Higher Education Access Alliance
HEAA is a growing coalition of community-based and policy organizations led by four Colorado nonprofit organizations – Center for Policy Entrepreneurship, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Metro Organizations for People and Padres Unidos y Jóvenes Unidos – and its members include the Bell Policy Center, Colorado Progressive Coalition and the Donnell-Kay Foundation. HEAA is committed to increasing higher education opportunities for all Colorado students, regardless of immigration or economic status and is conducting extensive research to measure attitudes and opinions on this issue. In the coming months, HEAA will form a statewide network of students, parents, educators, community and business leaders, and elected officials to promote higher education access and success for all students.

Read CPE's report on tuition equity

Read the report's executive summary

School Lands
In 1785, Congress began granting large areas of land to newly created states for the support of public schools. When Colorado gained its statehood in 1875, Section 7 of the Colorado Enabling Act required that the land and its income “are hereby granted to the said state for the support of common schools.” And the Colorado Constitution states that, “The people of the state of Colorado recognize that the state school lands are an endowment of land assets held in a perpetual, inter-generational public trust for the support of public schools, which should not be significantly diminished.”

School trust lands are managed by the Colorado State Land Board and are farmed, mined and leased to raise revenue, which is then deposited into the permanent fund that is managed by the Colorado State Treasurer. Each year, a portion of the income from school lands is distributed to schools through the School Finance Act, while another portion is deposited back into the trust, increasing the value of the permanent fund. Colorado’s permanent fund is currently worth approximately $507.9 million, according to the most recent quarterly report from the State Treasurer’s Office.

But for the past several years, legislators have spent up to $31 million of these annual school land trust earnings to help fund the state School Finance Act. This action can be interpreted as a violation of the state constitution, since the adoption of Amendment 16 in 1996 requires that any school land trust revenues should be in addition to and not a substitute for other education dollars. Because in recent years state legislation to end supplanting and promote the growth of the permanent fund has failed due to the short-term state fiscal impact, CPE and the Colorado Education Association have prepared a possible legal action to stop the state’s use of land trust interest and lease revenue to meet its funding obligations under Amendment 23, which was passed by voters in 2000 and requires a minimum annual rate of state funding growth.

The Colorado Children’s Land Alliance Supporting Schools (CLASS) is an advocacy organization comprised of several interested members of the education community, state school board members, legislators, and members of the treasurer’s office and concerned citizens interested in the preservation and use of school lands. CPE is a member of CLASS and supports its efforts to protect Colorado’s state school lands and grow the permanent fund.

Information and resources:

CPE/CEA Presentation
Children’s Land Alliance Supporting Schools
Colorado’s School Lands
Colorado State Land Board
Colorado Department of the Treasury, State Trust Lands
Colorado School Lands Trust article from the Fall 2007 Jared Polis Foundation Education Report

If you have any questions or for additional information contact Elise Keaton.