Denver Public Schools leased schools through shell corporation, hiding almost $1B in off-book financing
Denver Public Schools has quietly taken on hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term debt without voter approval — money that could otherwise be used to lower class sizes, increase teacher pay or expand student support services, an investigation by The Denver Gazette has found.
The spending comes as contract negotiations between the district and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) have stalled, with union leaders pointing to the district’s failure to fully fund last year’s cost-of-living adjustment.
Educators have repeatedly called for smaller class sizes, better compensation and stronger student support — the very priorities that advocates say are undermined by rising lease payments tied to long-term debt.
To bypass the Colorado Constitution’s ban on assuming public debt without voter approval, DPS officials employed a workaround widely used in public finance circles but little understood by the public: transferring ownership of schools to a corporation, then leasing the buildings back for hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
