Colorado's K-12 schools brace for funding cut one year after celebrating "full funding"
Less than a year after Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado state lawmakers celebrated "full funding" for K-12 education, they're already looking to cut that funding.
This year's budget is the tightest, outside of COVID, since the Great Recession. The state faces a budget shortfall of $700 million to $1 billion.
K-12 and Medicaid make up 60% of the budget. Figuring out how to balance it is so tough, the Chair of the Joint Budget Committee, state Sen. Jeff Bridges, wrote an op-ed this week asking for ideas about where to cut. He even included his cell number.
Polis has some ideas, including one that would cut funding for so-called "phantom students." But school districts warned real students will be the ones who suffer.
Nationwide, schools are funded on a "per-pupil" basis. While most states look at a school's current enrollment to determine its per-pupil allotment, Colorado looks at schools' average enrollment over several years.
"This allows us to have a much smoother more predictable system," said Scott Smith, the Chief Financial Officer for Cherry Creek Schools.
He said enrollment can swing wildly from year to year, "If we lose 100 kids across 65 schools and 13 grades, our costs don't change at all."
But his funding does, and he said he can't fire a teacher or close a school one year and reverse course the next.
The governor's Budget Director Mark Ferrandino said while some districts have seen enrollment spikes, like Denver due to migrants, most are seeing declining enrollment and the state shouldn't be funding empty seats.
Polis has called for an end to rolling averages.
"We felt this was a proposal to get us in line with where almost every other state in this country is in terms of funding current students and not funding students that were here four years ago," Ferrandino told the Joint Education Committee.
Lawmakers are divided on the proposal that would result in $147 million less funding for school districts.
State Rep. Jennifer Bacon says schools have been underfunded for years.
"I understand we have to balance the budget. I think a lot of us are talking about not doing it on the backs of kids."
But state Sen. Paul Lundeen said funding two schools for the same student doesn't make sense.
"Are there any other elements of state government where we average down, where we pay for no longer just in caseload? Does Medicaid get funded that way? Is there anything else in state government where we pay for something that once was but no longer is?"
The change will mean a cut of $17 million for the Cherry Creek School District alone, which Smith said is the equivalent of 170 teachers.
"Our parents should expect larger class sizes, fewer elective offerings, fewer specialists in elementary schools, increased fees for our parents as well to help cover those costs."
Smith said while the governor and lawmakers talked about "fully funding" education last year, they funded it at 1989 levels and schools didn't even have computers in 1989 let alone all the security, assessments, and mental health needs.
"I recognize the state has a problem. I don't envy them for having this issue. But someone else should bear the brunt of this and K-12 can take a breather this time."
The governor's budget calls for an increase in K-12 funding overall of $150 million due to a new school finance formula adopted last year.