The State Board and the Department of Education it controls is a huge portion of Colorado government and usually uses 1/3 (down to 28% for 2026 due to increased spending on medicaid) of the state budget. The only bigger line item in the “Long Bill” is Medical—and the Feds pay over half of Medicaid costs. The board and department do not report to the Governor. This is not the small board of 1948 as it was given 10% of the state budget to distribute “to equalize funding” in 1962 and this has grown since.

We must flip the State Board of Education from 5/4 leftist-D to 5/4 moderate-R to allow conservative changes; this happens if I’m elected because only 3 seats (CD1, CD3, CD7) are up for election in 2026, and CD1 and CD7 are the only 2 seats with D incumbents.

The board, and department of education it controls, effectively controls teacher licensing, state mandated exams for students, dispenses Federal block grants and State funds to public libraries and school districts, accredits school districts & online schools, funds and regulates trade schools, sets too many procedures and rules applicable to the 178 districts, and recommends policies and curriculum to school districts among other duties.‍ ‍It is not supposed to run schools or interact with students or parents directly. Each school district has a locally-elected board that is supposed to run the schools in that district, although many boards delegate much of the work of running schools to superintendents—it is the local board that is responsible for hiring teachers, contracting for roof repairs, and budgeting for electric bills using the funds passed to the district by State Board. If the Federal department of education is closed, the State Board and Department will assume some of its role, including curriculum advice and grant dispensing to school districts.

Since the State Board and Department of Education dispense both the October Census funds and grants to the local boards, the State Board has power to audit the districts. This power can be useful when fraud or corruption is suspected.

To learn more of the Board, or to learn the responsibilities of the State Department of Education it controls, please use the following buttons. The pictured school is Harrison (K-8) in Canon City RE-1.