New money for public education in Colorado should inspire higher goals, report says

Colorado will have new state leadership and new money for public schools next year, a rare opportunity to set higher goals for educating the state’s students, a new report says.

The 31-page report released Wednesday by the Keystone Policy Center takes a sweeping look at the state of public education in Colorado before Gov.-elect Phil Weiser takes office in January. Thanks to Colorado voters’ approval of both Proposition NN and Amendment 87, state leaders will be armed with billions of dollars in new long-term funding, setting off a debate over how it should be spent.

Proposition NN, which will send money earmarked for state taxpayer refunds to Colorado public schools, is expected to generate about $330 million in its first year to increase teacher pay, cut class sizes and invest in early childhood programs.

Amendment 87, which will replace Colorado’s flat income tax with a system that will raise taxes on high earners, will result in an estimated $2 billion annually for public schools, childcare and healthcare.

The report paints a picture of a public education system that has found measurable success in preparing students for college and careers in some parts of the state but has also failed to get the majority of students on track with proficient reading and math skills.

It’s what the report calls “a story of both modest progress and unfinished work.” Students have made academic gains in several areas and high school graduation rates have continued to improve. At the same time, state standardized test results show continued struggles among many students to reach grade-level expectations in math and reading, with students living in poverty and students of color largely trailing behind their peers. And Colorado as a whole has lost some of its academic edge when compared with other states, according to the report.

Now is the time to take a closer look at what Colorado expects its students to learn and how state education leaders evaluate success, said Van Schoales, senior policy director for the Keystone Policy Center.

“I think the governor plays obviously an incredibly important role (in education),” Schoales told The Colorado Sun. “They have the bully pulpit to lead and I think that matters a lot. I think setting goals, highlighting places where things are working and directing support in one way or another with the assistance of the commissioner to those places and working collaboratively with districts and school leaders can make a huge difference.”

A system racked by challenges

Colorado public schools have faced a mounting set of challenges in recent years, including enrollment drops heavily influenced by a decline in birth rates and a surge of students with more serious learning needs.

Compared with the composition of students in the 2018-19 school year, public schools educate greater percentages of students living in poverty, kids with disabilities and students of color, according to the report.

In Cherry Creek, for instance, the percentage of low-income students jumped to 38% during the 2025-26 school year from 29% in 2015-16. In Falcon District 49 near Colorado Springs, the percent of low-income students reached 42% during the 2025-26 school year, up from 35% in 2015-16.

Figuring out how to meet the growing needs of students is only becoming harder amid budget constraints, teacher turnover and the trend of four-day school weeks, according to the report. 

Colorado spends about $1,700 less per student than the national average. Turnover hit 15.7% at the start of the 2025-26 school year and more than a quarter of open positions were staffed by long-term substitutes, retirees, teachers getting an alternative license and others cleared by the state to teach in an emergency capacity. And most Colorado districts operate four-day school weeks, even as students on a four-day schedule on average don’t make as much academic progress as students attending school five days a week.

“We have an enormous level of human capital resources,” Schoales said. “We’re among the most educated states in the country, and I think that we need to figure out how to capitalize on that so that our kids are reflective of our adults.”

Meanwhile, many students continue to show signs of struggle in their attempts to grasp reading and math, and longtime gaps between different groups of students have hardly closed.

State data from last year’s Colorado Measures of Academic Success exams — Colorado’s state standardized test — pointed to fewer than half of Colorado students being able to read at grade level. Test results indicated that 44.7% of kids in grades 3-8 demonstrated proficiency in reading, down from 45.8% of students who met grade-level reading benchmarks before the pandemic, the report notes.

Reading challenges are higher for kids living in poverty — 26.5% of low-income students in grades 3-8 met state expectations in reading during last year’s test, compared with 58.8% of more affluent students.

Math and science pose even greater challenges for elementary and middle schoolers. The percentage of students who reached grade-level expectations in math increased on last year’s CMAS exam — 37.3% of students, up from 34.7% of students in 2019. Still, that means that fewer than 4 in 10 students in grades 3-8 have a solid grasp of math skills.

More students living in poverty hit grade-level targets in math — 19.4% last year compared with 18.1% in 2019 — but overall proficiency remains low.

In science, 36.1% of fifth graders, 35.4% of eighth graders and 24.8% of 11th graders achieved grade-level benchmarks on last year’s science CMAS assessment.

The report also shows that low-income students, Black students and Latino students who are already behind their classmates are making progress at a slower pace. 

That suggests those students “are unlikely to be closing gaps and may be falling further behind,” the report states.

The report urges state leaders to develop clear goals and provide proven interventions in the grade levels and subjects where students struggle most, including middle school reading, high school math and science. 

It’s also critical for the state to monitor students lagging behind to better understand if they’re progressing enough to meet state standards, the report notes.

A disconnect between school ratings and students’ scores

The way Colorado defines success in schools is worth another look because of “mixed signals” and confusion in the current system of school accountability, the report notes, citing major inconsistencies in data collected by the state.

One example of mismatches: Colorado’s four-year high school graduation rate has continued to climb, hitting 85.6% in 2025, a nearly 5-percentage-point gain from graduation rates before the pandemic. Steady improvements in graduation rates going back to the class of 2022 have been an encouraging sign to state education leaders.

But other data raises questions about whether students are ready for life after graduation. SAT results show that only about 60% of 11th grade students meet reading expectations and only about a third demonstrate proficiency in math. So while most students graduate on time, the report notes, not all of them have mastered reading and math.

It’s also hard to understand what a high school diploma means, the report states, since the State Board of Education and state Education Department give districts the flexibility to gauge whether a student is ready to graduate. 

Under the state’s graduation guidelines, districts can assess whether a student is ready by using everything from SAT scores to Advanced Placement exams to industry certificates and capstone projects. That makes graduation guidelines “close to meaningless as a common standard,” the report says.

The report also says that Colorado’s minimum graduation requirements aren’t rigorous enough and give districts control over “something that should demonstrate universal readiness.”

The state’s approach in grading schools raises other questions about whether a school’s rating is a true measure of student performance, according to the report.

Schools are graded through the state’s School Performance Framework, largely using state test outcomes, assigning different ratings with colors. The highest rating is “performance” and schools that receive them are referred to as green schools. The lowest performing schools are rated as “turnaround,” marked by red.

State data shows that in preliminary 2026 school ratings, 65% of public schools, including charter schools, received the top rating, a jump from 54% in 2022, despite no significant boosts in proficiency in subjects like reading.

But in 146 “green schools,” fewer than 1 in 3 students are meeting grade-level reading and writing benchmarks.

A School Accountability Task Force convened by the legislature through legislation passed in 2023 has put forth recommendations to try to improve the way that Colorado measures school quality.

“What do we think is important in this state?” Schoales said. “We have standards, but I think it’s easy to get lost in all of that. There’s a pretty big disconnect between what we say is a ‘good school’ and how kids are doing.”

Where do we go from here?

It’s not all bad news for Colorado schools — far from it.

There are bright spots where schools are finding ways to help students make significant leaps in their learning, the report notes. Identifying those schools and paying attention to the strategies they use to get through to students should be a top priority as Weiser takes office and as state leaders start conversations around how to allocate funding from Proposition NN and Amendment 87, Schoales said.

“I’d be cognizant of where things are working, both in Colorado and in other states,” he said, “and I’d be cognizant of building upon those things and working with educational leaders in those places to build on the good work and also work with those folks that are wanting to improve.”

Among districts making gains are five cited in the report where schools, even with many students living in poverty, are outperforming others across the state: Las Animas School District RE-1, Denver Public Schools, Delta County Joint District No. 50, Adams 12 Five Star School District and Pueblo County School District 70.

Along with tuning into what those districts are doing, Schoales suggests pulling inspiration from other states, like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, that have drawn national attention for dramatically improving literacy.

Schoales said Colorado has “really great starting points” to help more students excel, including Colorado’s Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act. While the READ Act uses some of the same tactics to teach reading, with science-based curriculum and mandated professional development for educators, Schoales said there is more work to be done. 

“Current outcomes are not inevitable,” the report states. “Many more students can leave school prepared for what comes next.”