Trying to Fix a Broken Education Finance System featuring Dr. Brenda Bautsch Dickhoner and Leslie Colwell

Colorado’s education funding system is broken in several ways: inequitable revenue collection, an inefficient and outdated allocation formula, and a retirement system that costs the state nearly a billion dollars annually just to pay down the $30 billion in unfunded liability.

On this edition of Common Sense Digest, Brenda Bautsch-Dickhoner, Ph.D., the Mike A. Leprino Free Enterprise Fellow at Common Sense Institute and current Boardmember of the Charter School Institute and on the Governor’s Education Leadership Council and Leslie Colwell Vice President of Education Initiatives at the Colorado Children’s Campaign which leads the Campaign’s work to improve education in the state of Colorado discuss this broken system and how to fix it. 

 

One such solution is HB21-1164 which helps the system start on a path of correction by addressing the patchwork system of property taxes on the revenue side. The extra revenue raised by this bill could help alleviate some of the budgetary pressures on K-12 education. The bill does not, however, address the flawed funding formula on the distribution side of the equation, and there are legitimate concerns that the bill violates the constitution by increasing taxes without a vote. Our guests join Host and Chairman Earl Wright as they unpack this vital, but complex issue in service of trying to secure more equitable outcomes for all of Colorado’s students. Please be sure read our report on the issue here. 

 

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