Would you be willing to pay a little more in local and state taxes if it meant your kid got $4,000 more per school year?
That’s a real question facing many Coloradans as gaps in per-pupil funding are on the rise. For example, disparities in per-pupil funding in the metro area have risen 52% in the past decade. A kid in Adams 14 gets only $956 above base funding while a kid in Sheridan gets over $4,000 of additional funds based on mill levy overrides. That’s a difference of over $3,000 per child per year, or nearly $40,000 per kid for all of K-12.
How much extra learning do you think that could buy?
Statewide, the trend continues. Thirteen school districts including Aspen, Telluride, Clear Creek and Sheridan collect additional funds through mill levy overrides at more than $4,000 per student. At the same time, 54 school districts collect $0.
With a loss of $4,000 per kid per year, that’s $52,000 per child between kindergarten and graduation, or a difference of $120,000 per classroom of 30 per year and $1.56 million per classroom of 30 over 13 years.
Making access to quality education increasingly contingent upon geography is problematic for many reasons, most of all that it perpetuates wealth disparities, especially by race. This often leads to lower-funded schools offering reduced teacher pay, having increased class sizes, accessing fewer instructional resources and having worse learning conditions such as a lack of air conditioning on hot days.
All contribute to reduced teacher retention and satisfaction, and lower student test scores and graduation rates.
The fix would be easy if everyone could approve the same additional mill levy override tax rates, but it’s not that simple. Taxes are based on a percentage of wealth, meaning that communities with inherently higher assessed values — such as those with higher property values, industries or casinos — see substantially greater benefits at the same tax rate as communities with lower assessed values. Also, student density varies, so two communities of equal value and identical tax rates will still see differences in per-pupil spending if one has a higher student population.
In other words, even if Adams 14 voters approved an increase in tax rates identical to that of Telluride or Aspen voters — and they should, given it’s been 20 years since the last local mill levy override for school funding — revenue gains are unlikely to ever match that of a higher-wealth, lower student-density community.
In theory, a 2022 bill would have largely addressed these funding discrepancies if it got a few tweaks for consistency and was funded for real. However, thanks to TABOR and historically low property taxes, legislators don’t have the kinds of funds needed at their disposal.
This means that the 2023-34 school year saw only $36.8 million dispersed among a mere fraction of Colorado’s lower per-pupil districts, a far cry from what’s needed to level the playing field.
This brings us to the upcoming special session wrongly called for by Gov. Jared Polis. For too long Coloradans have paid too little in taxes and our roads, schools and other public services have paid the price.
We rank below average in many public goods, including school funding, and it’s high time the greater good mattered as much as each of us saving a little bit here and there. This is especially true when it comes to funding schools, and if the special session must go on, legislators need to make all efforts to preserve current school allocations.
Regardless, schools still need more funds and a more equitable distribution of those funds. It’s no good to anyone if a kid from Aspen gets thousands of dollars more per year than a kid from Akron or Alamosa. So again, I ask: Would you be willing to pay a little bit more in local and state taxes if you knew it meant your kid was the one who got $4,000 more per school year?
I say yes. All kids deserve a good education. Not only the wealthy ones.
Trish Zornio is a scientist, lecturer and writer who has worked at some of the nation’s top universities and hospitals. She’s an avid rock climber and was a 2020 candidate for the U.S. Senate in Colorado.
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