The Mancos School District will become the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state.

As a member of the Colorado Rural Schools Caucus, Mancos schools would have been a part of the lawsuit anyway. But on March 4, the school board gave the go-ahead to be lead plaintiff.

This will give Mancos schools a poster-child role, Superintendent Brian Hanson said.

The lawsuit should not be time-consuming or a burden, he said, adding, “It’s still in it’s infancy. As we move into it, we’ll be sure to relay the information to our community.”

The goal is to force the state to increase education funding because it is an election year.

“No one wants to be illustrated as anti-education,” board President Monty Guiles said.

The most recent budget cuts left the district running a $133,000 deficit.

Colorado Amendment 23 requires the state to increase funding for schools by the rate of inflation each year after 2010.

But starting in the 2008-09 school year, the state has cut budgets.

Each year since the 2010-11 school year, the state has determined a flat figure to designate to school funding and then reduced funding to that level by cutting each district by the same percentage.

This deduction is called the “negative factor,” and Mancos schools lost $67,000 to it this year.

Dolores Superintendent Scott Cooper said that this year, the school district’s budget has been cut by $961,344, with an expected $912,407 cut next year.

In the last five years, his district’s budget has been cut by $3.1 million, he said.

“If nothing changes, our schools along with all other schools in Colorado will be financially choked out of existence,” Cooper said. “If this ‘negative factor’ continues, we will have to cut deep into the classrooms, directly affecting the students’ educational future and the economic future of Colorado.”

mshinn@cortezjournal.com