A school funding proposal that Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskie said she plans to unveil in a bill this week would give schools slightly more funding than she previously proposed and guarantee all Colorado districts receive at least as much funding for the next two years as they received for the current school year.
Still, in an especially tight budget year, her proposal would give schools about $16 million less next year than what they would receive if the new school funding formula went into effect as originally designed. That means some districts are almost certain to receive less money next year under her proposal than what they would get if lawmakers kept their promise and fully implemented the new funding formula next year.
During a news briefing Tuesday morning, McCluskie shared details of her funding proposal, which has bipartisan support with Colorado Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, also sponsoring the forthcoming legislation. At least one of Lundeen’s Republican colleagues, Barbara Kirkmeyer, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, has repeatedly pushed back on launching the new school funding formula next year with concerns that the state can’t afford it.
The long-awaited funding proposal — also sponsored by Democratic lawmakers state Rep. Meghan Lukens, of Steamboat Springs, and state Sen. Jeff Bridges, of Greenwood Village — would give schools more than $10 billion next year, up from about $9.8 billion budgeted for the current school year. That represents about $82 million more than what districts would receive if the state’s current school funding formula stayed in place next year, according to legislative budget documents.
McCluskie’s plan would also extend the implementation of the new school funding formula from six years, as originally agreed upon, to seven years. That means the state will gradually increase funding each year, with schools getting an additional $500 million total.
And her proposal would keep a budgeting tool known as averaging in place next year, calculating the total amount a district nets by averaging their student enrollment figures over four years. Averaging enrollment counts across multiple years prevents districts facing declining enrollment from suffering major funding cuts abruptly.
Under the current school funding formula, districts receive funding based on a five-year average of their student counts. Gov. Jared Polis has proposed stopping averaging altogether, insisting that it diverts funding to districts for students they no longer educate.
McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, said she is “very excited” to put forward a bill that “meets the needs of a challenging budget scenario” and will “drive more equity into our school financing system.”
“With the budget pressures this year, it was important that we think in a very sustainable way in addressing how much of that formula we drive to schools this year and what our ultimate plan will be to make sure that the State (Education) Fund remains robust and capable of supporting school funding in the years ahead,” McCluskie said.
The State Education Fund is a sort of bank account holding reserves that contribute dollars to the school funding formula and also support a variety of other school programs. Lawmakers will rely more on the state education fund this year to pull off the new school funding formula next year, with McCluskie describing that fund as having “a very healthy, robust balance.”
While the State Education Fund is expected to end this year with a $1.1 billion balance, state budget documents show the state will have to ramp up its contributions from the general fund in the future to keep the account solvent.
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7:03 AM MDT on Apr 1, 20257:08 AM MDT on Apr 1, 2025McCluskie’s proposal comes as the JBC endorsed a smaller-than-typical budget increase for K-12 schools next year, calling for an additional $150 million in spending compared with this year’s funding. Schools would normally receive an extra $200 million to $220 million to keep up with rising costs, McCluskie said.
The JBC signed off on that $150 million in general fund money before finalizing a budget proposal last week, after many legislative debates over how to address a $1.2 billion budget shortfall.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
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