Fighting for the 3 F’s
By Dan Schaller, President
Whenever we survey our schools, three items regularly rise to the top of their desired priorities for our legislative agenda: funding, facilities and flexibility. Enhanced and equitable funding, accessible and affordable facilities, strengthened flexibility from needless reports and regulations – almost without fail, these “3 F’s” are the main topics on our members’ minds, which is why they then consistently form the backbone of our annual legislative agenda.
This year is no exception, and as the 2026 Legislative Session passes the midpoint, I wanted to provide a brief status update on how we are centering these priorities and working to protect and advance them on behalf of our schools. Join our Town Hall on Friday, March 20th, at 10am for further details and an even closer look.
Funding
We’ve made lots of strides in recent years in the ongoing fight for charter equity, but even with these advancements, the typical charter school in Colorado is still only receiving enough revenue to spend at roughly 81% of the typical district-run school. This key fact is why charter funding remains at the top of our agenda, and why so many of our advocacy efforts are focused on advancing and protecting it.
This year – in a very challenging fiscal environment – that means fending off attacks against such critical resources as charter facilities funding, CSI mill equalization, and part-time enrichment funding. It also means ensuring that the transition to the state’s new funding formula is handled as fairly and smoothly as possible in the charter context.
Facilities
Over the past 10 years, school districts across Colorado have collected $15.5 billion in bond revenue for facilities improvements. Despite serving over 15% of the public school student population, charters have received only about 3.5% of that total. This remains one of the biggest ongoing disparities and challenges for charter schools when it comes to occupying affordable buildings, and it’s why we’re pushing for introduction of a bill in the coming days that would seek to address this challenge.
We need cleaner processes for charter inclusion and greater transparency for voter understanding if we ever hope to attain greater bond equity for our schools and their students.
Flexibility
Colorado’s charter schools continue to confront an ever-growing web of rules, reports, and bureaucratic requirements that consume valuable time without meaningfully advancing student learning. Leaders across the state increasingly describe this burden as “death by a thousand cuts,” which is why we’ve made it a focal point of our efforts in recent years.
Last year this resulted in the passage of HB25-1210, and this year we’re back again with HB26-1299 which passed unanimously out of committee earlier this week. If there are needless reports and regulations that are doing nothing to improve student outcomes, we aim to address them.
Your needs translating into our priorities – that’s our goal, which we then seek to translate into concrete legislative accomplishments every year. Thankfully we’ve accumulated a good track of that over the course of the past decade, but we’re always looking to do better and always looking for your feedback. Let us know how we’re doing by completing our annual member survey available here. We want to make sure we’re being responsive to your needs and challenges, and the only way we can do that is with your input and suggestions.
Dan Schaller currently serves as President of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, a position he assumed in 2020 after having led the League’s policy and advocacy work since 2014. Prior to that, he served in a number of education and policy-related roles. Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science from St. Louis University, a Master’s in secondary education from Regis University, and a Master’s in public policy from the University of Denver. He resides in Denver with his wife and two daughters.
