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KSJD Newscast - September 21st, 2015

  • Area school administrators dismayed about Colorado Supreme Court ruling on "negative factor" school funding.
  • Citizens propose new rules for outdoor events to Montezuma County Commissioners.

Area school administrators are expressing dismay over a Colorado Supreme Court ruling Monday that it is not unconstitutional for the legislature to cut school funding in a way that circumvents a constitutional amendment passed in 2000. The 4-to-3 decision means legislators can continue to use a formula known as “the negative factor” to reduce the monies school districts would otherwise receive under Amendment 23. Cortez Re-1 School Superintendent Alex Carter tells KSJD he was in Denver Monday attending a meeting about accountability with the Colorado Department of Education and everyone there was “hugely disappointed” by the ruling. Carter says it appears the Supreme Court “wants to support low funding for education” and he asks how the state’s long-term health can be bolstered by “a sub-par educational system, which is what we have now.” In an email, Dolores County School Superintendent Bruce Hankins tells KSJD that  the effects of the negative factor “are devastating on schools, especially small rural schools” and that it reduces the Dolores County district’s budget by 15 to 20 percent, or $400,000, annually. Hankins says, “When you cut that amount from a budget you have to cut people” because they have already  cut administrative, secretarial, custodial, and supply budgets. The Denver Post reports that since 2010, the state has slashed nearly $1 billion from education spending using the negative factor, and for the 2014-15 fiscal year, it cut some 13 percent from nearly every district.

In other news, a group of citizens presented the Montezuma County commissioners on Monday with a set of new proposed regulations for managing outdoor events. The idea came from the failed Bong-a-Thon, a cannabis-smoking festival that was proposed but rejected for rural Montezuma County in late July. On Monday, citizens said the county’s high-impact permit process doesn’t fully address one-time outdoor events such as concerts and festivals. The county Planning and Zoning Commission will be given the suggested rules at its meeting Thursday night for review.
 

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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