A message from Superintendent Chris King - Possible statewide cuts to K-12 funding
Congratulations to board vice president Lesley Smith on her reelection and to Jennie Belval and Tom Miers on each of their elections to the school board November 3. I look forward to December 1 when we will first honor Patti Smith and Jean Paxton for their service. That will be followed by a special meeting where the election winners will be sworn in and board officers chosen for the 2009-2011 board term.
Governor Bill Ritter testified today before the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC). As was stated in the media recently, the governor is advocating a $260 million statewide cut to K-12 funding. He is proposing this cut over this fiscal year and next. For this fiscal year, the governor recommends a statewide rescission of $110 million that was appropriated to K-12 for this fiscal year but held in a fiscal emergency reserve. The remaining cut of $150 million would come from the 2010-2011 state budget.
First, I remind you that BVSD’s share of the $110 million statewide rescission would be $3.8 million. As required by law, we have held those funds in reserve.
Second, the 2010-2011 $150 million proposed cut to state government’s K-12 budget by Governor Ritter is estimated by our budget office to be a cut of more than $5 million to BVSD for the next fiscal year which begins July 1, 2010.
If the governor’s proposal is accepted by the Colorado General Assembly, BVSD’s funding over two-years (2009-2011), as expected under Amendment 23, will be reduced by $7 million. At the invitation of the governor’s staff, BVSD Chief Financial Officer Leslie Stafford attended a staff preview and briefing in the governor’s office on November 9. In that meeting, Governor Ritter’s staff emphasized the following points:
- The $260 million cut is really an additional $150 million cut because of the previously accounted-for $110 million rescission.
- This cut to the factors does not, according to the governor’s staff, violate Amendment 23. The Ritter administration, based upon legal analysis, believes that Amendment 23 clearly protects only per pupil revenue and categoricals; not the factors.
- K-12 was the “cut of last resort.” All other cost-cutting measures were run through administration budget models before resorting to the “last pot” of K-12 money.
- Holding the statewide K-12 cut for 2010-2011 to $150 million is dependent upon proposed cuts to business and agricultural tax exemptions and credits totaling $132 million. To the degree that this effort falls short, more dollars will need to be taken from K-12 funding next fiscal year. Under this plan, every $11 million of these exemptions not eliminated by the legislature equals a funding cut to BVSD of approximately $340,000.
I bring this news to you to emphasize a message that I have been publicly stating for some time. That message is that BVSD cannot wait for state government to address its declining support for public education. We must join together as a community and shape our own financial destiny – at least for the next few years. With that need in mind, I have begun the planning process for a Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Committee that will include both internal parent and staff stakeholders and external stakeholders from the business and nonprofit sectors of our district wide community. I will speak in greater detail soon about this important group that will advise me as staff and I work to prepare a budget for next fiscal year that addresses:
- The inescapable need for prioritized cuts;
- Our continued commitment to the attainment of the school board’s five-year goals in academic achievement, school climate and equity; and
- The need to engage our community in a serious discussion of how best BVSD locally meets the challenge of declining state support.
This will not be easy, but it must be done and it must be done this year in order to ensure our district’s ongoing commitment to excellence and equity.