(The Center Square) – Colorado is pouring more money into its public schools even as the system serves fewer students and teacher pay continues to lag.
This is according to a new report from the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank.
The K-12 Spending Spotlight found Colorado now spends over $3,600 on pension debt and other employee benefits for every student it serves. At the same time, the state’s average teacher salary is now 7.6% less than it was in 2020.
Aaron Garth Smith, co-author of the report and director of education reform at Reason Foundation, spoke with The Center Square in an exclusive interview. Smith highlighted some of the report’s Colorado findings.
“Public school funding in Colorado has shot up by nearly 38% to $18,130 per student over the last couple of decades,” Smith said. “But despite this increase…student outcomes have gotten worse — 35% of fourth graders and 26% of eighth graders are reading below a basic level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.”
Enrollment is another factor the study looked at, and Colorado ranked eighth best nationally for growth from 2002 to 2023, coming in at 17.3%.
Yet that growth has not been consistent in the past few years. In fact, Colorado ranked 10th worst nationally for its drop in enrollment from 2020-2023, which was down 4.6%. Hawaii had the lowest drop in enrollment in that period, dropping 6%.
Overall, Colorado was just one of 15 states to have a drop in enrollment of over 4%.
While the state is continuing to lose K-12 public school students, the test scores of the remaining students are also dropping.
Additionally, even though schools are receiving record amounts of funding per student, more and more of that funding is going to pension debt and other employee benefits. In total, Colorado spent $3,616 per student on K-12 employee benefits. That is up 156% from 2002 and 25% from 2020, ranking Colorado one of the top states in the nation for the largest growth.
The study also found that the average teacher salary in Colorado has declined significantly in recent years. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Colorado’s average teacher salary dropped by 7.6%, when adjusted for inflation. That was the 10th highest decline nationally.
“Policymakers need to ask why Colorado’s public schools aren’t getting a good return on investment on taxpayer dollars and why teacher paychecks are down despite record funding levels,” Smith said. “These questions are more pressing than ever as parents look for other options.”
This is not a new trend, though. Looking back even further, from 2002 to 2022, the average teacher salary in Colorado fell by 9.1%. That ranked Colorado’s decline the 21st highest nationally.
Colorado isn’t the only state with a K-12 education system that is struggling, though, the report found. Smith said there are many reasons for this.
“Public schools aren’t focused on academics, increasing non-teaching staff such as social workers, psychologists, and counselors by nearly 23% between 2002 and 2023, even though enrollment only grew by 4.1%,” he said. “Teacher pension debt is also a problem. Spending on employee benefits — which includes pension costs, health insurance and other expenses — grew by over 81% between 2002 and 2023, due primarily to accumulated unfunded pension liabilities.”
Smith added that the report’s findings highlight that more money is not the solution to America’s, or Colorado’s, K-12 education woes.
“Public schools don’t need more money,” he said. “They need to reduce inefficiencies and spend money on things that actually matter.”
