I_SFinance_2018A 06/18/2018 10:04:13 AM Committee Summary

The committee members provided opening remarks. Representative Lundeen summarized the agenda items and distributed a handout  [Attachment A].

Representative Garnett spoke on the importance of the stakeholder process for addressing school finance issues.

Committee discussion ensued.

Julie Pelegrin, Office of Legislative Legal Services, spoke on the bill drafting process for interim committees. She answered questions from the committee.

Josh Abram, Legislative Council Staff, spoke on the fiscal note process for interim committee bills.

Committee discussion ensued regarding the bill drafting process. Ms. Pelegrin and Mr. Abram answered questions from the committee regarding the bill request and drafting process.

Bret Miles, Executive Director of the Northeast Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES), spoke on the lessons learned from House Bill 18-1232. The bill concerned the creation of a new school funding distribution formula for the preschool through secondary education system.

Walt Cooper, Superintendent of the Cheyenne Mountain School District, provided an overview of HB 18-1232. He talked about the involvement of school districts that resulted in the support of 171 superintendents across the state.

Mr. Miles spoke on the importance of looking at equity for school districts. He said that the stakeholders are interested in continuing the discussion on a new school finance formula.

Superintendent Cooper answered a question from the committee regarding the areas of most need. He discussed the complexities involved in funding online education programs.

Mr. Miles answered questions from the committee regarding the impact of current Colorado Constitution tax requirements on school funding options. Superintendent Cooper discussed the current funding formula based on available revenue. He also spoke on the weighting of the formula and the issues between the state and local share.

The committee members continued to provide comments regarding the work done by the stakeholders of HB 18-1232 to address funding needs in the state.

Superintendent Cooper answered questions from the committee regarding the per pupil funding formula. He discussed the additional per pupil funding based on different factors to address specific needs of challenged learners and communities.

Superintendent Cooper discussed the changes in services for special needs communities.

The committee discussed the need to track funding to ensure that it is getting to the students as intended. Mr. Miles spoke on the accountability guidelines in HB 18-1232, specifically regarding student achievement and online education. Superintendent Cooper spoke on the impact that funding for mandated programs is having on the funding of other services in school districts.

Richard Seder and Michael Goetz, FourPoint Education Partners, provided data and analysis in order to assess Colorado's school finance system [Attachment B]. Mr. Seder provided an overview of the preliminary set principles for the analysis.

The committee members addressed their concerns regarding some topics that are not addressed in the list of principles. Mr. Seder said that the list of questions is focused primarily on what can be done for student achievement.

Mr. Seder provided an overview of each principle, specifically: align school finance and funding to contemporary educational systems, goals, and objectives, and learning contexts; center allocations based on students and their characteristics; provide every student access to quality core learning opportunities; provide every student equitable opportunities to achieve; share investment in providing learning opportunities to children of Colorado; make the school finance and funding system transparent and understandable to stakeholders; maximize productivity and efficiency of learning resources; and locally control educational management and methods.

The committee discussed whether other states set base standards for the management of funds.

The committee recessed for lunch.

The committee came back to order.

The committee discussed the preliminary set of principles, specifically the financial impact to taxpayers to properly fund public schools. In addition, the members discussed the impacts of Colorado Constitutional tax requirements on school funding.

The committee members continued to discuss mill levies and the state funding distributions to school districts.

Mr. Seder provided an overview of the base-per-pupil funding in other states.

The committee discussed the lack of principles regarding assessment of the education workforce and ways to determine if they are meeting basic teacher standards. Mr. Seder discussed the importance for defining learning resources and the presence of effective teachers. The committee continued to discuss the distribution of funds to an efficient education workforce.

Mr. Seder answered questions from the committee regarding the existing system for school funding. He spoke on the effectiveness of fiscal transparency.

The committee discussed the implementation and effectiveness of education programs.

The committee discussed the implementation of education programs and the funding of effective schools in preliminary principles.

Mr. Seder discussed the average education and experience of teachers based on district size. In addition, he spoke on the geographic disparities among districts. Mr. Seder presented data on teacher salaries and benefits across districts.

Mr. Seder answered questions from the committee members regarding the data collection of average teacher salaries and the inclusion of benefits and compensation programs in each district. He provided information on the benefits provided to teachers, including PERA, Medicaid, and other benefits.

Mr. Seder answered questions from the committee members regarding the data collection of average teacher salaries and benefits.

Mr. Goetz provided data on pupil-to-teacher ratios by districts, which is all teachers compared to all students in the district. Data on pupil-to-teacher ratios does not reflect classroom sizes.

Mr. Goetz answered questions from the committee regarding the equity of funding ad the characteristics of students being impacted by the funds.

Mr. Seder presented data on the percentages of state and local shares of total program funding for public school districts.

Mr. Seder discussed the interaction with the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights and the Gallegher Amendment regarding school financing. He also discussed the impact of mill levies and the revenue provided to school districts.

Mr. Seder answered questions from the committee regarding transparency and accuracy in the data, including the number of students in the Colorado public school system.

Mr. Seder discussed data regarding the budget stabilization factor as a percentage of total program funding.

Mr. Seder discussed locally controlled education management.

Mr. Goetz discussed an online program that will show how changes to school funding will impact the overall education financial system.

Mr. Seder discussed the next steps for addressing school funding issues. The committee members discussed the importance of looking at efficiency options for the current system.

Anna Gerstle, Legislative Council Staff, discussed the future meeting dates for the committee.

Committee discussion on meeting dates ensued.

The committee decided that the next meeting will be held on July 31, 2018, from 9 AM to 3 PM.