Schools
Funding is up and spending is below average. Both are true.
These are two different measures, and they are never drawn on one axis. One is the state funding formula. The other is all current spending divided by fall enrollment, which is how the federal government compares states.
Current spending per pupil (Colorado)
$12,233 FACT
2020-21 · National Center for Education Statistics
Current spending per pupil (United States)
$14,295 FACT
2020-21 · National Center for Education Statistics
The measure changed part-way through this series. HB24-1448 new school funding formula phases in FY 2025-26 through 2031-32; per-pupil funding figures change meaning mid-stream by design.
Where these figures come from
- Legislative Council Staff — Financing Public Schools for FY 2025-26 (memo, 29-Jul-2025) (opens in a new tab)
- National Center for Education Statistics — Digest of Education Statistics table 236.65 (current expenditures per pupil by state, 1969-70 to 2020-21) (opens in a new tab)
Data as of 10 September 2026. Every figure here is read from the checked Colorado dataset when this page is built, so a correction to the data corrects this page. Nothing on it was typed by hand.
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