This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Unveiling a new bill on Thursday at the state Capitol, educators donning red shirts gathered to announce what they call an answer to a decades-long question. How can Colorado afford to pay for K-12 education without raising taxes? Around 50 members representing the Colorado Education Association say voters could finally solve this problem.
The legislation, if passed, will ask to untether education funding from the strict rules of Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights Amendment, also called TABOR. The proposed ballot measure essentially asks voters to keep taxes the state already raises and direct those funds to K-12 education.
“We've all seen firsthand that Colorado's public schools are chronically underfunded,” said Kevin Vick, the president of Colorado Education Association, on Thursday.
“This is largely because of an outdated revenue cap that was enacted in 1992. That limits how much revenue the state can retain and invest. As our population, economy and student needs have grown, the spending cap has remained tied to an outdated formula that doesn't reflect the needs of our schools,” Vick said.
Vick, who leads the state’s largest teacher’s union with about 40,000 members, was joined by Sen. Jeff Bridges, Rep. Jennifer Bacon and education advocates at the Capitol to announce support for the bill.
“Every year on the joint budget committee, we feel the consequences,” Bridges said. “We make choices no one should have to make between classrooms and healthcare. Not because Colorado is failing — because the rules we operate under haven't kept up with reality. TABOR says, if the government wants to do more, you ask the people. That's what this bill does.”
Effect of chronic underfunding
Public schools are still feeling the effects of a 14-year-period beginning in 2008, when state lawmakers began withholding money from them every year to balance the state budget. Altogether, state lawmakers withheld more than $10 billion from schools. It wasn’t until last year that lawmakers zeroed out the yearly debt.
But school advocates say that has still left Colorado schools at 1989 spending levels.
School advocates argue that’s nowhere near what the state needs to spend to meet myriad new requirements and standards — from academics and school safety to technology and mental health. Two state-commissioned studies show Colorado is at least $4 billion short.
Historically, Colorado ranked in the bottom 10 states for K-12 spending per student, though the elimination of the year debt has brought the state closer to the national average, according to one data set, which ranks Colorado at 28th in the nation. U.S. Census data consistently puts Colorado in the bottom 20.
The ballot measure would ask voters to increase funding for K-12 education by up to 2% for 10 years. The measure also includes annual independent audits so the public can track how those dollars are spent.
Teachers' pay at issue too
Bridges also pointed to Colorado’s struggle to keep teachers’ wages on pace with the cost of living. Colorado educators also have the worst pay gap in the nation, which means Colorado educators earn just 62 cents for every dollar earned by similar professionals.
“Our teachers do heroic work every single day, and yet Colorado has some of the lowest-paid teachers in the country. That doesn't reflect Colorado values. I don't believe it reflects what Colorado voters want,” Bridges said.
Social studies teacher from the Poudre School District, Wendy Bergman, also spoke about Colorado’s seemingly interminable challenge to fully fund public education and the chronically underfunded students and classrooms.
“That gap shows up in missing programming, unfilled positions, and outdated textbooks and materials for our schools,” she said .”It means that students have fewer support staff making their education accessible, fewer counselors, fewer resources to help students who are struggling. It means larger class sizes.”
To applause, Bergman continued, “My students deserve better. Colorado public schools deserve better.”
'Clear on values'
Aside from the TABOR-imposed revenue cap, Bacon also talked about the negative factor, which allowed lawmakers to withhold money from schools to balance the budget that went away last year.
“I want to tell our neighbors, every year for the last couple of years we've been kind of resorting to some sort of trickery to find some money on the backs of our kids,” she said. “But now as neighbors, how can we be clear on our values, clear on our investments, how can we in this state house respond to what we heard from all of you in regards to love for our kids? And the answer is this question on the ballot.
The Thursday conference wrapped up with the crowd of educators chanting, “What do we want? Funding! When do we want it? Now!”
The bill is expected to be officially introduced on Thursday afternoon.
CPR reporters Molly Cruse and Jenny Brundin contributed to this report.
