Doug Bruce, the convicted tax-avoider, detested jail food and lost weight while incarcerated. His TABOR is another kind of toxic problem, causing Colorado’s public school children to lose potential and opportunity. State Reps. Millie Hamner, D-Dillon, and Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, have taken up the task of educating lawmakers on school finance, holding three sessions with experts to deepen understanding.

Great Ed Colorado has thrown up a chart showing how Colorado’s school funding has gone in one direction against the national average — down. A+ Denver has a ticker on its website tallying up the ongoing cost of post K-12 remediation. The state is now budgeting school finance for its seventh year with the so-called “negative factor.” Schools have lost roughly $1 billion per year. The factor removes about 15 percent of core K-12 operational dollars from schools, or $1,000 per student per year, somewhat higher or lower depending on the district. Students who entered school when the negative factor started in 2010 will have lost a full school year’s worth of core funding by sometime in 2016-17. Adding to money woes — and not reflected directly in the negative factor — are additional state-mandated drains on education dollars. The annual PARCC exams and implementation of SB-191, the teacher accountability law, have diverted million of dollars from classrooms. Both are in place to “improve achievement.” That’s not happening. According to data coming out of Jefferson County, only 33 percent of 11th graders were fully prepared for college in the ACT-tested areas in 2015. That number is not nearly good enough. The number of at-risk kids in Colorado’s school system has gone up dramatically since 2009-10. The big city districts have seen increases in English Language learners and kids in poverty, some at a very high rate. Rural schools are hanging on by a thread as resources continue to decline. The pressure is especially tough on Pueblo and Aurora Public Schools to improve achievement results. That can’t realistically happen with current funding. The fight over the hospital provider fee classification and TABOR means small tax rebates could go forward rather than improve school funding. Since Amendment 23 was adopted by voters in 2000, statewide initiatives to address public school funding have gone down. Kids are literally short-changed. It’s time to provide a precise, reliable funding source to make good on the promise of public education. The Legislature or a citizens committee should run an initiative for a small sales tax to pay for post K-12 remediation courses to support high school graduates who want to go to college or need additional education for their careers. Another option is to float bonds to be paid off by the money the state saves or earns by getting adults ready for employment or college. If Colorado’s legislators and residents are unwilling or unable to put enough resources into early education and K-12, they must be willing and able to help motivated students after graduation. It’s harmful to the state’s economy and destroys young adults’ potential and opportunity to push those costs onto graduating seniors and their families.