Colorado Gov. Polis and speaker nearing an agreement on school funding proposal
K-12 schools in Colorado will lose $50 million instead of $150 million under a new proposal by Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie.
The proposal allows districts to continue to use an average enrollment over several years to calculate per pupil funding. Governor Polis budget request called for ending rolling averages. Still, his Budget Director Mark Ferrandino says he now supports a gradual move to a single year count and is waiting for school districts' feedback before signing off on the proposal.
The deal comes after backlash from many school leaders over the governor's budget request, which changed how students are counted.
Many districts accuse the Governor of reneging on a deal made less than a year ago when lawmakers overhauled the School Finance Formula. They allowed districts to continue average enrollment for three more years.
Speaker Julie McCluskie says a billion-dollar budget shortfall changed everything.
"I want to fully implement everything that we made a commitment to last year. We are in a different budget reality," she said.
State Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer -- who sits on the Joint Budget Committee -- fought for an amendment to the new School Finance Act last year that called for pausing the original deal if there wasn't enough money. She says that is what needs to happen.
"How do we take this seriously? This new school finance formula was just done in the last session and here we are six months later and they're reneging on deals that were cut. They're cutting education funding which we said we weren't going to do," Kirkmeyer said.
Scott Smith, the Chief Financial Officer for Cherry Creek Schools, says his district would lose $17 million next school year.
Smith says small rural districts would be hit hardest.
"I don't think you achieve more equity in this state by cutting some of our most impoverished districts the most," he said.
He says lawmakers and the governor talk a big game when it comes to school funding, but they don't walk the talk.
"Why should we trust that any deal we reach now will be honored in the future?" Smith said.
Smith says districts are trying to make decisions about hiring and pay for next school year and can't do so if they don't know what their funding will be.
"We have 65 schools and I'm projected to lose 250 students next year. So that's basically four kids per school. Where do I save that money?" Smith said. "There's no school to close. There's no teacher to lay off."
McCluskie's proposal also implements 10% of the new School Finance Act, caps BEST grants for school construction and eliminates the state match for mill levy overrides.
"We've heard from our districts. We're responding. We are fighting to keep that averaging in for the moment," said McCluskie.
Right now school districts are making decisions about staffing and pay for next school year.
