Statistics
Colorado Ranks
- 50th in teacher wage competitiveness—compares teachers to non-teachers with similar education, experience and hours worked (Education Law Center, Great Ed national comparison chart)
- 49th in number of novice teachers in the classroom (Education Week, October 2016)
- 47th in per pupil spending change between 2002-03 and 2012-13 (National Center for Education Statistics)
- 44th in math gap (Ed Week, 2016 Quality Counts, 2013 4th grade NAEP scale score)
- 43rd in % of Taxable Resources Spent on Education (Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts)
- 42nd in spending on education adjusted for regional cost differences (Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts)
- 42nd in poverty gap (Ed Week, 2016 Quality Counts, 2013 data)
- 41st in per-pupil spending adjusted for regional cost differences (Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts)
- 41st in pupil-teacher ratio (National Center for Education Statistics, 2014-15)
- 40th in per pupil spending (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012-13 data, Colorado vs National Per Pupil Spending)
- 39th in reading gap (Ed Week, 2016 Quality Counts, 2013 4th grade NAEP scale score)
- 39th out of the 44 states that provide state support for preschool/ECE. (National Institute for Early Education Research)
Note: The above stats are based on most current information available. Data are lagging indicators due to auditing.
Only Florida reports a higher proportion of novice teachers in the classroom (Education Week, October 2016).

The Great Education Colorado Index
- $2,703 Amount below the national average that Colorado spends per pupil (adjusted for regional cost differences) [Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts]
- $4,332 Amount Colorado spends per pupil below Nebraska (adjusted for regional cost differences) [Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts]
- $8,037 Amount Colorado spends per pupil below Wyoming (adjusted for regional cost differences) [Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts]
- $1,700 Amount Colorado spends per pupil below Kansas (adjusted for regional cost differences) [Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts]
- $701 Amount Colorado spends per pupil below New Mexico (adjusted for regional cost differences) [Ed Week, 2019 Quality Counts]
Stats on School Districts with 4-day School Week
- 50% of Colorado districts (89 out of 178 school districts) are on or have some schools on 4-day school weeks.
- Over 50% growth in 4-day school weeks since 2005-06.
- The number of schools on 4-day school weeks has more than doubled since 2000.
Source: The Four-Day School Week Manual, Colorado Department of Education, August 2016

The Graph That Says It All

Half a million dollars more for a school of 250 — if Colorado were just getting a ‘C’ …
The falling red line on this graph shows how Colorado’s per pupil funding compares to the national average from 1972-2013. It shows that, as of 2013 (the most recent data available), Colorado spent $2,070 less per pupil than the national average, continuing a 30-year slide in national competitiveness.
How did we get here? The downward trend started with the 1982 passage of the Gallagher Amendment and deepened after the 1992 passage of TABOR. Even with a slight increase following Amendment 23, Colorado continued dropping to new lows relative to the national average, as the legislature began addressing the mandatory minimum increases required by Amendment 23 as a ceiling, rather than a floor.
The national publication Education Week calculates that, when adjusted for regional cost differences, the true gap between per pupil funding in Colorado and the national average is closer to $2,500 per student.
And now, with a bit more detail . . .
In the 1980s, Colorado invested more per student than the national average, even during the energy bust. In 1982, Colorado voters passed the Gallagher Amendment (the vertical green line on the graph) – which started eroding the local property tax base by continually reducing the assessment rate (the percent of the value of a home that is taxed). From 1982-1992, school districts were able to somewhat stabilize local revenues by floating mill rates up.
In 1992, the voters passed TABOR (the vertical orange line), which took away the ability of districts to float their mill rates without a vote of the people and limited the state’s ability to backfill the hole left by declining property tax rates (because of a 6% spending limit imposed on spending from the State General Fund). The result: Colorado’s tangle of restrictive budget laws prevented the legislature from even keeping up with inflation in per pupil funding.
The good news is that in 2000, Colorado voters passed Amendment 23 to plug hemorrhaging P-12 budgets (the vertical purple line). Estimates indicate that if Colorado did not pass Amendment 23, average spending per student would have dipped down an additional $500-1,000. At the time it passed, Amendment 23 was intended to be a floor and not a ceiling.
The bad news is that since 2000, the legislature treated Amendment 23 as a ceiling. More bad news: Amendment 23’s annual mandated per pupil increase of the Consumer Price Index + 1% failed to keep up with the steeper inflation in the kinds of things that school districts buy like health care, pensions, and energy.
And the worst news is that, starting in 2009, the legislature reinterpreted Amendment 23 and established the Negative Factor—allowing deep cuts to schools. As a result of that reinterpretation, schools are currently being funded at a level of $831 million below what the proper interpretation of Amendment 23 requires.