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An estimated $1.2 billion state budget shortfall has put an insurmountable kink in Colorado lawmakers’ plan to increase education funding to “adequate” levels after a decade and a half of shortchanging the state’s public schools.
Last year, state lawmakers voted to fully fund Colorado schools by no longer withholding funding from schools and diverting it to other departments. In January, two studies commissioned by lawmakers concluded that full funding — $9.8 billion this year — isn’t enough. The studies said Colorado needs to spend $3.5 billion to $4.1 billion more per year to adequately fund its public schools.
But two months later, it’s clear that doing so will be impossible in the short term and could mean asking voters for more money in the long term. A coalition of education advocacy groups say lawmakers’ current struggles and the history of K-12 spending in the state illustrate why Colorado needs to discuss a long-term solution to increase revenue for school funding.
Colorado’s budget forecast is so grim that state lawmakers who have long championed public education at the Capitol are wondering if their colleagues would approve spending a meager $30,000 on an interim committee that would meet between this legislative session and the next and make recommendations for how to proceed.
State Sen. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat, said she is floating the idea of funding the interim committee through donations.
“We will make sure that we’re able to find that money somehow,” Kipp said. “And if that fails, we will go to Plan B. And if we have to, we will go to Plan C and Plan D.”
Bret Miles, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, said discussions about increasing school funding have been ongoing for years, but the two studies provide the first lawmaker-approved look at what schools need to educate students.
The state shouldn’t lose that momentum even as it tackles a tough budget, he said.
“They need to decide the right solution,” Miles said of lawmakers. “Our expectation is that there’s forward movement.”
Lisa Weil, executive director of the group Great Education Colorado, which is part of the coalition, agreed.
“It’s really hard to do that when you’re staring down the barrel of a $1.2 billion deficit,” she said. “What we’re hoping is that there would be some openness.”
Next year’s budget makes it hard to focus on the future
Lawmakers have said it’s difficult to think about the long-term funding future of K-12 when they’re still figuring out cuts to the 2025-26 budget.
The state’s $40.6 billion budget is expected to increase next year, with Gov. Jared Polis proposing a $46 billion budget next year.
But the state has to pay for the growing cost of programs such as Medicaid. The state also will need to send back state revenue to taxpayers because of Taxpayer Bill of Rights caps on how much the state revenue can keep and spend.
Joint Budget Committee members, who have a large say in setting the budget, want to increase spending for key school operations and meet what’s mandated for schools under the state’s constitution. That means the state will steer clear of enacting another budget stabilization factor, or the withholding of mandated K-12 spending for other budget priorities.
But they’re eyeing cuts to certain programs and grants, like the Building Excellent Schools Today program, which helps fund school construction projects.
And the total amount of funding that school districts get from the state also might be lower than what lawmakers promised last year when they approved a major change to the state’s school funding formula, which hadn’t been updated since 1993.
The new formula is meant to send districts more money for at-risk students, such as students from low-income backgrounds, and increase funding for small and rural districts. State lawmakers approved spending $500 million to support the changes. Their plan called for phasing the money in over six years.
Polis has said he’s committed to implementing the formula. But at the same time, he has proposed a cost-cutting measure that would retool how the state calculates student enrollment for the purpose of per-pupil funding. Instead of funding districts based on a four-year enrollment average, Polis wants to fund districts based on a single year of enrollment, which would mean less money for districts that have declining enrollment.
Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie said she is working on an alternate plan that would leave the four-year enrollment average in place but scale back how much the state pays this year into the new school funding formula, reducing it from 18% of the $500 million currently required to 10%. Her plan would also phase the formula in over seven years instead of six, effectively slowing the funding increases.
How lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee will proceed with these plans or their own depends greatly on next week’s March economic forecast. The school funding formula has triggers that would halt its implementation, such as in the case of an economic downturn.
McCluskie said her hope is to address the budget this year and then dig deeper into how to better fund schools after this legislative session, which ends in May. She said she’s committed to keeping the studies at the forefront.
“Those adequacy studies have to be a part of our next steps after this budget year,” McCluskie said. “We have got to think about more sustainable funding.”
Some lawmakers say they can make progress this year
Other lawmakers say they are open to pressing forward as soon as possible.
The two adequacy studies that suggest the state spend an additional $3.5 billion to $4.1 billion per year on public schools provide different perspectives on how to do that.
The first study says the state should spend more money on all students while giving districts a smaller additional amount to increase services for students with the highest needs. The other study recommends spending less on district operations while sending considerably more money for schools that serve students with the highest needs.
Lawmakers would need to choose between the two models then figure out how to increase the tax base to boost funding for schools.
Sen. Kipp said the interim committee she hopes to propose would likely recommend adopting one of the two adequacy studies. The eventual goal would be to place a ballot measure in front of voters that addresses new revenue for schools, she said.
It will be a tall order. Previous ballot measures have failed to gain the necessary votes.
State Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat who heads the Senate Education Committee, said if an interim committee doesn’t get created, he wants to propose using joint hearings of the House and Senate education committees to discuss the adequacy studies. He also said he plans to talk with his constituents about the idea of a ballot measure to increase school funding.
State Sen. Janice Marchman, a Loveland Democrat, and House Assistant Majority Leader Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat, said that even without an interim committee, lawmakers could hold informal sessions that keep the conversation going about how to move the adequacy studies forward.
Marchman said she’d like to see a ballot measure put before voters as soon as 2026.
“We can still get progress done,” Marchman said. “And so my hope would be that we will work over the interim in a really broad and transparent stakeholding process and come forth with one or more bills for the 2026 session.”
Weil of Great Education Colorado said the state can’t afford to wait, because a generation of students have gone to underfunded Colorado schools. The studies show how to pay teachers more, create smaller class sizes, and make sure students are getting the help they need to learn, she said.
“I believe that everybody in that building wants better for our students,” Weil said, “and we just have to decide, are we going to try?”
Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
