Civil Rights Case Challenging Colorado’s Ability to Fund All of Its Schools Adequately and Equitably Begins

A state District Court in Denver, Colorado is currently hearing arguments in an educational equity case, Lobato v. State of Colorado.

The case, which originated in 2005, is the latest to challenge a state to fund all of its schools adequately and equitably so that every single child is getting the highest quality education.

The Lobato case was filed by 14 school districts in Colorado and parents and children across the state to challenge the constitutionality of the state’s school finance system. The defendants are the state of Colorado, the State Board of Education, the State Commissioner of Education, and the governor’s office. The suit argued that the state’s school finance system violated two clauses in the Colorado State Constitution, including one that requires the state to provide a “thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state, wherein all residents of the state, between the ages of six and twenty-one years, may be educated gratuitously.”

Colorado spends significantly less per student than the national average.  The state spent nearly $2,000 less per student for the 2008-2009 school year and in the years since the recession’s impact on the state’s budget has made things even worse.

As a result, Colorado’s students are suffering in many ways. Too many attend schools that are not preparing them for college and too many attend crumbling and unsafe schools because the state is behind in renovations and updates. In addition, the cuts have forced many school districts to operate 4-day school weeks – a higher percentage are doing this than in any other state.

In February 2010, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) joined the case, focusing on “irrational and inadequate funding for at-risk students and English Language Learner students.”

“The future is bleak for Colorado. Children’s learning is being strangled by a funding system that is irrational and unresponsive to the increasing reforms imposed by the State,” said MALDEF Southwest Regional Counsel David Hinojosa. “We are left with a system that forces districts to choose between serving the needs of Peter and Pablo and not only does Colorado deserve better, but the Constitution so commands.”