Category Archives: School Finance

Sometimes the stars seem to align, and you have to wonder who is manipulating the telescope. I haven’t gotten into astronomy — at least not yet. But what I’m talking about really isn’t about astronomy. It’s about politics, and giving money to education bureaucrats. A metaphor, as it were. Today, Ed News Colorado reports that Governor John Hickenlooper’s statewide listening tour has yielded some convenient recommendations for K-12 education: Public school funding – tied to student outcomes – higher education support and expansion of preschool and full-day kindergarten should be top state priorities, according to the board of directors of TBD Colorado, the group that’s spent more than a year studying and sampling public attitudes about major issues facing the state. Throw more money at the problem? Hmmm. The stars are beginning to align between the governor’s “TBD” initiative and the established-interest-heavy School Finance Partnership. Well, I may be only a perpetually 5-year-old blogging prodigy, but that was predictable. More funding into the currently unsustainable K-12 system? I can’t say for certain whether the deck was stacked for the status quo. Or whether the findings actually are representative of Coloradans’ policy priorities for education, and little Eddie and friends just […]

In a recent column for Forbes magazine, communications expert Nick Morgan gave Colorado some great kudos with his recognition of “The Best Speech About Education–Ever.” He was praising this great speech our state senator Michael Johnston made last month in Connecticut about “what’s possible and what’s next.” Watch the speech, and you’ll see why Johnston’s passion, knowledge and experience make him the leading voice on education in the Colorado state legislature. Sometimes we see eye to eye, and sometimes not. But his influence in several reform debates is difficult to dispute — whether it has been carrying the SB 191 teacher evaluation overhaul, defending Colorado’s embrace of Common Core standards, or even agreeing to sign on as sponsor of a parent trigger bill not popular within his own party.

I’m still recovering from all the election excitement. Rather than try to rehash all the interesting results for the world of education reform, I’m going to do the lazy, little kid thing and point you to a few pieces to digest the information and analysis for yourself:

Apparently, today is some kind of big day, with a lot of big people here in Colorado and in other states making some important decision about the future of the country or something. It sounds like some sort of big deal. But as elections go, I’m more tuned in to some key education reform races around the country — compliments of Mike Petrilli at Education Next. (In addition to the local education tax issues on the ballot in many Colorado school districts.) I’m watching a few of them, too. Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett has been one of the nation’s boldest education reform leaders. Choice? Accountability? Labor reforms? Check marks on all three. How will he fare seeking re-election? That’s for Hoosiers to decide. Even more interesting to me is a trio of Idaho ballot initiatives the teachers union is backing in an attempt to toss out some yummy tater tot reforms. Petrilli points out that New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg of all people has thrown some tangible support behind the reforms and against the union. Why can I almost imagine some bemused Pocatello denizen proclaiming: “New York City?”

Tomorrow is decision day for a lot of big people in Colorado, voting to decide on several local school tax issues. Those who think more money is needed to bolster an inefficient K-12 system marshal incomplete funding figures, but thankfully my Education Policy Center friend was there to provide 9News viewers with a full picture of Colorado K-12 tax revenues. Supporters of tax hikes tout selective rankings that make Colorado look as poor as possible compared to other states in education funding. We know Colorado isn’t 49th? But where are we really: 29th or 40th? But what if most states’ systems are inefficient? After all, while Colorado could be doing better, our student outcomes remain above the national average.

I may risk inducing a heart attack or two with two straight days of spooky posts. But yesterday I produced some school funding data to debunk the idea that Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) is the cause of apparent “devastation” for school budgets. Today I want to introduce a too-often overlooked factor into the conversation: PERA, also known as the Public Employees Retirement Association. Lately, the issue keeps popping up. State Treasurer Walker Stapleton penned an op-ed highlighting the fiscal pressure placed on school districts by steadily increasing contributions to employee retirement plans. Here’s a scary phrase the Treasurer offered to explain the ramifications of failing to reform the problem: A budget hole will continue to grow that no tax increase can fill. Gulp. Meanwhile, I can almost see some critics looking for a distraction, pointing in a different direction and shouting abruptly: “Squirrel!” or “TABOR!” If PERA were left alone and TABOR completely gutted, officials would continue coming to voters for more taxes while services would still be in jeopardy.

With spooky Halloween almost upon us, it’s probably not terribly surprising to witness the one-sided horrible picture of TABOR painted in yesterday’s Colorado Springs Gazette (H/T Complete Colorado). Under the headline, “TABOR has decimated education, critics say,” we are given such insights as the following: “It’s been devastating,” said Gustafson, Colorado Springs School District 11’s chief financial officer. When asked about TABOR, Gustafson nearly exploded. He said that over the past six years, his district has lost 
$35 million because of 
TABOR. In response to the spending restrictions, he said, the district has slashed teacher salaries, closed nine schools, increased class sizes twice, eliminated new programs, haven’t updated technology or books, dropped maintenance hugely, and even lowered school temperatures in the winter. “Our grounds look like crap because we can’t even afford to water them,” Gustafson said. I’m glad he didn’t explode! When you make comparisons afforded by the most recent available numbers from the Colorado Department of Education, the devastation becomes, well, less apparent for District 11. From 2000-01 to 2010-11:

In a lot of the debates Colorado has had about school funding (and more are sure to be had), the question lurking in the back of my mind is: What do we want our education system to be? What do we want it to do? Well, a new study from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice sends a blunt message about one key thing the education system in at least 47 states has been: a jobs program. The School Staffing Surge highlights a couple facts that would probably stun the average parent or other taxpayer: Between FY 1992 and FY 2009, the number of K-12 public school students nationwide grew 17 percent while the number of full-time equivalent school employees increased 39 percent, 2.3 times greater than the increase in students over that 18-year period. Among school personnel, teachers’ staffing numbers rose 32 percent while administrators and other staff experienced growth of 46 percent; the growth in the number of administrators and other staff was 2.7 times that of students.

Our friends at Education Next pose an interesting chicken-or-egg question about digital learning and the case for major education reforms: Will the transformative technology unleash itself, or does major work need to be done overhauling K-12 policies and institutions first? To hash out the details, Education Next has unleashed a couple of the leading lights in education reform to give a point-counterpoint online debate. In the end, though, any disparities between the arguments advanced by the Fordham Institute’s Checker Finn and the Innosight Institute’s Michael Horn appear to me more differences of degree than differences of kind. Finn says we need to overhaul the school finance system — allowing us to fund students, rather than bureaucratic programs and institutions — and traditional “local control” governance “when students assemble their education from multiple providers based in many locations, some likely on the other side of the planet.”

When you’re a Colorado reporter looking for a somewhat different point of view on major local school tax increases, where do you go? Karen Auge shows that she read my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow’s concise new paper “Colorado K-12 Tax Hikes Challenged” in her story’s third paragraph as she covered the issue in yesterday’s Denver Post: The Independence Institute, a libertarian think tank generally opposed to tax hikes and government growth, said per-pupil spending in districts asking for tax hikes has gone up, even as real income has decreased. [link added]