State lawmakers have hammered out a compromise on a key education-funding measure in hopes of appeasing vocal superintendents and education leaders demanding more local control over the proposed infusion of dollars.
House leaders will add $10 million in no-strings-attached funding to the Student Success Act, which would restore $110 million in budget cuts to school districts, during an appropriations committee meeting Friday.
The compromise, which would also remove certain earmarks that the majority of the state’s superintendents lobbied against, was necessary to secure support in the Senate, according to Sens. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley, and Nancy Todd, D-Aurora.
“The superintendents, school board members and teachers have spoken loud and clear in terms of really restoring some of the money that has been cut and trying to get that back in the classrooms,” Todd said, adding that she would have joined Senate Republicans in voting against the bill if a compromise had not been reached.
State Rep. Millie Hamner, D-Dillon, said she and co-author Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock, will introduce several amendments to the bill Friday, including the removal of a provision that would have launched a new student-count mechanism. That measure will instead be turned into a study after education leaders said it was an unnecessary burden.
“We’ve been collaborating and giving and taking and trying to find a balance that will meet with success in the House and in the Senate,” Hamner said.
The compromise is a far cry from the more than $200 million annually sought by education leaders to buy down the so-called “negative factor,” which allowed the state to cut education funding despite constitutionally mandated increases. But it is being looked at as a victory for education leaders who persuaded lawmakers to bolster the funding for the negative factor to $110 million.
One issue that will continue to be debated in the Senate is a provision in the bill that allocates $5 million to create an improved financial-transparency system.
“We live in a world where compromise is important, and if it comes to that, we are all reasonable people, but I believe that what is best for students is if we put money into the classroom and not into reform initiatives that don’t have an impact on classrooms,” said Don Haddad, superintendent of St. Vrain Valley Schools.
The school-funding legislation has garnered the most attention this legislative session, but lawmakers are also debating dozens of other education measures.
Lawmakers have filed 41 public-education bills and 12 higher-education bills this legislative session, which ends May 7. Among those bills is a measure that would allow school districts to delay by a year the use of student performance on state tests as part of a teacher’s evaluation.
“Right now, there are really more questions than answers, and certainly another year allows us to work on finding the answers to questions that will help kids and move districts forward,” said Todd Devine, a third-grade teacher in the Poudre School District in Fort Collins, who supports the measure.
Zahira Torres: 303-954-1244, ztorres@denverpost.com or twitter.com/zahiratorresdp
Sampling of 2014 education bills:
House Bill 1292 (after Friday’s proposed changes): Known as the Student Success Act, gives school districts $110 million of no-strings-attached money to reduce the “negative factor,” $20 million for struggling early readers, $5 million for financial transparency, $40 million for infrastructure for full-day kindergarten, technology and charter facilities and $13 million for charter facilities.
House Bill 1118: Creates an Advanced Placement Incentives Pilot Program that gives rural school districts additional funding for offering AP courses. Rural districts would get $500 for each student who takes an AP course and an AP exam. Estimated cost: $753,101 in 2014-15 and $1.1 million in 2015-16.
House Bill 1182: Gives turnaround schools and struggling districts a year in which test scores on new state assessments will not count against them. School districts will be able to use other data to show improvement in the 2015-16 school year.
House Bill 1268: Would prevent a school district from placing a nonprobationary teacher who is displaced and cannot secure “mutual consent” on unpaid leave. The district must either assign the teacher to a position that has the same level of salary and benefits as the teacher would have earned if he or she had not been removed, or dismiss the teacher in compliance with statutorily required due process.
House Bill 1298: The Public School Finance Act increases base per-pupil funding to $6,121, reflecting the amount mandated to keep up with the 2.8 percent inflation rate. The bill includes an extra $17 million for public education.
House Bill 1175: Sets aside $50,000 to study and develop strategies to increase and improve the recruitment, preparation, development and retention of minority teachers in K-12 education.
Senate Bill 150: Expands the School Counselor Corps grant program to all middle and high schools in the state and increases funding for the program from $5 million to $10 million.
Senate Bill 124: Establishes a $2 million program that will issue grants to districts to help train leaders at turnaround schools.
Senate Bill 165: Allows local school boards to determine for the 2014-15 academic year what percentage, if any, of a teacher’s evaluation will be based on student academic growth. Current law requires school district boards of education to base at least 50 percent of educator evaluations on student academic growth, measured in part through statewide tests.