A recent deep dive into Colorado’s education data to analyze revenue, spending, staffing, enrollment, and academic performance trends confirms the numbers that most people already have a gut feeling about. Not everything is going well at our school.

There are some puzzling aspects of how taxpayer money is collected and spent. Especially given the consistently low grades of students.

While I commend the entire “Dollars and Data” report from the Common Sense Institute to readers of the Denver Gazette, I would like to highlight a few points that stood out when I examined the current state of affairs.

The most jarring findings center around administrative bloat in Colorado’s public school districts. The percentage of total spending allocated to education, which primarily covers teacher salaries, has declined on average statewide from 45.4% to 39.1% over the past decade.

Simply put, this means less money to pay the people who spend five days a week teaching your children.

Where does that money go instead? Looking back over the last 20 years, it’s clear that the bulk of that money has landed as far away from the classroom as possible. Between 2000 and 2022, the number of central office managers increased by a whopping 132%.

Over the same period, the number of principals increased by 73%. And teachers? increased by only 36%.

The increase in administration can be attributed, at least in part, to the increase in student numbers. But over the same period, Colorado’s public school enrollment increased by only 25%.

It’s clear when you look at how districts allocate resources. For example, in the last 14 years, state funding per student has increased by 47%. Meanwhile, the average teacher salary he increased by 27%. Despite the continued increase in funding received by school districts, there has not been a comparable rise in teacher salaries, undermining the ability of schools to recruit and retain teachers.

Something is seriously wrong here. We all need to find out the truth. Research has shown that teacher turnover is higher where salaries are lower.

That’s hardly surprising, but it makes a compelling argument for reducing the administrative burden and directing some of those resources toward teacher salaries. This is especially true in the lowest parts of the state, the eastern plains and southwestern Colorado.

It would be encouraging if increased central office burden correlated with a more intelligent and effective approach to educating students. It doesn’t show that you are getting your money’s worth. And that’s her second big point that jumped at me.

By now most of us know that reading well by the end of the third grade is a major indicator of future school success and thus the ability to live sustainably. Statewide, only 41% of third graders read at grade level.

This bodes ill for the future of 60% of the state’s young students. Studies show that students who are not literate enough by the end of third grade face major obstacles to catching up. Mathematics scores are similarly low, with only 39% of third graders achieving grade-level grades.

Unless we turn this around quickly, it will become increasingly difficult to justify higher per-student state spending and local property taxes to fund a dysfunctional system. Unfortunately, there are few rays of hope on the horizon.

This leads us to the third point worth noting from the report. Thanks to the federal government’s generosity in providing pandemic relief funds to states and school districts, the state’s education system weathered the storm with funding levels in place.

Colorado received $2.5 billion in COVID relief funds for public education. This should help the student recover from pandemic-related learning losses, but these funds he will have to use up by the end of 2024. We hope the funds will be used judiciously and not used to create long-term financial commitments. Otherwise, districts will be shocked when funds dry up and they face a completely avoidable out-of-pocket deficit.

Two years from now, some will inevitably denounce the end of this extraordinary federal subsidy as a drastic budget cut. But no, it’s just the expiration of the well-advertised temporary funding.

By then, Colorado schools can and should embark on a course correction if education leaders use this valuable data to drive better decision-making.

Jason Gaulden is a partner at Denver-based Oak Rose Group. Oak Rose Group is a strategic consulting firm specializing in education, workforce development and economic mobility. He is also an Education Fellow at the Common Sense Institute, which conducts research on Colorado policies, initiatives, and proposed legislation. Golden holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.