School Views: Investing in students and schools
The legislative session has begun at the state Capitol and I’ll be on the front lines of that process as it determines our 2025-26 fiscal year budget.
As I’ve said before, school funding in our state is broken. Our state legislature has made positive strides forward in recent years but is poised to take a few steps backward. Lawmakers have eliminated the Budget Stabilization Factor, a tool that pulled money from K-12 to balance the state budget. They also adopted a new school finance formula for the first time in 30 years, but that new formula is now in jeopardy.
Colorado faces a massive budget shortfall and looks at schools as a place to make up some of those funds. Next year’s projected shortfall for the state is about $750 million. Colorado lawmakers and the governor are looking for stopgaps wherever they can find them.
Before I break down some of the bad, it’s important to acknowledge some of the good. Initially, the new school finance formula was to follow a six-year implementation plan. In November, Gov. Jared Polis suggested amending that plan and rolling out the new formula in seven years. I am glad to report he has since reverted to his original plan. Sticking with the six-year plan is beneficial because it doesn’t dilute the investment by stretching it over a longer period.
The proposal that worries many districts across the state, including Eagle County, is related to enrollment averaging. The governor wants to eliminate averaging and use a single-year count to fund schools. K-12 funding is based on a per-pupil formula, and during the first week of October, we provide the state with our official enrollment count. In times of declining enrollment, districts are permitted to average enrollment over five years to ensure more predictable and consistent budgeting. When the new school finance formula was adopted last year, districts agreed to limit enrollment averaging to four years from five to make the numbers more current.
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While this will not impact all districts the same, districts that are prone to drastic enrollment swings will see massive swings in annual funding. Programs that were funded for one year may not have the funds to continue. This will create uncertainty for employees in terms of job security and make it harder to recruit to the K-12 sector, which is already struggling to hire qualified individuals.
I understand why the governor would view enrollment averaging as a negative but we should not be balancing the budget off the backs of our students and our staff. Colorado has done this for over a decade — and it has to stop.
The Colorado Department of Education recently released a study about how and why teachers are leaving their jobs. As a state, we need to attract and retain highly qualified teachers to our schools.
Eagle County School District has made great strides in our housing initiatives and has numerous projects in the works. Those projects included the Gypsum Early Learning Center and additional workforce housing targeted for completion at the end of 2025, and the Maloit Park project that will begin work on various infrastructure components this spring.
But affordable housing and child care are only part of the equation. We must provide adequate salaries and job stability for our staff. They need to have the necessary resources in their classrooms to educate our students, and the state can help us by fully implementing the new school finance formula as it was drafted.
We won’t get a clear picture of what the finance formula will look like until April, with final numbers approved in May. I will continue to advocate for our students and staff every chance I get, both locally and at the state level. I encourage you to follow what comes out of the governor’s office and let him know it is time to protect the education of our students and stop robbing schools to balance the state budget.
Philip Qualman is the superintendent of Eagle County School District. Email him at philip.qualman@eagleschools.net.
