Last session, the General Assembly took in a report on K-12 public school funding. The legislature ordered the report because an idea circulated Colorado was among the bottom five states in dollars allocated per student even though it is one of the most highly educated states in the nation.

The facts proved the poor conditions of the state’s funding. Since the great recession of 2008-2009, the state has underfunded public education by roughly $1 billion per year. For 15 years, the state managed to get around Amendment 23, approved as a constitutional amendment to keep school funding up with inflation, by fudging the state’s budget using a trick called the “negative factor.” The 2025 school budget was the first year in all that time public schools were “fully funded.” The negative dollars of the negative years, however, will never be reimbursed.

That’s the story behind SB26-133, an initiative to put a 2% increase in total school funding on the ballot in November. The increase will reduce TABOR refunds by about $200 million annually if the funds are available.

Here is the context and the proposal. Currently schools get their money mostly from the state’s general fund, local property tax, and a separate piggy bank of dollars mostly from sin taxes. Federal dollars at one time supported special education, Title I, and other similar programs. Those dollars are very much up in the air due to chaotic decisions from the Trump administration.

The ratio of local dollars to state dollars varies. Rural school districts and other districts with low property tax revenue generally receive extra state dollars as an “equalization.” Districts with higher property tax revenue and mill overrides tend to receive fewer state dollars. Some rural districts with maybe 150 students may receive $20,000 per student while suburban districts such as Cherry Creek and Jefferson County may have about $14,500 per student. Fixed costs and scale affect these numbers.

Since Colorado funds by the student, school district population changes also affect school budgets. Last year’s arguments over declining enrollments were contentious as districts like Jefferson County and Denver had to close schools to adjust for declining enrollments and dollars despite increased fixed costs and contributions to health benefits. Now with budgets uncertain at the state, county and municipal levels, more volatility in school finance is likely in the next few years.

Then there’s the TABOR effect at the center of all this budget mess. TABOR, an artifact of the 1990s, limits government tax retention to population growth plus inflation. There’s another twist in the formula that says when revenues go down usually because of a recession, that lower revenue number becomes the new base from which growth and inflation are added. That is, TABOR becomes a hole that gets dug deeper with every economic downturn. As everyone in Colorado knows, when the economy rebounds, the rebounding dollars do not go toward digging out of the TABOR hole. They go back to taxpayers in refunds.

The great recession is more than a decade-and-a-half old, but Colorado’s public schools are still digging out. The SB26-133 initiative will not offset the negative factor hole of more than $10 billion. It will produce about $200 million to $250 million more per year for specific public school funding purposes if it passes by more than 50% in November.

The $200 million or so will add to the state’s “total school funding” calculation. It will be known as the “positive factor,” as meager as it is. The extra dollars will go to teacher compensation, teacher retention and career education programs. The hope is targeting money for specific purposes will persuade the public the dollars will not be squandered.

The bill is sponsored by four Democrats including Jeff Bridges, current state senator running for state treasurer. He is also on the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee responsible for writing the final state budget. He is well versed in the state’s financial quandary, which may be why he is offering an initiative significantly less than bold in addressing K-12 funding needs. He and his co-sponsors are no doubt limited in their ambition by the governor’s tepid support of Colorado’s public schools. Those concerned with public education quality and stability have vigorously asked the governor and legislature to give more dollars to schools. His lackluster support is prodigious.

To make matters worse, the Gov. Jared Polis has signed up the state for President Donald Trump’s tax deduction aka school voucher program. That decision will further lower taxes paid by those wealthy enough to take advantage of the gimmick as well as affect public-school populations already at risk of further decreases.

GOP legislators and other Republican spokespeople have hurled cries of outrage at this modest proposal. No way, they say, should any change in TABOR refunds occur. The GOP’s true objective is to drain public schools of funds to redirect tax dollars to private schools and parochial schools.

Gov. Polis is not the only Democratic leader unenthusiastic about public K-12 education funding. If the initiative makes the ballot, let’s see who is ardent in support.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.