Home - Update 5/7/2012
May 2012: Some basic information regarding property taxes, state and local share, and mill levy overrides:
- Do property taxes pay for schools? What are Local Override Revenues?
- State Share of Funding by District: includes total state dollar amount, per pupil and percent of funding. The State Share in the chart does not include Categorical Program funding. Source: CDE, Public School Finance
- An animation visualizing the downward slide of School District Mill Levies in the school finance act over 20 years: Animated Mill Levy Chart. Source: University of Denver, Center for Colorado’s Economic Future.
April 2012: School district budget cut conversations for School Year 2012-13 - Ongoing discussions. Districts make final decisions by June 30, 2012. We will continue to monitor and update as the process moves forward. District Budget Cuts for 2011-12 and 2010-11 are here, or click on District Budget Cuts tab on the left of the page.
Preliminary budget reductions for 2012-13 look to include:
- Ongoing reduction of reserves, cut capital repairs/improvements, delay purchase of new curriculum materials, reduction in staff development
- Ongoing salary freeze (2-5 years)
- Continued and additional furlough days
- 4-day weeks: continues in districts and more districts moving to 4-day weeks.
- Increasing class sizes, program reductions, increase in number of classes taught, reduction in graduation requirements
- Increasing student fees - closing of schools - charging for transportation
Budget cut conversations as of mid-April 2012:
Budget conversations reported to CSFP by individual districts. (as of April 15, 2012 - update again June/July)
Budget conversations as reported in the media. (as of April 20, 2012)
Trends of the 2012-13 Budget Cut Conversations.
Negative Factor Increases: 12.94% in 2011-12, increases to 16.1% for 2012-13, "Flat Funding?" - Districts Continue to Cut. School districts face another year of drastic cuts as the Negative Factor continues to increase. Options to keep cuts away from the classroom are unrealistic.
David Sciarra, Education Law Center (ELC), presentation to CSFP Fair School Funding - Colorado and booklet Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card.
March 2012: The University of Denver's Center for Colorado's Economic Future presented their March 2012 update to their Financing Colorado's Future Study/Report. The full report, March 2012 update, animated mill levy chart and a narrated slide show are available on the DU Center for Colorado's Economic Future website.
Two reports included in presentation to House and Senate Education Committees: Overview of Where to Begin When Changing A School Finance Formula? - Legislative Role. Information on Colorado's School Districts grouped by district size (student count) including the number & percentage of students, and Free/Reduced Lunch students.
CSFP and Augenblick, Palaich & Associates (APA) presentation booklet to House and Senate Education Committees: Overview of School Finance and Where to Begin when Changing a School Finance Formula? Legislative Role.
School district budget cut conversations for School Year 2012-13 - Ongoing discussions. Districts make final decisions by June 30, 2012. We will continue to monitor and update as the process moves forward. District Budget Cuts for 2011-12 and 2010-11 are here, or click on District Budget Cuts tab on the left of the page.
Preliminary budget reductions for 2012-13 look to include:
Ongoing reduction of reserves
Ongoing salary freeze (2-5 years)
Continued furlough days
Increasing class sizes - program reductions - increase in number of classes taught -
reduction in graduation requirements
Increasing student fees - closing of schools - charging for transportation
Budget cut conversations as of March 2, 2012:
Budget conversations reported to CSFP by individual districts.
Budget conversations as reported in the media.
Trends of the 2012-13 Budget Cut Conversations.
The Principles of School Finance: What is a School Finance System? How does Student Count fit in?
February 2012: A couple of new summaries: Who Are Colorado's Public School Students? and a Chart of Colorado's GT, Special Education, English Learners and Free Lunch. For more detail, click on the following links: English Language Learners & ELPA, Free Lunch & Reduced Lunch, Gifted & Talented, Homeless. This information can also be accessed in the Student Trends tab on the left of this page.
New Tab added: School Finance 101 on the left of the page.
Colorado School Finance Myths and Facts, contributed to and complied by a group of Colorado school district Chief Financial Officers.
January 2012: Quick Facts on School Finance Formulas and Public School Trust Lands.
Augenblick, Palaich and Associates powerpoint Using Resources Applied to Measurements for Teacher Pay.
CDE's January 2012 Funding Comparison from 2011-12 to proposed 2012-13 funding is available here. Column AK is the projected change in funding in 2012-13. Column V contains the 2012-13 Estimated Negative Factor. We will post updates as they become available. CDE's Understanding Colorado School Finance and Categorical Program Funding for July 2011 is available here.
Survey Results: 3 Years of Budget Cuts to Colorado School Districts. At the end of 2011, the CSFP surveyed school districts regarding their budget reductions over the past three years (2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12).
December 2011: Key Findings in Lobato v. State Trial Court Decision by Children's Voices.
Presentation at the Colorado School Finance Partnership meeting on December 13, 2011: Litigation - Lobato Adequacy/Costing Out Process and Uses, by Children's Voices, CSFP and APA.
Lobato v. State decision in favor of plaintiffs, Children's Voices News Release: Unprecedented Victory for Colorado's Public School Children, read the Judge's ruling here. Skip to the Conclusions of Law here, pages 168 to 183.
CSFP presentations at CASB Conference:
- New Board Member Training, CSFP and Colorado Springs D-11
- Myths and Realities of School Finance, CSFP and Children's Voices
CAP4K Second Interim Costing Out Power Point, by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates and CSFP.
November 2011: Bond, BEST and Local Mill Levy Override election results for 2011.
Lobato Remedy Presentation from November 10, 2011. Remedy Components for Lobato (DRAFT).
October 2011: Presentation on Financing Colorado's Economic Future to CSFP by DU's Center for Economic Future. A narrated version of the presentation is on DU's Center for Economic Future's website.
Presentation on An Exercise in Uncertainty: The Outlook for the Colorado Economy and Education Budget to CSFP by Natalie Mullis, Colorado Legislative Council.
The Second Interim Report on the Analysis of Costs of CAP4K (Colorado's Achievement Plan for Kids - SB 212 of 2008) by Augenblick, Palaich, and Associations and the Colorado School Finance Project. The third and final report will be submitted in October 2012. The First Interim Report was completed in March 2010.
September 2011: Great Education/Futures presentation on Proposition 103.
Lobato et al. (Plaintiffs) v The State of Colorado, et al. (Defendants), closing arguments
From the Colorado State Demography Office: Demographic Trends: Understanding the Impact of a Changing Population on Colorado, Rural Consortitum, June 2011. The website for more information is www.colorado.gov/demography.
Link to Children's Voices for information on the Lobato v State of Colorado school funding litigation.
Note: Typically this page contains information from the last 6 months. We try to "roll off" information every month to our Historical Info page. The information is in chronological order, most recent first.