Weighted student funding. Student-centered funding. Student-based budgeting. Backpack funding. It goes by many different names, and the different names have some different nuances. But the idea is simple: Tax dollars should follow individual students to the schools where they are served, based on their needs, rather than distributed through district offices based on personnel formulas or other factors. Let the money follow the child.

Watch this 90-minute video of a December 2012 panel event co-sponsored by the Independence Institute. More than 80 attendees packed a State Capitol committee room to hear the discussion about how Colorado can embrace and implement backpack funding in future K-12 policy changes. Panelists included: State Sen. Michael Johnston (D-Denver), State Sen. Keith King (R-Colorado Springs), Colorado League of Charter Schools VP of Public Affairs Vinny Badolato, and Independence Institute senior education policy analyst Ben DeGrow

More Resources on Backpack Funding:

• Online Course-Level Funding: Toward Colorado Self-Blended Secondary Learning Options (Issue Paper 4-2012)
• Reason Foundation, School Choice, Funding Portability, and Educational Privatization (2014)