brief in opposition to motion to dismiss - Colorado Attorney General

(State Board) adopted the Colorado Consolidated State Plan (Consolidated State Plan) toconform to the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). 5 TheState has thereby established a system with standards, goals, objectives, methods, and results thatcreates a baseline measure of whether the public school finance system provides sufficientfinancial resources to meet the State’s obligation under the Education Clause.PSFA funding levels have never been adjusted to address the actual costs to provideevery student with a constitutionally adequate, quality education, or an education that meets thestandards and goals mandated by education reform legislation and the Colorado ConsolidatedState Plan. In fact, the PSFA fails to provide school districts with sufficient funds or fundingability to meet the actual and foreseeable costs of educating their students. A statewide study bythe Colorado School Finance Project (CSFP), conducted in accordance with nationally acceptedmethods of analysis, found that in the 2001-02 school year none of the 176 Colorado schooldistricts were able to raise and expend general operating funds at a level sufficient to provide aneducation that could meet the standards and mandates of the education reform legislation, muchless the Education Clause. The CSFP study found that in that year alone Colorado publicschools were under-funded with respect to meeting the requirements of education reformlegislation by at least $500 million.proficiency with respect to these content standards by standardized testing; comparative rating ofthe performance of students, schools, and school districts measured by the results of theseassessments; and school and school district accountability for student assessment results andprogress.5The Consolidated State Plan establishes a statewide accountability system for improving theacademic achievement of all students, identifying and turning around low-performing schools,providing high-quality alternatives to students in low-performing schools, and improvingaccountability, teaching, and learning by the use of state assessment systems, all designed toensure that students meet challenging state academic achievement and content standards and are4