A study published on February 28, 2013 by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice broke down Colorado’s administrative bloat, and it ain’t pretty:

• Change in the Number of Students and Administrators and Other Non-Teaching Staff, FY 1992 to FY 2009:
  • Students – 38% increase
  • Administrators – 83% increase

• Annual Cost Savings if Administrators and Other Non-Teaching Staff Had Increased/Decreased at the Same Rate as Students from FY 1992 to FY 2009: $526,492,634.00

• Annual Salary Increases per Teacher if Non-Teaching Staff Had Increased/Decreased at the Same Rate as Students from FY 1992 to FY 2009: $10,813.00

• Ratio of Students to Non-Teaching Staff as Compared to Ratio of Students to Teachers, FY 2009:
  • Ratio of Students to Non-Teaching Staff – 15.20
  • Ratio of Students to Teachers – 16.80

• Number of Non-Teaching Staff in Excess of the Number of Teachers: 5,182

• Ratio of Students to Total Public School Staff, FY 2009: 8.00

In case, PeakNation™, the Friedman Foundation sounded a little conservative for your liking, know that these statistics were backed up by the National Center for Education Statistics.  In 2010 (the most recent data available), Colorado was the 15th “top-heaviest” state in the country with just 47.9% of staff as teachers.  For comparison, in 1990, we were the 21st most top-heavy state with 52.6% of staff that were teachers.

It’s worth noting that during this time period, computers were introduced as a way to improve efficiency in organizations.  Well, organizations except for Colorado’s education system, apparently.

At a time when families are struggling and companies throughout Colorado are forced to operate leaner, why is Colorado’s education administration ballooning?  And, why should hardworking families pay more out of their paychecks to support it?

Particularly intriguing was the category “other”, a catch-all for random spending, which includes everything from research to capital expenditures to cultural spending.  We also examined spending in 2002, projected the spending per capita to 2012 based on inflation, and compared to determine which categories were on target with inflation and which had expanded most rapidly.  The categories that had expanded far beyond expected were pensions (61% over inflation), health care (42%), protection (40%), general government (29%) and interest (30%).

It’s particularly interesting that Colorado appears to be spending so much more on interest payments.  This likely due to an increased amount of debt in Colorado’s capital structure.  Overall spending is up 13% after accounting for both population growth and inflation.

It’s interesting to note that while Democrats complain that lack of education spending is a problem, education spending is up 3%.  It’s true that it hasn’t gone up as much as spending on police and firefighters, but it has kept up with inflation and general population growth over the past ten years.

Legislators must make spending priorities.  If legislators have prioritized other areas for spending increases, it seems disingenuous to later complain about it and beg taxpayers for additional tax dollars to cover their inability to appropriately rank spending needs.

But just within the past few days Coloradans have been reminded why having the sunshine is so important. Witness the latest investigative report from 7News' John Ferrugia and Arthur Kane:

In a time of tight budgets, teacher layoffs and increased fees, school districts are still spending money on expensive meals, teacher parties and even gift cards, a CALL7 “You Paid For It” investigation found.

CALL7 Investigators reviewed check registers and credit card databases for the major metro school districts and found thousands of dollars spent on a public relations consultant, gift cards, staff parties and meals at top restaurants. While the totals would never fix the districts' budget deficits, the spending shows that administrators are not cutting potentially wasteful at the time many schools are cutting education resources.

Typical of the genre, the story features a couple “Aha” moments in which local school district administrators have a hard time trying to justify some questionable expenditures. Metro area voters who may have to decide a number of local school tax initiatives this fall might be none the wiser if not for such investigative work.

It's important then to remember that a 2010 law requiring significant online financial transparency from Colorado school districts really made this story possible. A local news agency conceivably could have used the Colorado Open Records Act to uncover some or all of the information featured in the report. However, it would be difficult to generate the “probable cause” needed to spend even more resources and man-hours on an investigation.

The Independence Institute was at the forefront of the call for school spending transparency in 2009 and in 2010. More recently, my former intern Devan Crean and I were able to shine the spotlight on how well (or how poorly) local K-12 agencies were complying with Colorado's Public School Financial Transparency Act. In the immediate aftermath of that report, we heard from several school districts eager to fix their shortcomings.

Let's be clear. The results of neither the 7News investigation nor our 2011 issue paper necessarily indicate some sort of concerted effort among local education agencies to hide their financial activities. Jeffco Public Schools, a district featured in the article for a concerning apparent conflict of interest, actually posted a searchable spending database before the 2010 law was adopted. While transparency may sometimes prevent problems from occurring, in large bureaucracies it often may only help to show the problem is there.

On the other hand, my colleague Amy Oliver has found evidence that indicates why some higher education officials have lobbied this year against transparency legislation. Nine days remain until the end of the legislative session, and HB 1252 finally is scheduled to be heard tomorrow by House Appropriations. The likelihood of both passing the House and speeding through the Senate at this point seems like a daunting challenge.

The fight to preserve and expand government sunshine is ongoing. In spite of setbacks, we need to keep urging Colorado's education transparency train forward to make some more progress. And soon. If you can't defend it, don't spend it!

Rather than throw in the towel on public policy, Senator King has announced his intention to keep fighting for the cause most near and dear to him: education.

In a statement, he added:

"I am disappointed that the Democrats intentionally grouped two senators together in El Paso County. I will not give them the satisfaction of watching close colleagues primary each other in the 2012 elections.

For this reason I will not seek re-election and will support our Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman in his election efforts in the new Senate 12 District. Bill is a good legislator and a close friend. I am looking forward to serving with him in the upcoming session.”

As Lynn Bartels notes over at The Spot, Senator King has been a leading voice on education issues for many years at the Capitol. He has also been a long-time leader in education reform outside politics, playing major roles, from principal to board member, at a number of charter schools in Colorado Springs.

If Democrats really cared about education outside political talking points, they wouldn't have "Mario-Mandered" Senator King out of his district. 

Thankfully for Colorado, Keith King won't let that stop him from continuing to fight to make schools in Colorado better for our children.

Class, thy name is Keith King.

From Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus,_New_Mexico, I learned the following:

Students from Columbus and Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua Mexico attend Columbus Elementary from pre-school up to sixth grade. Students then move on to attend Red Mountain Middle School (6-8) in Deming, NM. Hofacket Mid-High School (9-12), and Deming High School(9-12).^[6]

Deming Public Schools buses students residing in Mexico from the United States-Mexico border to Columbus Elementary .^[7]

Yet, our president tells us the border is as secure as ever!