Hick budget plan boosts K-12, colleges | EdNewsColorado

Colorado school districts would get an increase of $201.6 million in 2013-14 while higher education support would increase $30 million under the 2013-14 budget plan unveiled today by Gov. John Hickenlooper.

In percentage terms, the increases would amount to a 4.8 percent increase in all state K-12 spending and a 2.3 percent boost for state colleges and universities.

The current 2012-13 state budget includes $5.3 billion in state and local funding for K-12 year, with a state share of about $3 billion. The total amount kept average per-pupil funding flat at $6,474.24. Despite that, many school districts had to trim budgets this year because the funding didn?t fully cover rising costs.

State support of colleges and universities is about $500 million this year, plus an additional $100 million earmarked for financial aid. The governor is proposing a $5 million increase for financial aid in 2013-14.

Hickenlooper?s overall budget plan proposes a grand total of $21.9 billion in 2013-14 state spending, up 5.5 percent. Spending from the general fund, the state?s main tax-supported account, would be $8.1 billion, a 5 percent increase.

?The state?s financial position is markedly improved,? Hickenlooper wrote in his letter submitting the budget to the legislative Joint Budget Committee. ?Our plan reflects cautious optimism for Colorado?s economy and a prudent, sustainable approach to managing the state?s budget.?

State budget director Henry Sobanet told reporters during a morning briefing. ?We are just returning to the pre-recession peak in the general fund.? While the proposed budget includes increases for virtually every area of state spending, ?We can?t recover from the recession in one year,? Sobanet said.

Modest education increases had been expected since the quarterly state revenue forecasts were issued in later September. At that time Henry Sobanet, director of the Office of State Planning and Budgeting, said, ?We believe we?ll be able to accommodate inflation and enrollment in K-12 in a way the state hasn?t done in recent years.?

The proposed K-12 budget would be $31.7 million more than the amount required to cover inflation costs and enrollment growth, according to the governor?s letter. Average per-pupil funding would be $6,659 compared to $6,474 in the current year.

The governor is suggesting that school districts use $23.9 million to improve full-day kindergarten and preschool programs.

The K-12 increases will come mostly from the State Education Fund, a dedicated account that can be used only for schools. The expected surplus at the end of the 2012-13 budget year will be rolled into the fund, providing most of the cash for the 2013-14 increases. There will be an increase of only about $1 million in K-12 spending from the general fund.

First step in a long process

Release of the governor?s budget plan marks the public opening of a budgeting process that won?t wrap up until near the close of the 2013 legislative session next May.

Lots can happen between now and then to affect the final shape of the 2013-14 budget. The Nov. 6 election will determine which party controls the legislature ? or whether split control will continue. The outcome of the elections also will determine which individuals will sit in leadership positions, on the Joint Budget Committee and on the House and Senate education committees. Those lawmakers will have important voices in the budget process. Several education-savvy lawmakers ? including the prime sponsor of the 2012-13 school finance act ? have left the General Assembly because of term limits.

If Democrats take control at the Capitol, there could be pressure to increase K-12 funding more than Hickenlooper has proposed.

Two more sets of quarterly revenue forecasts, one in late December and one in late March, will give a better idea of whether there?s enough money to fund the governor?s budget ? or whether unexpected additional revenue can be devoted to education.

Uncertainties about the federal budget, including automatic cuts expected to hit in January unless Congress acts, also could affect the state budget.

Hickenlooper and education spending

Hickenlooper?s past budget proposals for K-12 and higher education have been substantially changed, not necessarily because lawmakers didn?t like them but because revenues improved somewhat between when he made his proposals and when the budgets were approved.

In February 2011, announcing his first budget as governor, Hickenlooper proposed cutting K-12 spending in 2011-12 by $332 million. (See story.)

That sent chills down the spines of state education leaders. The 2011 legislature was able to trim the cut to $227.5 million.

For 2012-13, the governor proposed an $89 million cut in total program funding, the combination of state and district funds used to pay basic school operating expenses. (See story.) Revenues improved a bit over the course of the 2012 legislative session, and lawmakers found enough money to keep average per-pupil funding stable.

Recent years hard for education

Total program funding for K-12 schools hit a high of nearly $5.6 million in 2009-10 and then dropped for two years before stabilizing in the current budget. State revenues shrank during the recession, and it was impossible to avoid cutting K-12 because schools consume more than 40 percent of the state general fund budget, which has to be balanced every year.

To make those cuts, the legislature adopted a narrower interpretation of Amendment 23 than had been used in the past. The amendment mandates spending increases based on enrollment on inflation, but the new interpretation applies that only to base education funding, not to the full amount. It?s estimated that the ?negative factor? has cost schools $1 billion since it was implemented.

The negative factor cut 16.05 percent from what full K-12 funding would have been this year. Even with Hickenlooper?s proposed increase, the 2013-14 negative factor will be 15.5 percent.

The state?s college and universities have experienced a double whammy over the last decade. Funding was cut in 2003-04 in the wake of the tech crash and then recovered slowly through 2007-08. But large cuts hit the next year because of the new recession and declining revenues.

Higher education has no A23-type constitutional protections, and colleges also have an outside source of money not available to school districts ? tuition. Raising tuition, of course, has the effect of shifting college costs from all taxpayers to individual families and students. Tuition now accounts for about 75 percent of state higher education revenues.

Source: http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2012/11/01/51433-hick-budget-plan-boosts-k-12-colleges

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