DENVER—A Denver judge ruled Friday that Colorado’s education funding system is “irrational and inadequate” and violates the state’s constitution—a decision that’s a victory for school districts and parents who sued but hardly the end of a years-long debate.
“There is not one school district that is sufficiently funded,” Denver District Court Judge Sheila Rappaport said about the state’s system in her ruling. “This is an obvious hallmark of an irrational system.”
An appeal to the state Supreme Court is likely, and Rappaport recognized that in her ruling. She directed the state Legislature to design and implement a new funding system but said Colorado’s current formula for financing schools may remain in place until further action by the higher court.
Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper and Republican state Attorney General John Suthers have both warned that losing the lawsuit could have disastrous effects on Colorado’s finances because the Legislature could be forced to allocate the majority of the budget to education to meet the plaintiffs’ demands.
The plaintiffs have repeatedly said they are not seeking a monetary amount, but they have estimated that Colorado’s education system is underfunded by $4 billion. That’s more than half of the state’s current general fund budget of just over $7 billion.
Suthers has argued that how the state funds education is a policy matter, not a judicial one. His spokesman Mike Saccone said the ruling was an attempt by a judge “to wade into this public policy debate” and appeal is likely.
The case was argued in a five-week trial last summer. Attorneys representing parents and 21 school districts said in closing remarks that the state’s method of funding education is random, irrational and leaves poor students at a disadvantage.
The lawsuit originally was filed in 2005, but plaintiffs were unsuccessful at the district court level and again on appeal. The state Supreme Court reversed those decisions in October 2009 and sent the case back to district court.
Attorneys for the parents and the school districts, most of which are in rural parts of the state, argued that the Colorado Legislature’s funding system violates the state constitution’s promise to provide a “thorough and uniform” education system.
“It’s a great day for the children of Colorado. And we call on the Legislature to act immediately to vindicate the rights of the children,” said Kathy Gebhardt, one of the attorneys that argued the lawsuit against the state.
She said a likely appeal “shouldn’t stop the Legislature from stepping up.”
Attorneys for the plaintiff’s citied cases in the trial of school districts that don’t have enough textbooks for students—and they said that the ones they do have are so outdated they list former President Bill Clinton as the current president. The attorneys said some students take classes in dilapidated buildings and use old computers that still have floppy disks and maps where the Soviet Union still appears.
State Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, said Friday’s ruling is unlikely to affect next year’s budget because the case is far from being resolved.
The state is also facing a big shortfall. Hickenlooper is proposing $679 million in cuts next year to balance the budget. Although cuts to K-12 and public colleges are not as dramatic as they’ve been in past years, those areas of the budget are still taking a hit. Hickenlooper is proposing cutting $89 million from K-12 education and about $60 million from public colleges.
State attorneys argued during the trial that Colorado has more than doubled spending on public education since 1994 and more than 40 percent of the budget now goes to education.
But Judge Rappaport said in her ruling that state officials have failed to quantify how best to fund Colorado’s education system in light of demographic changes. She said that the system has been “completely unresponsive.”
Some blame conflicting state constitutional provisions for Colorado’s quandary on education. While the constitution requires increasing funding to schools, the constitution also has strict limits on spending and tax increases.
Steadman said lawmakers should start looking at fixing those conflicting mandates.
“While we expect these appeals to take a while, I think it would behoove us to start studying some real solutions because they’re not going to be easy,” Steadman said.
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