Board Legislative Agenda

Increase total per pupil spending to get to the national average. Colorado falls far short. As a State, we are: 

• Between $2000 - $3000 below the national average in per-pupil spending (NCES, US Census, Ed Week)

• 43rd in spending on education adjusted for regional cost differences (Ed Week, 2021 Quality Counts)

• 50th in teacher wage competitiveness—compares teachers to non-teachers with similar education, experience and hours worked (Education Law Center).

Prevent reinstatement of the Budget Stabilization (BS) Factor. The State must be vigilant in ensuring that the budget stabilization factor is not reintroduced in the future. Bills and initiatives that require “backfilling” for school funding can only happen if there is enough General funds or State Education Funds available. Since 2009-2010, ~$10B has been withheld from Colorado’s public education budget –Impacting one whole generation of students. Jeffco’s share of this burden of underfunding totals $930 million. Jeffco will never recoup the lost funds from those years. 

Keep four-year averaging in place. It is critically important that the four-year averaging provision (which calculates funding for a district based on average enrollment over four years) built into the new school funding formula, remains in place. This provision provided Jeffco, and nearly half of all districts in Colorado experiencing swiftly shifting demographics, a runway to adapt to funding losses and appropriately shift resources to provide thriving experience for students.

Avoid creating new grant programs. These one-time funding opportunities often create position “cliffs” and use resources that, if allocated to the school finance act, would create predictable and ongoing funding to sustainably support student learning across all districts. The legislature should consider a periodic review of each grant program, its effectiveness, and whether or not to continue as a grant program or as a critical component to the funding formula. Any new grant programs should have defined goals, measurement for effectiveness and evaluation, and a sunset review.   

Adopt the School Finance Act (SFA) no later than 21 days prior to the end of session. Recent 11th hour SFA adoption trends put unnecessary pressure on school district budget development and adoption processes where employee negotiations, and staffing, student resource, and professional development decisions have to be delayed. This domino effect compresses statute-required budget timelines that impact districts starting at the end of May. 

Fully fund Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Congress promised to pay 40 percent of the excess costs of special education services when IDEA was first passed (nearly 50 years ago) but has never come close; the federal share is now less than 12 percent. As it stands right now, services to students with disabilities are mainly funded through state and local district general funds. Approximately 8-10 percent of Jeffco’s budget supports special education services; that’s on top of the funding the district receives from IDEA.

Ongoing and sustainable funding by the United States Congress to support the “Strengthening the Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century” Act. This funding which can, for example, lessen the financial impact of a qualified instructor entering the field of Career and Technical Education, will support Jeffco students in accessing Career and Technical Education opportunities. 

Enhance federal nutrition programs and fully fund Healthy School Meals for All. This includes allowing for the most flexibility in menu choices, a reduction in regulations, and maximum reimbursements to Colorado schools. Jeffco also supports programs that incentivize locally sourced ingredients produced in Colorado. If the state is unable to fully fund Healthy School Meals for All, it should publicly acknowledge the shortfall and make a statement that districts will need to reinstate some form of student payment for students who do not qualify for free and reduced lunch.

We believe Colorado can have the premier accountability system in the country, one that is also meaningful to our communities. In order to accomplish this, the State’s accountability system must evolve. We advocate that the state of Colorado redesigns the K-12 accountability system so that it:

• Accurately and comprehensively measures and advances students’ learning and progress 
• Does not result in bias towards any student demographic 
• Utilizes timely data that is actionable 
• Minimizes time students spend testing and maximizes time students spend learning.  The state should consider sampling instead of every student every year. 
• Holds school districts, schools, and educators to a high level of expectation

Remove the every educator, every year requirement from SB191 and allow districts to formally evaluate teachers every 2-3 years, with annual self-reflection and collaboration with colleagues about performance goals in the interim years.