PODCAST: Hefty enrollment drop clashes with Colorado school funding.

Colorado public schools are projected to lose roughly 16,000 students heading into the 2026-27 school year, part of a continuing enrollment decline that has significant implications for how state education dollars are distributed.

In a recent episode of Independence Institute’s* Learning Curve podast, hosts Erin Brantley and Ross Izard lay out the enrollment decline in the context of Colorado’s school finance system.

Because state funding is closely tied to the number of students attending schools, declining enrollment ultimately means fewer dollars for affected districts.

The decline comes as Colorado is working through major changes to school funding. Lawmakers rewrote a decades-old funding formula in 2024, and made additional adjustments through the 2026 School Finance Act. The new system remains a work in progress, further complicating funding calculations.

What I wasn’t able to find out is whether the enrollment decline is due to remigration, homeschooling, or whether Colorado has gone so far left that we’re not having enough kids anymore.