Coloradans have been waiting for the proposed changes in the way the state funds our education system. Most of the bill deals with how education funds are dispersed. But, these massive reforms to the state education fund come with a hefty price tag – estimates are at the one billion dollar plus mark.
On Friday, more than 25 ballot initiatives to pay for this effort were submitted to the legislature’s administrative office for consideration on the 2013 November ballot. All of the funding proposals depend on increasing state income tax percentages for most taxpayers.
Some of the initiatives rely on a flat tax increase across the board of .72%. Other initiatives rely on a tiered system of tax increases. The most punitive of the bunch would increase income taxes by .12% up to $50,000, then by .37% on incomes from $50,000 through $75,000, then by .87% from $75,000 through $100,000, by 1.37% from $100,000 through $200,000, and by 2.27% for income over $200,000.
Currently, Colorado’s state income tax rate resides at 4.63% of federally taxable income. This means that the new state income tax rates would be 4.75% up to $50,000, 5% from $50,000 through $75,000, 5.5% from $75,000 through $100,000, 6% from $100,000 through $200,000, and 6.7% for income over $200,000.
At 4.63%, Colorado’s state personal income tax is somewhere in the middle, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators. With a proposed highest rate at 6.7%, Colorado’s tax rate begins to look a little more like Delaware or Connecticut. The difference is that the tax rates in these two states start at about half of Colorado’s proposed tax rates.
Education reform is a buzz word that sounds like a great idea, but does this bill contain reforms that will actually improve outcomes or is this just another union pay off? And, can Colorado’s families afford a huge tax hike at a time when inflation on everyday goods is rising, housing costs are going up and we still have high unemployment?
As is true of all governmental enterprises in this day and age, in which governments are run as much or more for the benefit of their employees, and those who control them through bribery disguised as "fee" speech, than for their intended beneficiaries, the problem is not so much inadequate funds as inefficient and irrational spending priorities.
Cultural dysfunction and poor parenting burden public schools with too many nearly ineducable kids who consume disproportionate resources and, as the result of unfunded mandates, consume massive administrative and teacher time, and prevent the hiring of adequate professional teaching staff.
Thanks to excessive legalism, the hands of administrators and staff are tied when it comes to maintaining control of their classrooms, so that the least able or well-behaved consume too much of a teacher's time and energy.
The portion of school budgets devoted to overhead, administration, and pension and other benefit overhang is ENORMOUS, but normally concealed from exposure lest the flat-out lie that budgeting more for "education" will actually result in more time and resources being devoted to teaching be exposed.
I think it's safe to assume Johnston, though undoubtedly a bright and well meaning fellow, is a tool of the teachers' unions and other defenders of the status quo.
TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY!
Douglas County…proof everyday that $$ are not the answer.
If spending more money per student were the answer Denver would have the highest graduation rate in the metro area, not the lowest and Aurora would the the second highest, not the second lowest.
I just listened to Senator Johnston give a presentation to the DAC here in Douglas County. He was generally good about answering questions, but stumbled a bit when asked about turning school funding back to the districts (an increase in property taxes locally, with a corresponding decrease in income taxes). He didn't convince anybody that this was anything more than a wealth and power redistribution scheme. In Douglas County, we elected a very conservative Board of Education for a reason. We want local control.
Wait, wait, wait… we passed Amendment 23 that gave us a inflation pus 1% increase in education funding for 10 years. And test scores didn't go up AT ALL! Now we are to dump up to 1 billion into the system that hasn't netted any additional success? I smell payback to the unions.
This isn't reform. It's just more reallocation of wealth- it's the self-fulfilling prophecy of need by the left.