Colorado School Funding 101

Adopted in 1876, article IX, section 2 of the Colorado Constitution (the Education Clause) mandates that the "general assembly shall . . . provide for the establishment and maintenance of a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state, wherein all residents of the state, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, may be educated gratuitously."  The Education Clause guarantees to each and every school-age resident of Colorado the fundamental right to attend free public schools that provide an equal opportunity to obtain a constitutionally adequate, quality education.

The Education Clause imposes upon the state the duty to provide the financial resources necessary and appropriate to assure that all resident children have an equal opportunity to obtain a constitutionally adequate education.  A system of public school finance that fails to provide sufficient financial resources to the schools and schools districts of the state is unconstitutional.  

The general assembly has acknowledged that compliance with the Education Clause imposes a financial responsibility upon the state. Thus, the Public School Finance Act (PSFA) of 1994 was enacted in furtherance of the general assembly's duty under the Education Clause. State and local funding for public education is principally provided through the PSFA.  

The PSFA funding formula and the funding levels it establishes do not provide school districts with sufficient funds or funding ability to meet the actual and foreseeable costs of educating their students in accordance with the requirements of the Education Clause and education reform legislation.  The PSFA base funding amount was based upon historical school funding levels and political compromise and not on the basis of an analytical determination of the actual costs to provide every student with a constitutionally adequate, quality education.

There are two additional provisions in the Colorado constitution that prevent the state and school districts from raising and expending funds necessary to establish and maintain a thorough and uniform system of free public schools:  the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) and the Gallagher Amendment.  Another provision, Amendment 23, provides for minimum annual increases to public school funding, which are insufficient to meet the mandates of the Education Clause and education reform legislation. 

In 2005, Children's Voices brought an action in state court challenging the constitutionality of the Colorado system of public school finance. The case is called Lobato v. State and is still being litigated.

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