching to a real-time count rather than a five-year enrollment average. This would bring Colorado’s approach in line with many other states’, but would also create difficult short-term financial situations for districts with declining enrollment. Other stakeholders have proposed using the previous school funding formula instead of the one created by HB-1448.
The Colorado Children’s Campaign supports a new proposal recently shared by Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie that would mean that all school districts in the state receive the same or more funding in 2025 compared with 2024 – and that commits to making sure resources get to the schools and students who need it most. The proposal would increase public education funding by $231 million for the 2025-26 school year – a 2.4% increase over the 2024-25 school year. It extends the timespan over which the new funding formula will implemented, and it gradually transitions school districts to using a two-year enrollment average to determine funding.
The new proposal makes adjustments to reflect that budget reality and school districts’ concerns while also maintaining the state’s commitment to improving its approach to school funding.
We believe children will benefit from a plan that is sustainable and predictable – and that still keeps students at the center of school funding. We call on our legislators to follow through on their commitment to the new school funding formula.
