So we need $18 billion to fix up Colorado’s schools? That’s what an evaluation on behalf of the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Board declared last week.
By way of comparison, the figure is more than double the state’s entire general fund.
Why do I feel as if taxpayers are being set up?
Only five months ago, you may recall, the state Supreme Court, in a 4 to 3 decision, overruled two lower courts and gave the green light to a lawsuit asking the courts to require Colorado to spend a great deal more on schools.
Never mind that school funding has always been the prerogative of the legislature and local school boards — of elected officials, in short. And that the state constitution grants the power of the purse to the General Assembly. Plaintiffs claim the state is failing to meet the constitutional requirement of a “thorough and uniform” education system, and the high court seemed to suggest they could be right.
(It’s curious how the plaintiffs tend to ignore other passages in the same section of the constitution, such as the requirement that schools be “maintained . . . at least three months in each year.” So we’re doing much more than that document demands, right?)
Those suing were no doubt already eager to cite a 2008 study by the Colorado School Finance Project claiming that schools need an additional $2.9 billion annually just to meet accountability standards. (Not surprisingly, the finance project is funded by the state’s education establishment.) Now they can marshal the evidence of this latest report — $18 billion, and just for buildings!
To be sure, the study was mandated by a 2008 statute unrelated to the lawsuit. That law, which I supported, created a funding stream for decrepit schools in districts that couldn’t afford to fix them. The question is whether this current inventory of deferred maintenance and “suitability” improvements amounts to a crisis, or whether it’s equivalent to those mind-boggling sums that are trotted out on a regular basis to highlight unfunded transportation needs — not exactly a wish list, but not exactly a can’t-do-without list, either.
Press reports have noted the average age of Colorado’s schools is 40 years. True, but that is roughly what the average age of schools across the country was in 1998 (42 years old, to be precise), which seems to be the most recent benchmark the study could find.
For the sake of argument, however, let’s assume the recent capital construction report points to a genuine crisis. If so, you have to wonder why education officials don’t simply ask voters if they’d be willing to pay more in taxes to remedy the situation rather than conduct an end-around voters by going to the courts.
You can’t very well accuse voters of being unwilling to fund deferred maintenance — or larger operational budgets — if you don’t ask them.
Earlier this month, the Jefferson County school district and Colorado Springs District 11 joined the school-funding lawsuit, whose plaintiffs already read like a who’s who of education powers.
“Jeffco’s participation in this effort is a legacy that we can leave for the children of Colorado,” said Superintendent Cindy Stevenson. “Public education is at the heart of our democratic society.”
Perhaps, but then so is representative government — which Stevenson, unfortunately, seems remarkably willing to trample underfoot.
E-mail Vincent Carroll at vcarroll@denverpost.com.
