The bill sets the statewide base per pupil funding amount for the 2015-16 budget year at $6,292.39, which is an inflationary increase of 2.8% and establishes the minimum amount of total program funding for the 2015-16 budget year. The minimum amount of total program funding reflects a reduction of the dollar amount of the negative factor by $25 million.
— from Senate Bill 15-267
Last Tuesday, April 14, the Archuleta School District took a preliminary look at slightly more generous per-pupil funding for the upcoming 2015-2016 school year, based mainly upon Senate Bill 15-267 — the bill that amends the School Finance Act, and augments and clarifies the public school funding included in the general state budget. SB 15-267 optimistically addresses a school funding “shortfall” by assuming that our state legislators will approve a $25 million reduction in the so-called “negative factor.”
The proposal in SB 15-267 — not yet approved by the Colorado House or Senate — would generate about $83,000 in additional revenue for the Archuleta School District’s 2015-2016 budget as compared to this current year. Including that amount with other adjustments to district revenues, Finance Director Janell Wood estimated that the schools might see an additional $169,000 for next year.
Our local School Board met the announcement with mixed feelings on Tuesday night; board president Greg Schick noted that Governor John Hickenlooper had previously proposed a $200 million pay-down of the “negative factor.” He found a $25 million pay-down amount to be somewhat disappointing.
At least one audience member on Tuesday suggested that the “negative factor” was, and still is, unconstitutional.
In preparing the 2010-2011 state budget, then-Governor Bill Ritter’s administration had made cuts in school funding in a manner that Colorado’s education industry perceived as a violation of Amendment 23, passed by the Colorado voters in 2000. A group of parents and school districts filed a lawsuit last June, making that very claim: that the “negative factor” has been violating Amendment 23.
Amendment 23 required the General Assembly to increase the “base” funding for Colorado K-12 public schools by at least the rate of inflation plus 1 percent per year for ten years, and by the rate of inflation thereafter. But the “base” funding has consistently been adjusted by certain “factors” aimed at keeping funding to various districts “fair and equitable.” Ritter’s administration determined that they could use “negative” factors to help keep the 2010-2011 state budget from totally melting down (the way numerous businesses did) during the Great Recession.
Amendment 23 isn’t the only constitutional provision that applies to the state budget. Among other things, the constitution requires a balanced state budget every year, limits the amount of new revenue that can be spent even in years of high growth, and restricts property taxes in a way that has reduced growth of local district revenues. Because of those restrictions, policymakers who support the negative factor argue that it’s necessary to prevent K-12 spending from consuming larger and larger shares of the state’s general fund budget and squeezing out other state programs.
As a result of the new “negative factor,” the education industry — which had become rather accustomed to decades of steadily increasing education funding — began feeling somewhat desperate. (As so many of us were also feeling in 2010 — particularly, perhaps, our friends and neighbors who were losing our homes to foreclosure.)
The Colorado legislature has just three weeks left in its 2015 session, and the late appearance of the school finance bill could be seen as an indication that the current legislature has not set school funding very high on its list of priorities.
Meanwhile, the legislators and the State Board of Education have spent plenty of time this session debating the future of standardized testing.
Two decades of standardized testing — which has been touted as necessary to keep American students competitive in the “global economy” — have thus far led to disheartening results. The National Center for Educational Statistics notes that American 15-year-olds placed 18th among 28 industrialized nations in the 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test in mathematics.
In the 2012 PISA tests, twelve years of standardized testing later, our 15-year-olds placed 27th among 34 industrialized nations, and 36th among all participating nations.
Some might claim that these poor scores are largely the result of poor educational practices. Others might claim that America is simply not spending enough on education. I tend to find myself in the former camp. Certain members of the Archuleta School Board appear to embrace the “we really need more money” approach.
With such claims in mind, the School Board briefly discussed the idea of including a teacher pay increase in next year’s budget. According to the district’s attractive new “teacher recruitment” website — JoinArchuletaSchools.com — a new teacher with a BA degree rates a salary of $33,325 per year. (That’s a 9-month year, of course, which translates to about $3700 per month.)
The same teacher would join the Denver Public Schools at a salary of about $38,765 ($4300 per month.) In Aspen, a new teacher would earn $40,500 ($4500 per month.)
Under a plan briefly discussed on Tuesday, the Archuleta School District could invest about $121,000 into increased salaries — “step increases” — for all teachers, bringing a new teacher salary up to $33,975, an increase of about $600.
The salary increases (as briefly discussed) might accrue as well to principals, custodians, administration, bus drivers, and aides — but not the Food Service staff, apparently.
The most depressing news at Tuesday’s School Board meeting came near the very end, when Superintendent Linda Reed announced that our district Finance Director Janell Wood would be leaving at the end of the school year, to relocate closer to children and grandchildren.
Ms. Wood has been, in my experience as a news reporter, one of the district’s most conscientious, cooperative, and forthright employees. Working behind the scenes to keep the district on track and solvent, Ms. Wood was probably not very well-known by the district’s parents and children, but for this reporter at least, her presence will be sincerely missed.