{"id":97203,"date":"2018-11-07T17:11:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T00:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/backers-of-amendment-73-look-to-the-future-as-voters-reject-school-funding\/"},"modified":"2018-11-07T17:11:54","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T00:11:54","slug":"backers-of-amendment-73-look-to-the-future-as-voters-reject-school-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/backers-of-amendment-73-look-to-the-future-as-voters-reject-school-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Backers of Amendment 73 look to the future as voters reject school funding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado voters rejected Amendment 73, which would have raised $1.6 billion for Colorado\u2019s public schools.<\/span>Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With Colorado\u2019s third attempt to raise taxes for education going down to defeat, backers of Amendment 73 looked to the future Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Lisa Weil of Great Education Colorado said that the conversation around school funding was forever changed, with even opponents admitting the need for more resources in the classroom and better pay for teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are within striking distance, and we are not going back,\u201d she told a small and still cheerful crowd gathered at a downtown Denver hotel.<\/p>\n

The breadth of the coalition was illustrated by Krista Spurgin, executive director of education reform group Stand for Children and Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, the state\u2019s largest teachers union, embracing. Bret Miles of the Northeast Colorado BOCES described the tiny town of Seibert turning out a huge crowd in favor of more school funding.<\/p>\n

Amendment 73 supporters gathered in a downtown hotel on election night.<\/p>\n

But it was not enough to overcome Coloradans\u2019 traditional reluctance to raise statewide taxes. Just 45.5 percent of voters said yes, with 55.5 percent rejecting the measure. To pass, 55 percent of voters needed to say yes.<\/p>\n

Under Colorado\u2019s Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights, the only way to raise taxes is to get voter approval. This is the closest that supporters have come yet, but victory proved elusive.<\/p>\n

Luke Ragland of the conservative education advocacy group Ready Colorado welcomed the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this was a referendum on whether people want better schools or to pay teachers more,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a referendum on a poorly worded ballot measure with no strategy or plan to actually improve educational outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amendment 73 would have created a graduated income tax for people earning more than $150,000 a year and raised the state corporate tax rate. It also would have changed the assessment rate \u2013 the portion of property value that is taxed \u2013 for commercial and residential property. Altogether, these changes were projected to raise an additional $1.6 billion a year for preschool through 12th-grade education.<\/p>\n

Amendment 73 would have set aside money to pay for full-day kindergarten and additional preschool slots, as well as targeting money to students with disabilities, those learning English, and those identified as gifted. The measure would have directed the legislature to come up with a new school funding formula and left a large share of the money for districts to spend how they see fit.<\/p>\n

In 2013, backers of more education funding spent millions only to see Amendment 66 rejected by two-thirds of the electorate. Proponents of Amendment 73 raised a little more than $1 million and leaned heavily on local advocates, teachers, and school board members to get the word out through a grassroots campaign. They had hoped a wave of teacher activism here and around the country would drive increased support for education funding.<\/p>\n

Weil said she believes voters heard that message, but supporters did not have the resources to reach enough people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more people learned about Amendment 73, the more they liked it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is a difficult thing, we know, to get people to understand a policy, which is what we have to do. In Colorado, our tax policymakers are our voters. The thumb is on the scale because good policy is complex.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the coming days, Weil said supporters would do a \u201cdeep dive\u201d into the vote results to see where support lay and build for a future effort. In the meantime, she said legislators \u201cneed to be problem solvers\u201d and do better than they have.<\/p>\n

On this, Ragland agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real question is what\u2019s next?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s crystal clear that people want better schools and for their teachers to be better compensated. There is a charge to the legislature to take up the school finance formula that\u2019s been sitting there untouched since 1994. It\u2019s time for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Amendment 73 debate has played out as lawmakers have wrestled with how to fix a broken school finance system. The questions they\u2019ve been asking go well beyond how much money Colorado schools need.<\/p>\n

The current set of tax and distribution policies often end up giving more resources to rich districts that don\u2019t tax themselves as much as they could and do little to account for students\u2019 individualized needs. More money would have allowed lawmakers to avoid taking money from wealthier districts as they rework the system, but opponents of Amendment 73 argued it might just lock in the status quo.<\/p>\n

Since the Great Recession, Colorado lawmakers have withheld $7.5 billion that would have gone to school districts under a constitutionally mandated formula to pay for other budget needs. Colorado spends $2,800 less per student than the national average, according to Education Week\u2019s Quality Counts, which makes adjustments for regional cost differences.<\/p>\n

Some 100 Colorado school districts operate on four-day weeks, in part to save money. Teacher salaries are low, especially in cash-strapped rural districts, and more than half of all students in third through eighth grade don\u2019t meet state standards in reading, writing, and math.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the measure argued the only way to do better by Colorado students is to put more money into the system. Raising salaries would help recruit and keep more teachers. More money could help lower class sizes and provide the support that disabled students or those learning English need to thrive.<\/p>\n

Opponents said the tax increase would amount to a \u201cblank check,\u201d with no guarantees the money would improve student outcomes or even make it into teacher paychecks.<\/p>\n

Board results<\/div>\n

Two Colorado State Board of Education incumbents held on to their seats Tuesday in an election that did not change the balance of power on the partisan board.<\/p>\n

Incumbent Debora Scheffel, a Republican, defeated Democratic challenger Tim Krug, 63 percent to 37 percent, to represent eastern Colorado as of 10 p.m. Tuesday. That district overlaps with the 2nd Congressional District and includes Douglas, Adams, and Weld counties.<\/p>\n

In the 4th Congressional District in the north-central part of the state, incumbent Angelika Schroeder, a Democrat, defeated Republican challenger Johnny Barrett 63 percent to 37 percent. That district includes most of Boulder and Larimer counties.<\/p>\n

The results mean Democrats will maintain a majority of the seven seats on the board. Control of the board switched in 2016 after nearly 50 years of a Republican majority.<\/p>\n

The state board is responsible for appointing the commissioner of education, setting state standards, charter school appeals, waivers, teacher licensure, and administration of a lot of grants approved by the legislature.<\/p>\n

The biggest task in front of the board right now is determining what happens to low-performing schools that have failed to improve even after receiving state warnings and assistance.<\/p>\n

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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