Education commissioner urges targeted restorations, warns of counselor and nurse losses

Commissioner Susana Cordova told the Joint Budget Committee on March 16 that the Colorado Department of Education has already taken steps to tighten its budget — including an early hiring freeze, restricted out‑of‑state travel and an enhanced expenditure review — and is bringing narrowly prioritized comebacks aimed at minimizing harm to students. "My name is Doctor Susana Cordova and I serve as the Commissioner of Education," she said, describing how internal work and procurement savings helped reduce costs.

Cordova said the agency secured what she called a far lower contract than originally estimated for a statewide equalization system — "we were able to secure a $3,000,000 contract for the new state equal system, which was significantly lower than the original estimate, which was closer to 9,000,000" — and used other administrative reductions to shrink its request package.

The comeback asks focus on programs CDE says are most closely tied to student outcomes during the school day: the school-counseling core grant, the school-health professional grant, the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) facilities program and authority to roll forward funds for an RFI examining online schools. Cordova said cutting the counseling grant would "result in approximately 33 fewer grantees and 36 fewer school counselors statewide," reducing support for students with higher needs. She described the school-health proposal as likely to remove "approximately 25 fewer nurses in the next grant cycle" at a time Colorado already has a high student‑to‑nurse ratio — "over 1000 students per nurse," the department said.

On BEST and facility needs, CDE highlighted demand far exceeding supply: staff cited 57 applications totaling "nearly 900,000,000 in need" compared with about $170,000,000 available. The department asked the JBC to delay certain reductions, and to allow a one‑year delay of a local accountability grant reduction to let current cohorts complete work.

Cordova also presented an RFI plan for online schools and requested authority to roll forward up to $125,000 of FY25‑26 funds that would otherwise revert so the department can complete programmatic and financial analyses and stakeholder engagement; she emphasized the department is not seeking new general fund dollars for that work. The department suggested the committee consider granting statutory authority to collect the financial and student‑level data needed for a comprehensive analysis, noting current authority is limited and voluntary participation may produce incomplete results.

Why it matters: The comebacks put into relief trade‑offs the department is making while seeking to preserve supports closest to students’ daily experience. Counseling and nursing reductions would shrink access to in‑school services that districts and CDE link to attendance, behavior and long‑term outcomes.

What happened next: After staff presented revised school‑finance recommendations (reflecting lower December special‑education counts), Vice Chair Bridges moved the staff recommendation for categorical funding (R2.B.A.2). The committee approved the staff recommendation on CDE categorical adjustments on a 6–0 vote.