Section 3: Research-Based Literature Review
One of the biggest hurdles Colorado schools and educators currently face in terms of change is a lack of funding. One of the reasons cited for proposed changes not being approved is “we do not have the money”. This seems to be a recurring theme within education. So I figured: why not tackle the root of the problem?
I realized, when starting my research, that I did not have a clear understanding about education funding and budgeting. I was able to locate an article online from March 24, 2017 which gave me a clearer picture about the issues facing Colorado schools. I learned that, since funding for Colorado school districts comes from a combination of property taxes, specific ownership taxes and state equalization, the more local revenue a district receives, the less state equalization it will receive. Every district starts with the same base funding which is approved by the legislature each year per the School Finance Act: $6,367.90. Per Amendment 23, the state is required to raise the base funding by inflation as measured by the Denver/Boulder CPI; inflation amounts to about 2.8%. Additional factors, such as the cost of living factor (the more expensive it is to live in your community, the more money you get), district size factor (the bigger your district the less you get), personnel cost factor, non-personnel costs, the at-risk factor and the negative factor, a method the legislature has used to reduce the Amendment 23-mandated increase in school funding, which costs districts about $1,000 per pupil has caused school districts, RE-1 specifically, to lose approximately $2 million every year since 2010 -- totaling about $15 million.
I found more distressing numbers pertaining to Colorado funding from the Colorado School Finance Project. Per their website on http://www.cosfp.org/default.htm, “founded in 1995, the Colorado School Finance Project (CSFP) is a non-profit whose mission is to compile, collect and distribute research-based, non-partisan information and data on topics related to school finance for state and local policy makers”. I was very surprised to find that Colorado was ranked 40th in the nation in 2013-15 for per-pupil spending. This is alarming due to the fact that Colorado schools will be unable to keep up with the ever-changing technology and student engagement will suffer. Also, students at better funded schools, I believe, will be given an edge over Colorado students upon completion of their K-12 education.
I also located information pertaining to the failed Amendment 66 from 2013 which, had it passed, would have increased the state's income tax to raise the amount of state tax revenue spent on public school districts by about 16.6%. Increasing from $5.5 billion under the current law, to a little over $6.4 billion. After adding the increases for charter school funding, the total would have amounted to a $950 million increase This Amendment was sponsored by the “Colorado Commits to Kids” organization. What was unnerving to me was to see that, even with graphs representing how the tax increase would be distributed, the voters still shot it down with 64.46% voting “no”. What is surprising to me is that the complaints of schools being underfunded still persists, yet when voters are given an opportunity to increase funds, they turn it down. Perhaps this is due to the fact that voters do not take the time to research 100% in to what is being proposed. All they see is tax increase” and not the benefit for students and schools.
From my research, I felt that school funding would be the change that I would want to propose for the purposes of this assignment. If funding was increased, other change would be easier to facilitate. In order for Colorado to be nationally and globally competitive, funding per pupil needs to be increased to at least the national average. Without proper and adequate funding, Colorado schools and educators will be unable to keep up with the rapid technological changes and to maximize student engagement. Research shows that investments in early education can yield a return-on-investment of up to 16 percent, with 80 percent of the benefits going to the general public. Additionally, studies have shown that increased funding leads to higher graduation rates. In order for students, educators and schools to be successful, we need to not only invest our time, but our money as well.
One of the biggest hurdles Colorado schools and educators currently face in terms of change is a lack of funding. One of the reasons cited for proposed changes not being approved is “we do not have the money”. This seems to be a recurring theme within education. So I figured: why not tackle the root of the problem?
I realized, when starting my research, that I did not have a clear understanding about education funding and budgeting. I was able to locate an article online from March 24, 2017 which gave me a clearer picture about the issues facing Colorado schools. I learned that, since funding for Colorado school districts comes from a combination of property taxes, specific ownership taxes and state equalization, the more local revenue a district receives, the less state equalization it will receive. Every district starts with the same base funding which is approved by the legislature each year per the School Finance Act: $6,367.90. Per Amendment 23, the state is required to raise the base funding by inflation as measured by the Denver/Boulder CPI; inflation amounts to about 2.8%. Additional factors, such as the cost of living factor (the more expensive it is to live in your community, the more money you get), district size factor (the bigger your district the less you get), personnel cost factor, non-personnel costs, the at-risk factor and the negative factor, a method the legislature has used to reduce the Amendment 23-mandated increase in school funding, which costs districts about $1,000 per pupil has caused school districts, RE-1 specifically, to lose approximately $2 million every year since 2010 -- totaling about $15 million.
I found more distressing numbers pertaining to Colorado funding from the Colorado School Finance Project. Per their website on http://www.cosfp.org/default.htm, “founded in 1995, the Colorado School Finance Project (CSFP) is a non-profit whose mission is to compile, collect and distribute research-based, non-partisan information and data on topics related to school finance for state and local policy makers”. I was very surprised to find that Colorado was ranked 40th in the nation in 2013-15 for per-pupil spending. This is alarming due to the fact that Colorado schools will be unable to keep up with the ever-changing technology and student engagement will suffer. Also, students at better funded schools, I believe, will be given an edge over Colorado students upon completion of their K-12 education.
I also located information pertaining to the failed Amendment 66 from 2013 which, had it passed, would have increased the state's income tax to raise the amount of state tax revenue spent on public school districts by about 16.6%. Increasing from $5.5 billion under the current law, to a little over $6.4 billion. After adding the increases for charter school funding, the total would have amounted to a $950 million increase This Amendment was sponsored by the “Colorado Commits to Kids” organization. What was unnerving to me was to see that, even with graphs representing how the tax increase would be distributed, the voters still shot it down with 64.46% voting “no”. What is surprising to me is that the complaints of schools being underfunded still persists, yet when voters are given an opportunity to increase funds, they turn it down. Perhaps this is due to the fact that voters do not take the time to research 100% in to what is being proposed. All they see is tax increase” and not the benefit for students and schools.
From my research, I felt that school funding would be the change that I would want to propose for the purposes of this assignment. If funding was increased, other change would be easier to facilitate. In order for Colorado to be nationally and globally competitive, funding per pupil needs to be increased to at least the national average. Without proper and adequate funding, Colorado schools and educators will be unable to keep up with the rapid technological changes and to maximize student engagement. Research shows that investments in early education can yield a return-on-investment of up to 16 percent, with 80 percent of the benefits going to the general public. Additionally, studies have shown that increased funding leads to higher graduation rates. In order for students, educators and schools to be successful, we need to not only invest our time, but our money as well.