At the end of every summer as the school year begins, news outlets run stories about how dozens of Colorado schools lack the air conditioning needed to keep classroom temperatures bearable. Lessons get canceled, children sit in sweltering rooms trying to focus and learn, and the adults point fingers.
That抖阴ap just one example of what more than three decades of chronic school funding shortages under Colorado鈥檚 decades-old spending cap has led to. Our educators, school leadership and staff, parents, and students can give you hundreds more: teachers buying their own school supplies while also being drastically underpaid, districts forced to cut back to four day weeks, students unable to access the mental health care or resources they deserve, and parents scrambling to work with their local schools to piece together the supports they need to help their children thrive.
Senate Bill 135, and the critical school funding it represents, is about whether Colorado’s children, in every kind of public school, in every corner of this state, get the investment they deserve.
A recent Denver Post opinion piece claimed that SB 135 is a backdoor attack on taxpayers dressed up in the language of helping kids. I want to be direct: that claim is factually incorrect, it抖阴ap politicians playing politics with children’s futures, and it badly misses the point of what is actually at stake.
The truth is, this measure is a targeted, structural update to an outdated limit initially set in 1992, more than 30 years ago. Let that sink in. Given the extreme amount of growth and change the state has experienced, our schools are burdened by an arbitrary cap set more than a quarter-century ago.
Let’s start with the facts. This measure does not raise the tax rate, not even by one percent. Coloradans will not pay more than they do today. It simply allows Colorado to use all revenue it already collects instead of paying some as TABOR refunds.
Equally inaccurate is the claim that this would take away TABOR refunds forever. That is simply not true. The measure raises the revenue cap. When Colorado’s economy grows, and revenues exceed the new cap, refunds remain on the table, just like they always are.
Every student in Colorado is underfunded by roughly $4,000 per year. That adds up to a $3.5 billion to $4 billion annual shortfall for our public schools, putting Colorado near the bottom nationally in teacher pay. As a result, educators are leaving the profession, classrooms are overcrowded, and mental health counselors and other critical supports are disappearing.
The tragic part is our state has the money; what we lack is the ability to use it, because of an outdated rule written when the internet was barely a concept and Colorado’s population was millions of people smaller than it is today.
Most importantly, Colorado voters would make the ultimate decision.
: it refers the policy outlined above to the November 2026 ballot, which, if voters approve, would allow the state to retain revenue it already collects and invest it in K-12 education first. This measure also relieves pressure on the broader state budget by leaving more funds available for priorities like Medicaid, behavioral health, infrastructure, and public safety.
The measure will provide stable, predictable increases in education funding of up to 2 percent annually over 10 years, and mandates a yearly public audit so Coloradans can see exactly where every dollar goes. That抖阴ap not a 鈥減altry鈥� amount. In good economic times, that抖阴ap hundreds of millions of dollars each year for upgrading classrooms, boosting teacher pay, improving security, and enriching learning in our schools. It is a structured, transparent investment in our kids and our communities.
That抖阴ap why this measure has such a broad base of support. The Colorado Education Association is joined by Stand for Children, the Colorado Children鈥檚 Campaign, the Colorado Rural Schools Alliance, the Colorado Association of School Boards, the Colorado Parent Teacher Association (PTA), the Public Education and Business Coalition, and more because Colorado’s students cannot afford more years of the same structural underfunding.
The critics of SB 135 are missing the bigger picture. This is not about politics. This is about whether a child sitting in a sweltering Denver classroom in August, or a rural school that has cut its counseling staff for the third year in a row, or a teacher who finally left the profession because she couldn鈥檛 make rent, will finally get the support they need.
This bill gives voters the chance to answer that question. I believe they will say yes, and I hope you join me in supporting this common-sense measure so our kids and our grandkids can benefit from the quality education they deserve.
Kevin Vick is the president of the Colorado Education Association.
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