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S_ED_2025A 01/24/2025 11:50:01 AM Committee Summary

PUBLIC
STAFF SUMMARY OF MEETING
JOINT COMMITTEE COMMITTEE ON JOINT EDUCATION
Date 01/24/2025
Attendance
Bacon X
Bradfield X
Bright X
Caldwell X
Gilchrist X
Hamrick X
Hartsook X
Johnson X
Kipp X
Lundeen X
Marchman X
Martinez X
Michaelson Jenet X
Phillips X
Rich E
Sander X
Smith X
Story X
Kolker X
Lukens E
Time 11:50:01 AM to 03:13:31 PM
Place Old Supreme Court
This Meeting was called to order by Kolker
This Report was prepared by Rachel Kurtz-Phelan
Hearing Items Action Taken
Presentation on Adequate Studies Pursuant to Senate Bill 23-287 Committee Discussion Only
Public Testimony Committee Discussion Only
SMART Act Presentation from the Department of Early Childhood Committee Discussion Only

Presentation on Adequate Studies Pursuant to Senate Bill 23-287 - Committee Discussion Only

11:51:31 AM  
Senator Kolker called
the meeting to order. He invited Jennifer Okes, District Operations Special
Advisor, to begin her presentation, which can be found as Attachment A.
She provided background information on Senate Bill 23-287 and its associated
task force and reporting requirements. She reviewed the School Finance
Task Force parameters in further detail, including both outcome-focused
and input-focused approaches that were used by the two vendors hired to
investigate and provide findings and recommendations on the school funding
needs of Colorado. Ms. Okes responded to questions from the committee.
 
11:57:52 AM  
Senator Kolker invited
the next presenters to begin their presentations, which can be found as
Attachments B and C. Drew Atchison, Principal Researcher, American Institutes
for Research (AIR), spoke about the process, findings, and recommendations
from the outcomes-based study conducted by AIR (Attachment D). He discussed
the key goals of state funding formulas for public education in terms of
adequacy, equitability, and wealth neutrality, as well as the key questions
the study aimed to answer. He provided an overview of main data collection
and analysis activities, including types of adequacy analyses such as cost
function. He answered questions from committee.
12:06:05 PM  
Mr. Atchison continued
to discuss the study's key findings, which include:



1. Colorado current
level of funding is inadequate to meet the state's educational goals (gap
of $4.1 billion per year in state and local funding) and explained the
process AIR used to reach this finding.



2. Colorado's
current school funding system is not sufficiently equitable in providing
all students an equal opportunity to achieve outcome goals.



3. Teachers are
important in driving student outcomes, but Colorado's teachers are poorly
compensated and inequitably distributed.



4. Colorado's
current funding system allows property tax rates to vary drastically across
districts and enables higher spending levels in high-wealth districts.
12:21:55 PM  
He discussed AIA's
recommendations (fill in rest from his slides):



1. Increase education
funding so that funding levels are commensurate with the state's educational
goals.



2. Increase the
strength of funding weights for economically disadvantaged students, ELLs,
and SWDs, so that more resources are distributed based on student need.



3. Invest more
in teachers.



4. Address tax
inequity in the local tax rates that go toward the local share calculations
so that the local share required for each district is based on a more uniform
property tax rate.



5. Adjust for
geographic differences in staffing costs using a comparative wage index
to reflect a region’s cost of living and available amenities.



He answered questions
from the committee and spoke about a cost of living versus comparable wage
approach.
12:37:31 PM  
Mr. Atchison compared
the formula included in AIR's recommendations to the new funding formula
under House Bill 24-1448. He reviewed the conclusions of the study, which
are that the new structure of the HB 24-1448 formula is well designed and
that the recommendations focus on the inputs.
12:47:32 PM  
Justin Silverstein,
Co-Chief Executive Officer, Augenblick, Palaich, and Associates (APA) begin
his presentation, which can be found as Attachment C.  APA's final
report can be found as Attachment E. He provided an overview of APA's study
process and partners and explained that they reviewed the new formula under
HB 24-1448 and provided what they see as the strengths and weaknesses of
that formula. He spoke about the impacts of wealth and income on educational
inputs in districts with mill levy overrides versus those without. He reviewed
a survey they sent out and talked about the two input based approaches,
which are a professional judgement approach and an evidence-based approach.
He discussed special education and cost of living adjustments.
01:08:09 PM  
Mr. Silverstein explained
how APA created their final recommendations and answered questions from
the committee.



Public Testimony - Committee Discussion Only
01:29:22 PM  
Senator Kolker called
up a panel of witnesses to provide their view of the adequacy study reports
and school funding in general.



Kevin Vick, representing
Colorado Education Association, spoke about school funding. Bret Miles,
representing Colorado Association of School Executives, spoke about school
funding Kallie Leyba, representing AFT Colorado, spoke about school funding.
Dr. Jubal Yennie, representing Colorado Association of School Boards, spoke
about school funding. Jeremy Burmeister, representing Platte Valley School
District, spoke about school funding.
01:53:29 PM  
The panel answered questions from the committee.
02:04:11 PM  
Madi Ashour, representing Colorado Children's Campaign, spoke about school funding. Joshua Mantell, representing The Bell Policy Center, spoke about school funding.



SMART Act Presentation from the Department of Early Childhood - Committee Discussion Only
02:13:45 PM  
The panel of presenters
from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (DEC) came to the table
to begin their SMART Act presentation, which can be found as Attachment
F. Dr. Lisa Roy, Executive Director of DEC, introduced the additional panel
members: Stephanie Beasley, Deputy Executive Director, Mary Alice Cohen,
Chief Program Officer, Jeanni Stefanik, Chief Financial Officer, Dawn Odean,
Universal Preschool Program Director, and Shannon Wilson, Early Childhood
Leadership Commission Administrator.



Dr. Roy provided
an overview of the department and Ms. Odean spoke about the Universal Preschool
Program.
02:27:51 PM  
Ms. Cohen continued
to review the department's Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). Ms. Stefanik
reviewed the department's FY 2025-26 budget request. Ms. Beasley spoke
about the department's regulatory agenda and rule making process and authority.
Ms. Wilson discussed the Early Childhood Leadership Commission.
03:12:41 PM  
The panel answered questions from the committee. Committee discussion ensued.


03:13:31 PM   The committee adjourned.






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