In recent weeks, The Denver Post has drawn attention to the state’s looming financial challenges. Our state’s constitution is limiting our ability to effectively address new challenges we face from recent rapid growth, particularly those challenges facing our schools.
In 2000, I authored and voters approved Amendment 23 to the Colorado Constitution to protect school funding. I had young children at the time, and worked with a group of moms who, like me, were dismayed by programs being cut in schools. The kindergarten class at my neighborhood school had swelled to 36 students with just one teacher, and there was no funding for a teacher’s aide.
I remember thinking how strange it was to run a statewide constitutional amendment simply to maintain school funding. How, I thought, could Colorado get itself into a situation where it couldn’t fund schools even at the rate of inflation while the economy was strong? It became clear that when the economy slowed, schools faced cuts, and when the economy grew, schools faced cuts. This simply didn’t make sense.
As the group of moms put it: “Heads, schools lose and tails, schools lose.”
Coloradans agreed to make education a priority, and approved Amendment 23. Yet, just 15 years later, other provisions in the constitution still demand cuts in education, despite our recent economic success. The state has cut nearly $1 billion per year from schools below the minimum requirements approved by voters, and Colorado ranks 43rd among states for per pupil spending, according to Education Week.
This means our kids have fewer opportunities than students in other states. Many Colorado students don’t receive individual attention, don’t receive regular feedback on their work, don’t have access to technology and, in some districts, can’t take basic courses like physics because it isn’t offered.
These gaps are most pronounced in poor and rural areas that depend more heavily on state funding for their schools. Parents are paying higher fees, and many people are donating unprecedented sums to public schools, but this only exacerbates inequities across Colorado.
I wrote Amendment 23 so all of Colorado’s children could have the best chance to succeed. I want our public schools to mirror the innovation, vitality and creativity of our state’s economy. I want schools that enable kids to be innovators, leaders, thinkers and doers. And I want every student to have a chance to attend college, technical or professional programs so they can advance their skills and build our economy. Today, less than three out of 10 kids who grow up in Colorado graduates from college. We can do so much better.
Let’s work together to fix Colorado’s constitution so our schools lead the nation, instead of falling further behind. We need a constitution that allows us to restore funding to our classrooms and make critical investments in education when times are good, along with the flexibility to make cuts in all areas of the budget, including education, when the economy turns down. Colorado has always looked ahead and taken bold steps to define a better future. We should do the same now. Our kids and all of Colorado deserve better.
Cary Kennedy is Denver’s chief financial officer and deputy mayor. She was a co-proponent of Amendment 23 and served as Colorado treasurer from 2007 to 2011.
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