There is a possibility that Colorado K-12 education will receive its full funding per current law.
Colorado has a constitutional amendment that requires the government to fund public education at inflation plus 1% above the prior year funding. Governor Ritter's proposed budget cuts would have suspended that amendment. While it is too early to tell for sure, it appears that the Colorado legislature will honor the amendment.
This is especially good news for Colorado charter schools that would have been hit especially hard as they already struggle to pay teachers and fund facilities in adequate amounts.
It is likely that charters would have had to freeze salaries or make other cuts that would have been detrimental to their ability to fulfill their goals of providing a quality education.
This issue is not over, but at least the rumors give hope.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Colorado Budget Cut Proposal Unfair to Charters
Governor Ritter proposed numerous cuts to the proposed budget for 2009-2010. While these cuts are necessary to balance the budget and are not out of line with what is happening in other states, it is interesting that the cuts to K-12 education target charters more than non-charter public schools.
It is a well known fact that charters, because they have to pay for facilities out of their per pupil revenue, already face tighter budgets than non-charter public schools.
In his plan Ritter would cut (as reported by the Greeley Tribune, January 28, 2009) $2.5 million from the charter school capital construction funding. That is half of the total funding.
This funding was intended to help charters because they normally didn't or couldn't participate in facilities bond issues. The revenue for charters, even at the full $5 million of funding, is woefully inadequate. There are two issues.
The funding has not changed since the initial law was adopted. In other words, this funding has declined on a per pupil basis over the last few years from a high of $327 per pupil in Fiscal Year 2002-2003 to approximately $110 in 2008-09. If the $2.5 million cut is passed by the legislature for 2009-2010, the per pupil amount will likely be approximately $55 per student.
One can easily see that the history of this funding has been unfair to charters, even prior to the proposed cut. In order for this funding to be fairly implemented, the pool of money to be distributed should be in the neighborhood of $15 million.
With a state general fund budget of $7.2 billion and some change, would it really be that difficult to find $2.5 million to restore charter school capital construction to the legislated $5 million. It wouldn't really be fair, but it seems the least the legislature could do if it was serious about choice in Colorado.
It is a well known fact that charters, because they have to pay for facilities out of their per pupil revenue, already face tighter budgets than non-charter public schools.
In his plan Ritter would cut (as reported by the Greeley Tribune, January 28, 2009) $2.5 million from the charter school capital construction funding. That is half of the total funding.
This funding was intended to help charters because they normally didn't or couldn't participate in facilities bond issues. The revenue for charters, even at the full $5 million of funding, is woefully inadequate. There are two issues.
The funding has not changed since the initial law was adopted. In other words, this funding has declined on a per pupil basis over the last few years from a high of $327 per pupil in Fiscal Year 2002-2003 to approximately $110 in 2008-09. If the $2.5 million cut is passed by the legislature for 2009-2010, the per pupil amount will likely be approximately $55 per student.
One can easily see that the history of this funding has been unfair to charters, even prior to the proposed cut. In order for this funding to be fairly implemented, the pool of money to be distributed should be in the neighborhood of $15 million.
With a state general fund budget of $7.2 billion and some change, would it really be that difficult to find $2.5 million to restore charter school capital construction to the legislated $5 million. It wouldn't really be fair, but it seems the least the legislature could do if it was serious about choice in Colorado.
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