Three Colorado school districts asking their voters for more funding this November receive among the lowest amounts of dollars per student from the state and lag significantly behind districts of similar size.
Each district is asking voters to increase their property taxes. Known as mill-levy overrides, the requests appear on the ballots of voters in Greeley-Evans School District 6, Brighton District 27J and Mesa County Valley School District 51. These are small steps toward leveling the playing field in Colorado’s hugely unequal funding formula.
It appears unlikely a solution to the problem will come at the state level anytime soon. Voters have soundly rejected statewide measures that would have addressed the school funding formula issues in part by infusing a huge amount of cash into the state funding for schools. The political will to fix the problem legislatively will be hard to find.
Which leaves local school districts having to ask voters to fix the problem, and in most school districts voters have responded by approving property tax increases over and above the base taxes collected locally to provide additional per-pupil operational funds to their schools.
Greeley, Brighton and Mesa County are notable exceptions. (As is Pueblo City District 50, which ultimately decided not to place a mill-levy override on the ballot this year.)
Voters in those three communities should not miss this opportunity to put their schools on equal footing with neighboring districts. While money can’t make a school great, it’s more difficult to provide kids with a good education without adequate funding for staff and resources.
Just how far behind on the funding curve are these districts? Among the 20 largest school districts in the state, these three are at the very bottom of per-pupil funding for operations.
Similar-sized districts that have maxed out their allowable mill-levy overrides or are close to reaching their limit can rely on that revenue for up to 25 percent of their operating budget.
Voters in Mesa County approved a small mill-levy override for the district in 2004 that generates about $8.7 million a year, but it’s a far cry from the roughly $36 million the district has left on the table before reaching the state-imposed cap. In November voters will be asked to increase their property taxes to provide an additional $6.5 million a year for 10 years. That strikes us a modest step in the right direction that balances the district’s dire needs with the desire to keep the impact on property owners small.
Greeley is the largest district in the state without any mill-levy override dollars. Voters rejected a plan in the last coordinated election to increase property taxes but will get the chance to approve a similar plan this November. The district is asking voters for an additional $14 million a year.
Finally, Brighton Schools is asking voters for a $12 million override. According to Chalkbeat, the district has unsuccessfully asked for an override five times since 2003. Their cap is around $35 million.
Increasingly, funding for schools is going to have to come from the local level. That trend has resulted in a system that is vastly unequal and has left some districts behind.
We hope a few of those inequities can be addressed at the ballot box this year by voters who want to keep their schools competitive with neighbors but make it as easy as possible for their schools to be successful.
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