School finance bill proposes $260 million cut
The proposed 2010-11 school finance act introduced Wednesday is shorter than such bills in the past, but it’s definitely not sweet.
The measure, House Bill 10-1369, would cut state support to schools in 2010-11 to $5.4 billion, $260 million less than actual state support in the current 2009-10 budget. (The 2009-10 budget was cut in midyear by $130 million from what the 2009 legislature originally approved.)
The $260 million may or may not be the actual cut schools receive, depending on other things that may happen before the legislature adjourns in May, such as further changes in state revenues. Some observers expect the cut could climb to at least $280 million. A Joint Budget Committee staff analysis has warned lawmakers might need to plan for a cut of $500 million.
Compared to actual 2009-10 spending, the cut is in the neighborhood of 6 percent. When compared to what funding would have been under the full terms of Amendment 23, the reduction is more than 8 percent.
HB 10-1369 makes a legislative declaration that school funding needs to be cut, sets the $5.4 million “floor” and creates a new “factor” called the state budget stabilization factor, which the Department of Education would use to make equal percentage cuts to school districts. (The state school finance system includes several factors that are used to fine-tune aid to individual districts based on their unique costs. The bill would create a new factor that could be used to reduce aid.)
The bill also contains provisions for reduction of online funding and for handling a small number of districts that have very high local revenues.
The measure is sponsored by Reps. Christine Scanlan of Dillion and Jack Pommer of Boulder and Sen. Bob Bacon on Fort Collins. Pommer is chair of the Joint Budget Committee and Bacon is chair of Senate Education. All are Democrats. The bill will have its first hearing in the House Education Committee on Thursday afternoon.
The school finance elephant in the room, of course, is Amendment 23, passed by voters in 2000. In the past, the legislature has applied A23’s multiplier formula to all state support. The current interpretation by the governor’s office and many legislators is that A23 actually applies only to “base” school support, not to the additional aid generated by the factors, which is about 25 percent of total aid.
The school finance bill was introduced earlier in the session that has been the case in past years. That’s reportedly to get the measure out of the way before introduction of the main 2010-11 state budget bill, expected sometime in the next several weeks.
While education interest groups and most legislators don’t like that interpretation, they feel the state has no other choice during the current revenue crunch. The Colorado Education Association has taken a more orthodox interpretation of A23 and opposed the cuts in the current budget.
CEA lobbyist Karen Wick said Wednesday she didn’t know if the union would testify against HB 10-1369.
Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.
• EdNews Budget Cuts Info Center
