Colorado Financial Adequacy Study

Image

Policymakers recommended that the Colorado Department of Education examine the costs necessary to adequately provide Colorado students with a thorough and uniform public education. The Department has contracted with AIR to conduct this research.

AIR researchers conducted an analysis of Colorado’s education spending. The resulting report: 

• Describes how funding is distributed across schools under the existing funding system;
• Determines the adequacy of current student outcomes and the relationship between student outcomes and student need characteristics;
• Identifies the cost of achieving a target student outcome level for each school in the state, with costs varying based on levels of student need, school or district context, and geographic cost of living differences; and
• Estimate components of a new funding formula (base funding and weights for additional funds to address specific needs).

The report also includes findings from a public survey and discussions in a series of virtual town halls.