DENVER — During his 2025 State of the State address, Governor Jared Polis reinforced his push to change Colorado's school funding formula.
"It is truly past time to eliminate the antiquated system that funds empty chairs rather than actual students," Polis said inside the Colorado State Capitol on Thursday.
The state's current school funding formula uses a four-year enrollment average instead of single-year enrollment. Educators worry a formula change could hurt schools that are already severely underfunded.
"We have an entire generation of students who have, from ECE through graduation, never seen a fully-funded education system in Colorado," said Katie Allen, a Denver Public Schools teacher.
Allen worries such a change could lead to cuts in important services.
"Something we've seen since the pandemic is increased issues around mental health... students needing individualized support in those areas. And that's another concern that I have with budget issues coming in the future," said Allen.
- Watch Governor Polis' full 2025 State of the State address in the video player below:
Denver7 sat down with Kevin Vick, current president of the Colorado Education Association, to discuss the governor's remarks.
According to Vick, the current funding model smooths out the peaks and valleys within a district's budget.
"Getting rid of something simply because it's old — if it still works well — doesn't make a lot of sense," he said.
Vick said two recent adequacy studies show Colorado is under-funding its students by $4,000 to $4,500 per pupil annually.
"We have been taking cuts for many years, which means we have been short-changing students for many years, and we need to fix that problem," said Vick.
As the new legislative session gets started, educators hope lawmakers consider the challenges before changing the funding formula.
"We do not want to take another hit to our budget. We want to get to the funding levels that we should have in the 21st century," said Allen.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.