Top Colorado lawmakers signaled last week that they will support cutting funding for school districts with declining enrollment — just maybe not as aggressively as Gov. Jared Polis has proposed.
Over half of the state’s 178 school districts will serve fewer students this year than last, The Colorado Sun reported Wednesday, a long-running trend that has led state leaders to reexamine how it counts kids in the all-important school finance formula.
Today, school districts receive funding based on the average enrollment over the previous five years, giving shrinking districts a cushion against large year-to-year swings in funding. The state’s new school funding formula reduces that to a four-year average, but the looming budget deficit has sparked calls to go further.
“I am anxious to talk about a different pathway on the averaging for our districts,” House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, told The Sun. “I want to spend dollars where kids are, where the highest needs are.”
She also pushed back against school district leaders who have likened the proposed funding cuts to creating a new “budget stabilization factor” at the very moment the state is eliminating the long-running school funding shortfall.
“I’ve heard districts say it’s like the budget stabilization factor, and I want to be really clear — it isn’t,” McCluskie said. “It is not the budget stabilization factor, but it is a recognition that we’ve been in a declining student enrollment environment for a while, and we haven’t been aggressive enough in tackling how we support districts.”
McCluskie’s comments came during our legislative preview event Thursday night, which also featured interviews with Polis, Senate President James Coleman and two members of the Joint Budget Committee. If you missed it, you can catch a replay on our YouTube channel.
McCluskie, a former school district administrator, didn’t offer specifics, but she suggested some cuts would be warranted — especially in the largest districts with shrinking student bodies.
“We just haven’t quite figured out how to get to that more efficient operating model as quickly as we should,” she said.
Polis has proposed eliminating averaging entirely, saying schools should get funding annually based on how many students that have that year.
Lawmakers said they’re looking for a middle ground. Sen. Jeff Bridges, who chairs the Joint Budget Committee, suggested two- or three-year averaging. But he made it clear that the student counts — like most everything else — are on the table for budget cuts.
“If we’re looking at cutting services to folks on Medicaid, we’re absolutely looking at ways that we can ensure that money is going to students and not ‘phantom students,’” Bridges said. “So if I have to choose between adequately funding those students and then giving money to schools for students they don’t have, I am going to be with the students that exist every single day.”
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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
During our 30-minute discussion, McCluskie and Coleman shared their thoughts on several of the top issues of the 2025 legislative session, including condo construction defects litigation, this year’s big guns bill and the effort to overhaul the state’s Labor Peace Act.
Here’s a few highlights:
WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEK
THE BIG STORY
Another set of proposed change to Colorado GOP bylaws that appear designed to benefit the chairman

The Colorado GOP later this month is scheduled to consider a number of bylaw changes that would make it easier for the party to endorse candidates and opt out of the state’s primary elections, as well as make it harder to remove party officers.
The proposals appear aimed at benefiting Chairman Dave Williams and letting him and his allies seek retribution against their opponents, who tried to remove Williams from his post last year.
The amendments would apply to the party’s central committee, or CRC, which is composed of about 400 Republicans from across the state, and the party’s executive committee, which is made up of a small group of the chair’s allies.
The changes are set to be debated Jan. 30 during a Zoom meeting. They include:
The last change would likely make it easier for the CRC to reach the 75% threshold needed to opt out of the state’s primaries since it’s often Republican elected officials who are most fiercely opposed to the idea.
This isn’t the first time Williams and his allies have sought to amend the party’s bylaws to make it easier to pursue their agenda. For the most part, those efforts have failed.
ENDORSEMENTS FOR BRITA HORN
Former Routt County Treasurer Brita Horn is starting to rack up endorsements for her March bid to become the next chair of the Colorado GOP.
Her supporters include:
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THE POLITICAL TICKER

ELECTION 2026
A fundraiser Wednesday in Denver for Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s 2026 gubernatorial campaign has an interesting list of hosts and cohosts.
Leora Joseph, director of the Colorado Office of Behavioral Health and an unsuccessful 2024 candidate for Denver district attorney, is hosting the event with her husband, Dr. Michael Wechsler.
The cohosts include: Deserai Anderson Crow, the ex-wife of U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, another potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate; former state Sen. Lois Court; businessman and unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial candidate Noel Ginsburg; Colorado Department of Human Services Executive Director Michelle Barnes; and state Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
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