Where Do Our School Dollars Go?

This is an informative report from the Common Sense Institute. This is an understandable presentation of the state of enrollment, revenue and expenditures for PreK-12 education in Colorado.

Some takeaways from this report:

Funding for PK-12 education in Colorado did not suffer major cuts due to drops in local and state funding, but federal relief funds will soon be gone.
A greater proportion of school district spending is taking place away from classrooms ● There is a downward trend in the share of dollars being spent on instruction, and more specifically, on teacher salaries. Operations, school and district administration, and support for students all saw increases as a share of total spending from 2011 to 2021. ● The share of total spending being allocated to instruction, which covers teacher salaries, has decreased on average across the state between 2011 and 2021, from 45.4 percent to 39.1 percent.
In an ill omen for the future, the steepest enrollment declines statewide between 2020 and 2022 were at the early childhood and elementary grades.

How will the district use this information moving forward in school consolidation decisions or will they heed this information at all?