A faculty funding proposal that Colorado Home Speaker Julie McCluskie mentioned she plans to unveil in a invoice this week would give colleges barely extra funding than she beforehand proposed and assure all Colorado districts obtain no less than as a lot funding for the following two years as they obtained for the present college 12 months.
Nonetheless, in an particularly tight finances 12 months, her proposal would give colleges about $16 million much less subsequent 12 months than what they’d obtain if the brand new college funding system went into impact as initially designed. Meaning some districts are nearly sure to obtain much less cash subsequent 12 months beneath her proposal than what they’d get if lawmakers stored their promise and absolutely applied the brand new funding system subsequent 12 months.
Throughout a information briefing Tuesday morning, McCluskie shared particulars of her funding proposal, which has bipartisan help with Colorado Senate Minority Chief Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, additionally sponsoring the forthcoming laws. At the least considered one of Lundeen’s Republican colleagues, Barbara Kirkmeyer, a member of the Joint Price range Committee, has repeatedly pushed again on launching the brand new college funding system subsequent 12 months with considerations that the state can’t afford it.
The long-awaited funding proposal — additionally sponsored by Democratic lawmakers state Rep. Meghan Lukens, of Steamboat Springs, and state Sen. Jeff Bridges, of Greenwood Village — would give colleges greater than $10 billion subsequent 12 months, up from about $9.8 billion budgeted for the present college 12 months. That represents about $82 million greater than what districts would obtain if the state’s present college funding system stayed in place subsequent 12 months, in response to legislative finances paperwork.
McCluskie’s plan would additionally prolong the implementation of the brand new college funding system from six years, as initially agreed upon, to seven years. Meaning the state will progressively improve funding annually, with colleges getting an extra $500 million complete.
And her proposal would hold a budgeting device often known as averaging in place subsequent 12 months, calculating the whole quantity a district nets by averaging their pupil enrollment figures over 4 years. Averaging enrollment counts throughout a number of years prevents districts going through declining enrollment from struggling main funding cuts abruptly.
Beneath the present college funding system, districts obtain funding primarily based on a five-year common of their pupil counts. Gov. Jared Polis has proposed stopping averaging altogether, insisting that it diverts funding to districts for college kids they not educate.
McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, mentioned she is “very excited” to place ahead a invoice that “meets the wants of a difficult finances state of affairs” and can “drive extra fairness into our faculty financing system.”
“With the finances pressures this 12 months, it was vital that we expect in a really sustainable manner in addressing how a lot of that system we drive to varsities this 12 months and what our final plan will probably be to be sure that the State (Training) Fund stays sturdy and able to supporting college funding within the years forward,” McCluskie mentioned.
The State Training Fund is a kind of checking account holding reserves that contribute {dollars} to the college funding system and likewise help quite a lot of different college packages. Lawmakers will rely extra on the state schooling fund this 12 months to drag off the brand new college funding system subsequent 12 months, with McCluskie describing that fund as having “a really wholesome, sturdy stability.”
Whereas the State Training Fund is anticipated to finish this 12 months with a $1.1 billion stability, state finances paperwork present the state must ramp up its contributions from the overall fund sooner or later to maintain the account solvent.
McCluskie’s proposal comes because the JBC endorsed a smaller-than-typical finances improve for Ok-12 colleges subsequent 12 months, calling for an extra $150 million in spending in contrast with this 12 months’s funding. Colleges would usually obtain an additional $200 million to $220 million to maintain up with rising prices, McCluskie mentioned.
The JBC signed off on that $150 million basically fund cash earlier than finalizing a finances proposal final week, after many legislative debates over tips on how to handle a $1.2 billion finances shortfall.
It is a creating story that will probably be up to date.
