The second regular session of the Colorado General Assembly convened Wednesday, January 11. The state budget in general and school finance in particular will play a major role in our legislators’ deliberations even more so than in recent sessions.

 

The Denver District Court in December decided that the state legislature has, for a number of years, failed in its constitutional duty to fund a “thorough and uniform” statewide system of public education. I hope that all 100 legislators will overcome partisanship to address the far reaching implications of the court’s ruling. A good place to begin would be to legislatively determine and establish just what constitutes the benchmarks of “thorough and uniform” funding of Colorado’s 178 school districts. The decision by the governor and a narrow majority of the State Board of Education to appeal the district court judge’s ruling is not unexpected but should not delay a legislative determination of what is meant by “thorough and uniform.”

 

BVSD’s legislative agenda is in place and I have met individually with most of those state senators and representatives whose districts overlap with BVSD. Those have been valuable discussions.

 

We have an exceptional lobbying team at the State Capitol that, along with board legislative liaisons Laurie Albright and Lesley Smith and legislative director Briggs Gamblin, I am looking forward to working with closely in 2012. I will keep you posted on developments.