COLORADO
First Class Education plan: YES
All pupils would benefit
By Rep. Joe Stengel, R-Littleton
DenverPost.com
As a parent, I want Colorado to have the best educational opportunity for our kids.
As a taxpayer, I want Colorado schools to spend our education money as efficiently as possible.
As an employer, I know first-hand that Colorado 's economy can only be as strong as our employees' education.
And as the leader of the Republicans in the state House of Representatives, I know that Republicans are committed to establishing a new priority for every school district in the state: first-class education.
That's why Republican legislators are taking action to refer to the ballot the First Class Education plan, a requirement that every school district in Colorado spend at least 65 cents of every dollar on the only place where test scores can be improved: in the classroom.
What is currently happening with Colorado 's substantial annual investment in K-12 education?
Coloradans demonstrated their commitment to education when Amendment 23 was approved in 2000, requiring large annual increases in K-12 education spending. Unfortunately, much of the money intended for our children does not make it into the classroom. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, Colorado ranks 46th in the nation for the percentage of education money that actually makes its way to our classrooms. While Colorado spends billions of dollars on education, only 57.8 cents of each of those dollars gets into the classroom.
Raising taxes once again isn't the answer; common- sense prioritizing is. Increasing the percentage of money getting to the classroom to 65 cents on the dollar would increase Colorado classroom spending by $370 million a year - without a tax increase. A nickel and two pennies more into the classroom adds up to $370 million more for teachers and textbooks, chalk and computers ... whatever the local school board members believe is the best way to improve education by putting the additional percentage of money in the classroom. Small change can mean a big change for Colorado 's classrooms.
Currently, four states - Utah , Tennessee , New York and Maine - spend in excess of 65 percent of their education operational budgets in the classroom. Colorado should be the fifth.
How does First Class Education work? Each Colorado school district that is currently spending less than 65 percent in the classroom would be required to increase the percentage by 2 percent a year until reaching 65 percent.
If for some reason a district couldn't meet the 2 percent annual increase or the 65 percent goal, the district could petition the governor for a renewable one-year waiver. This will make Colorado school districts that are spending less than 65 percent the exception rather than the norm.
Currently, seven Colorado school districts varying in size from 283 students to 16,000 are already above 65 percent, proving this goal can be reached. But we also have many school districts spending less than 55 percent of our tax money in the classroom. An example of the variation among Colorado's largest school districts are Cherry Creek and Boulder, with 64 percent of their operational budgets spent in the classroom, compared to Jefferson County and Colorado Springs, with about 51 percent going to the classroom. Think of the difference these two larger districts could make with an additional 14 percent going into the classroom.
Ultimately, it's the local school boards that must make the change in budgeting and the change in priorities. We need the power of the voice of the voters to ensure that school districts truly do place class education as their first priority. That's why our goal isn't just to place the First Class Education plan on the 2006 general election ballot - either by legislative referral or, if necessary, by citizen petition - but to have First Class Education win overwhelmingly in every school district across Colorado .
Then and only then will we have a better opportunity to ensure every Colorado student a first-class education.
Rep. Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, is state House minority leader.
State Republicans try to sell 65-cent plan to fund education
Monday, June 06, 2005
By DANIE HARRELSON
The Daily Sentinel
GOP leaders in the state want voters to require school districts to funnel more of their funding into Colorado’s classrooms.
Their selling point?
Taxpayers won’t have to fork over anything.
Republican lawmakers aim to place on the 2006 November ballot a measure that would mandate at least 65 cents of every K-12 dollar fund teachers’ salaries, textbooks, athletics and other instructional costs.
It’s the student services that would be left to clamor for the remaining 35 cents that alarm the proposal’s critics.
“It doesn’t increase the pie,” Colorado Education Association spokeswoman Deborah Fallin said. “It takes the current pie and splits it up differently.”
Colorado, whose school districts on average spend 58 cents of their budget in the classroom, ranks 47th in the nation when it comes to the percentage of state funds that schools invest in instruction, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Mesa County Valley School District 51 pumps about 67 percent of its state funding into classroom instruction, District 51 spokesman Jeff Kirtland said. That equates to roughly $76.5 million of a $112.5 million budget spent on instructional programs. “(Taxpayer) dollars are maximized in the classroom,” Kirtland said.
That sum doesn’t include such services as guidance and mental health counseling, speech and occupational therapy or staff and curriculum development.
“All of those things support pupils,” Kirtland said. “Without those things, schools couldn’t operate.”
Not all school districts pour that kind of money into teachers and students, and it’s time all schools redirect an estimated $400 million back to the classroom, said House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton.
“Most people don’t realize their districts do not spend all of the money on education,” he said.
Stengel points to the link he sees between students’ performance in the classroom and the amount of money a district spends directly in a classroom. School districts that fall below the proposed funding threshold represent the poorest-performing schools in relation to graduation rates and assessment testing, he said.
Stengel said transferring cash from administration and support services to the classroom would enable districts to afford higher teacher salaries.
First Class Education, a national effort led by Overstock.com founder Patrick Byrne, aims to make the 65-cent requirement reality in all 50 states and the District of Columbia by 2008.
Colorado is one of eight states where people are flocking to Byrne’s banner. The Internet entrepreneur defines “in the classroom” as “most anything that directly impacts the child whether teaching a child to read a book, read Braille, read music or read a football defensive pass pattern,” according to First Class Education’s Web site.
The fact that football coaches would make the cut under the so-called 65 Percent Solution, and not counselors who assist students with career and life choices concerns Fallin. “It’s school counselors that leap to every educator’s mind,” she said. “They are so key, particularly at a secondary level, to student success.”
Bus drivers, security personnel, librarians, nurses and janitors wouldn’t make the “in classroom” cut, either.
Fallin said the key to spending more money in the classroom lies not in how districts divvy up their funding, but how much funding districts have in the first place.
“It’s not how you split it up,” she said. “We’re not spending enough money.”
Dan Robinson, a member of the District 51 School Board of Education, cautions the national push for statewide accountability overlooks the people most in tune with individual schools’ needs and voters’ expectations for those schools.
“Local school boards are going to do what’s best,” he said. “They’re not squandering the money that they do have.”
Additional services outside the classroom are critical to ensure children’s academic success, Robinson said. He pointed to the district’s decision to focus on instructional needs while its infrastructure crumbled, a situation for which voters approved $109 million in loans last November to remedy.
“How do you maintain a safe building ... and still support instruction?” he said. “You can’t cram 35 kids in a classroom designed for 20.”
Moving money around isn’t a cure-all, he said, adding that “it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
Supporters must collect 68,000 signatures to get the measure on the November 2006 ballot. The proposal would require school districts to increase classroom spending by 2 percent annually until they reach 65 percent. “The object here is to pay teachers better and give them the resources they need,” Stengel said.
Danie Harrelson can be reached via e-mail at dharrelson@gjds.com. |
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