Consequences of No on C and D Colorado

[donco6]

I was just at a Financial Policies and Procedures meeting with other school district finance directors, and was told that if C and D don't pass, anticipate an 8 to 10% cut in current year program funding. For me, that's about $3,000,000. That's an entire school budget.

How can they do it? They said that a question to the Attorney General by Keith King (R-CO Springs) a few years ago decreed that, though Amendment 23 protects K-12 funding, the legislature has the right to tinker with elements within the finance act that can reduce our funding.

Obviously, this would be devestating. We cannot possibly make cuts like this without impacting staff. It's just too big.

:scared:

[JAbuchan08]

1. Honestly I think that the "no" people have an uphill battle

they're trying to portray it as 'government taking your money,' but its not 'taking your money' if the voters vote to give it away.

BTW I think that the people who appear in the 'no on C&D' advertisementsd look really coached - except for that one advertisement where they're all responding to leading questions.

On edit: I know that the proposal is forestalling future tax-cuts not increasing taxes.

[donco6]

2. I hope so.

I just saw that survey in the Post this weekend and it doesn't look so hot. I think I'll just move to Canada if it fails. I can always go back to teaching science.

[JAbuchan08]

3. I hadn't seen that poll

Colorado political news has Yes slightly ahead.
http://coloradopols.com/archives/2005/10/yes_on_cd_sligh.html

[pointsoflight]

4. The universities are planning on 30%+ increases in tuition...

And that's actually being generous on their parts, since the expected budget cuts would actually require as much as a 70% increase to recoup the lost money.

This would be a devasting blow to keeping higher ed in our state accessible to lower income families. Absolutely devastating.

By all accounts, a failure of Ref C would create a situation in which the state would cease to pay for even a penny of higher education within 10 years, and some even think it could be within five years. Although our state would never willingly although state colleges and universities to become private (too much already invested), the cost to attend these institutions would have to rise to the level of private schools. It'd be unavoidable. The costs to deliver a college degree is not going down, and the money to cover these costs will have to come from somewhere. If it doesn't come from the state, then it'll have to come from students and their families.