Educators, lawmakers hold Taylor Swift-themed rally to celebrate funding

DENVER (KDVR) — Educators and state lawmakers are celebrating what they say is a big win for classrooms across Colorado. A longstanding tool that balanced the budget but reduced funding for schools will finally be paid off this year, but lawmakers say there is still work to be done.

Lawmakers and educators celebrated the buydown of the so-called budget stabilization factor, or BS factor for short, with a Taylor Swift-themed rally — finding common ground in Colorado education and the year the pop megastar was born.

“It is such a thrill to finally say to the BS factor: We are never, ever, ever getting back together,” said state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an educator, quoting one of Swift’s popular songs. “It is a huge deal.”

Educators, state lawmakers and even some Swifties celebrated the plan, which buys down the BS factor in the state’s school finance formula that reduces money for school districts.

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The bipartisan group of supporters celebrated the state being able to enter into a new era with fully funded classrooms — an estimated funding increase of $15,000 per classroom. Lawmakers say buying down the factor is a great start, but they need to do more.

“It’s not just the budget stabilization factor I want to talk about today,” state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer said. “For the last three years, my colleague Senator Zenzinger and I have been fighting to include hundreds and millions of dollars in special education funding for our kids!”

Lawmakers are already looking ahead to what needs to happen next for teachers and students.

“I think they are going feel a little bit of relief according to the formula,” Zenzinger said. “But our point here today is just because we are going to fully fund our schools according to the formula, that does not actually mean that we are fully funded. That just means that we are taking our funding back to 1989 levels.”

Lawmakers said they want to continue to work on improving teacher pay as their next priority.

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