Special Legislative Report

2025 Session Wrap-Up: Hard-Fought Victories for Colorado’s Charter Schools

Today marks the 120th and final day of Colorado’s 2025 Legislative Session. As the gavel falls later this evening, we’re proud to reflect on a season of hard-won progress for Colorado’s charter school community.

From day one to Sine Die, the League, alongside our schools and advocates, led with clarity, courage, and conviction—advancing policies that put students first, expand educational opportunity, and protect the autonomy that allows our schools to innovate and excel in a challenging budget year.

THANK YOU to every school leader, teacher, parent, and partner who showed up—whether through testimony, advocacy days, or outreach to lawmakers. Our successes this year are a testament to the power of our collective voice when we stand united.

In this update, you’ll find a breakdown of where we led, what we defended, and how we delivered real wins for charter schools across Colorado.

For a deeper dive, join us next week on Monday, May 12th at 1 p.m. for our 2025 Legislative Session Webinar, where we’ll walk through the most impactful bills and what they mean for your school community heading into the 2025-26 school year.

Summary of Success:

Preserved or advanced charter funding across all major revenue streams

• Increasing Per-Pupil Funding: The League supported HB25-1320 and the phasing in of the new formula over the course of the next seven years. This will invest more than $500 million in additional funding to K-12 education above and beyond inflation over the course of its implementation. Next year it translates into a statewide average per-pupil funding increase of 3.6%.
• Increasing the Moral Obligation Cap: The League successfully advocated for an amendment to the School Finance Act that increases the cap on the Moral Obligation Program by $250 million, bringing the total to $1 billion. This increase will allow more charter schools to finance facilities sustainably and affordably in the coming years.
• Increasing CSI Equalization Funding: The state budget fully funds the CSI Mill Levy Equalization Fund, in large part because of the League’s advocacy. In a budget where there was a $1.2 billion shortfall, we increased CSI mill levy equalization by over $5 million. This means students in CSI charter schools will receive comparable mill levy funding to their peers in district schools. Additionally, we protected the part-time enrichment program despite calls to have the funding cut, hurting many charter schools.  
• At-Risk Supplemental: The at-risk supplemental, which impacts dozens of charter schools across the state, was eliminated by the committee that writes the budget. The League successfully advocated for an amendment to the School Finance Act that will restore the entire $7 million next year. The funding will be phased out over the next two years as the new funding formula takes effect. 
• PERA True-Up: This bill reduces DPS’ employer contribution rate by 3% to align with PERA. This change will save charter schools hundreds of thousands of dollars in Denver.  
• Strengthening Alternative Education Campuses: We drafted and worked with coalition partners on a bill to strengthen Alternative Education Campuses and ensured these schools are prioritized for grants from the Colorado Department of Education. We focused on AECs this legislative session out of recognition that charters play an outsized role in serving Colorado’s AEC students. 
• Investing in Educator Housing Assistance: This bill specifies that the State Treasurer must invest in a new “Community Investment Portfolio” within the permanent fund. Within that portfolio, there is a program that supports down payment assistance and housing development specifically for Colorado’s teachers and other public school staff, including charter schools. 

In addition to preserving or advancing charter funding across all major revenue streams, we vigorously defended against anti-charter legislation.

• This year, no broad anti-charter legislation even made it to draft paper—a direct result of the League’s proactive work with the Governor’s office and bipartisan legislative leaders to keep such proposals off the table.
• We also successfully blocked a proposal that would have handed the state legislature sweeping control over CSI decisions, protecting charter autonomy and funding.
• Finally, when a bill emerged that offered a tax credit but excluded many charter teachers, the League quickly joined forces with a broad coalition to defeat it in committee.

Moreover, we protected charter autonomy and flexibility.

• The League took a first step in reducing burdensome requirements and regulations by reforming the UIP process. We look forward to examining any additional costly and unnecessary regulations that hamper innovation and student achievement. 
• Two bills when introduced wanted to create a statewide policy on cell phone use in schools and a process to remove and display library resources. In both of these cases, the League worked closely with sponsors to amend the bills and allow local charter boards to create a policy, rather than be subject to the authorizing district or the state.  
• The League also worked to amend bills that would have impacted dress codes, added new high school requirements around financial literacy, and imposed new financial reporting requirements, the last of which lost. 

We were also encouraged by the emerging bipartisan conversation about authorizing reform to better serve Colorado’s underserved communities. Governor Polis, President Coleman, and Minority Leader Lundeen started an important dialogue about making it easier for high-quality charter schools to expand in areas that lack strong public school options. The League looks forward to the conversation continuing next year.

As we close out the 2025 session, one thing is clear: when we stand together, we win together. The victories we secured—from protecting funding streams to defending autonomy and expanding opportunity—are a direct result of your advocacy, your voices, and our shared commitment to Colorado’s students. Thank you for standing with us this session. Let’s continue the fight for every student’s right to a high-quality public education.

Join us on May 12th at 1:00 p.m. for a deeper dive into these wins and a look ahead at what’s next. Register here.
 

— The Advocacy Team
CLCS Action and the Colorado League of Charter School