Some area teachers aren’t taking the summer off. Instead, they’re seeking support for the new school finance act.
Initiative 22, a $950 million ballot proposal, would increase the state income tax to bolster education for children in preschool through high school. Colorado ranks in the low 40s in nearly every ranking of per-pupil funding by U.S. states.
Nancy Dickerson Shaw, the Cortez Education Association president who is also on the Colorado Education Association Board of directors, Montezuma-Cortez School District board members Tuesday evening that the new school finance act is a significant legislative overhaul and update to fund public education, but it is contingent on voter approval.
The measure would bring more than $4 million annually to Re-1 alone, she said in a Journal interview.
“Senate Bill 213 changes the state’s funding formula,” Shaw told the school board. “As we know, any time the legislature passes a bill to increase funding, it has to go before the voters.”
“We need to get signatures, so this can be on the ballot,” Shaw said. “The petitions are due July 26, so tell your friends and neighbors.”
Under the revised finance structure that Senate Bill 213 establishes, K-12 education would receive a $900 million boost in operating funding to be paid for by an income tax increase administered in two levels. The current state income tax rate is 4.63 percent for all earners. Initiative 22 would increase the rate to 5 percent for those who earn $75,000 or less annually and step up to 5.9 percent for those earning more than $75,000.
A November vote is an attempt to approve funding under Senate Bill 213, a school finance act that passed through the state Legislature this year on a party-line vote. The bill states that the new finance act will be repealed unless a ballot measure funding the reforms is not approved by November 2017.
The public vote is required by the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, an amendment to the state constitution passed in 1992, which requires all tax increases to be approved by voters. Since then, statewide tax measures have faced a steep uphill climb; only one — a 2004 increase on cigarette taxes — has passed. Among the failed measures is one that would have raised state income and sales taxes rates to 199 levels to fund education.
Before any vote can happen, a measure must earn its way onto the ballot via petitions. Initiative 22 is a first shot at that.
Shaw said that the Colorado Education Association is working with a broad coalition of business leaders to collect signatures. Statewide, a group called the Colorado Commits to Kids campaign is hoping to gather 700 signatures from the 11 school districts in southwest Colorado. Teacher volunteers from around the state are circulating the petitions door to door, at summer festivals and house parties, and 18 area teachers are paraticipating.
Colorado Commits to Kids’ message is, “Out of everything that government does, one of the most important is providing an education for Colorado’s children. That’s the commitment we as a state make to future generations — that we will give them the skills and tools to succeed and make a better life. That’s a commmitment we need to keep.”
The measure already faces opposition from small government and anti-tax advocates, who also are critical of the CEA’s involvement.
Dickerson Shaw has an answer to that.
“Let’s get it on the ballot so voters can make the decision.”