DENVER \u2013 Education advocates are reacting with a mix of resolve and confusion to the staggering size of the loss of Amendment 66 at Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
With votes in 51 of the state\u2019s 64 counties fully counted, the income tax increase for schools had lost about 35 percent to 65 percent statewide and in Montezuma County.<\/p>\n
Many Republicans were quick to pin the loss on Gov. John Hickenlooper, who faces re-election next year.<\/p>\n
But at the Capitol, legislators said they would find a way to help the state\u2019s schools, although they aren\u2019t sure how.<\/p>\n
And for Alex Carter, the loss has him wondering how he will be able to give a decent education to kids in Montezuma-Cortez schools, where he is superintendent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe simply do not have the resources we need to offer a world-class education to our kids. And we\u2019re not going to,\u201d Carter said. \u201cColorado needs to wake up. I am really disheartened by this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cortez schools adopted a four-day week to save money, but returned to a five-day week last year. Schools had cut librarians and ended elementary school art classes. Dove Creek remains on a four-day week.<\/p>\n
Local voters supported a bond for a new high school last year, and Carter thinks the community couldn\u2019t sustain a property tax hike for its schools.<\/p>\n
Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, designed Amendment 66 to help districts like Montezuma-Cortez by rewriting the state\u2019s two-decade-old school finance formula.<\/p>\n
Over the years, state support has drifted toward richer districts, and inequalities grew among schools.<\/p>\n
But repeated attempts to reform the system have failed, because they amount to taking one school\u2019s slice of the pie and giving it to another.<\/p>\n
Johnston\u2019s gambit was to make the pie bigger before he resliced it, making sure just about everyone got a bigger slice. La Plata County schools, which have richer taxes bases thanks to the gas and oil industry, would have gotten small increases \u2013 or, in Ignacio\u2019s case, no real increase. Montezuma-Cortez schools, where property values are lower and natural gas isn\u2019t a factor, would have received an extra $1,200 per student.<\/p>\n
Johnston led a coalition of Republicans and some Democrats on several school reform bills the past several years, including a controversial revamp of teacher tenure that created a deep rift within the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n
But Republicans voted against Johnston\u2019s new school finance act because it called for a billion-dollar tax increase. It passed with only Democratic votes, but it won\u2019t take effect unless voters approve a tax increase by 2017.<\/p>\n
House Republicans released an education agenda Wednesday for 2014 that borrows some of the most popular parts of Johnston\u2019s finance reforms, including boosting funding for charter schools and English language learners, and changing the way the state calculates school populations.<\/p>\n
But without extra funding for all schools, charter schools will have a hard time getting any extra cash out of the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Carter says there\u2019s not much more his district can do without added resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is incredibly disheartening that people who say they value education only value it as long as it doesn\u2019t cost them anything,\u201d Carter said.<\/p>\n
Other school advocates, like Colorado Children\u2019s Campaign President Chris Watney, say there are reasons to hope even in the landslide defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I\u2019m really disappointed, but I\u2019m not discouraged, because I did not hear at any point during this campaign that people are not committed to education reform,\u201d Watney said.<\/p>\n
Johnston thinks events outside of Colorado might have influenced voters here.<\/p>\n
Internal polls showed Amendment 66 was holding up well until about a month ago, when the federal government shut down and the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act bombed. Undecided voters quickly decided against the amendment, Johnston said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took about the hardest last four weeks you could have expected in an election cycle when you\u2019re trying to re-instill people\u2019s faith in investing in the competency of government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Many Republicans, though, blamed Hickenlooper, including Ryan Call, chairman of the Colorado Republican Party.<\/p>\n
\u201cColorado voters are ready to elect a governor who, unlike Gov. Hickenlooper, will listen to the people of Colorado, not the out-of-state special interests,\u201d Call said in a news release on election night.<\/p>\n
Hickenlooper\u2019s campaign team created the strategy for Amendment 66. Curtis Hubbard, spokesman for the Amendment 66 campaign, said it wasn\u2019t out of line to ask voters for a tax increase \u2013 something only voters in Colorado can approve.<\/p>\n