Education is one of the building blocks to success. But what can you do if you live in an area with a public school that’s failing its students? You could pay for a private school, but if you can’t afford that option, you and your children, are out of luck.

Or are you?

Thanks to Public Schools of Choice, in Colorado, parents can send their kids to any school that has an available seat. And this often leads parents to choose charter schools over the assigned public school. When this happens, the Per Pupil Revenues (PPR), or money, goes to the charter school instead of the local public school.

Unfortunately, some legislators are hostile to charter schools and believe parents should be forced to send their children to the local public school. One such legislator is Democratic Rep. Jennifer Bacon, who recently introduced House Bill 21-1295. Here’s what HB21-1295 entails, and why it would harm charter schools.

Current Law

Under current law, local school boards accredit charter schools and review charter school applications. This means that if a charter wants to open, it has to apply to the local school board, and the board decides if it wants to allow the charter school to open or not.  And, these authorizations are renewed every several years.

However, if the school board decides against the charter school, the charter school has the right to appeal the school board’s decision to the Colorado State Board of Education. The State Board then acts as an impartial review body and makes a decision based on the merits of the case.

For example, in 2020, the Denver Public School (DPS) board decided to delay the opening of the charter school DSST Noel High School. Following this decision, DSST immediately appealed to the State Board.

After reviewing DSST’s appeal, the State Board found that the DPS’ decision to delay the opening of DSST Noel High School was not in the best interest of students, the community or the school district, and told DPS to reverse its decision.

As a result of this decision, Denver school board member, and newly elected State Representative Jennifer Bacon decided to take action and introduced HB21-1295 to the House on April 26.

The proposed law

HB21-1295 creates a legal presumption that school boards are always right, and charter schools are always wrong, as long as the school board’s denial was based on one or more of the following considerations:

1. The likelihood of a conflict with the local board of education’s existing long-term plans for the school district.
2. Student enrollment among the schools of the school district; or
3. School district financial considerations.

To put the above into perspective:

1. If a school district decides that part of its “long-term plan” is to eradicate charter schools it could deny a charter school’s application or renewal and the charter school would have no legal recourse.
2. If a school district deems the enrollment of children in a charter school detrimental to the local public school, it could deny a charter school’s application or renewal and the charter school would have no legal recourse.
3. As mentioned, when students enroll in a charter school the PPR goes with them. As such, a school board could deem that transfer of money as problematic, and deny a charter school’s application or renewal and the charter school would have no legal recourse.

Simply put, if a school board doesn’t like charter schools, HB21-1295 gives it the authority to force charter schools to close by either not allowing them to open in the first place or refusing to renew their accreditation.

What to do?

Parents in Colorado are lucky. If you live in a school district with a sub-par school, you can choose to send your kids to another school. Logically, charter schools are a valuable part of this education system as they’re free, push other schools to do better by competing for students, and add to the number of choices, thus allowing parents to find the right fit for their child. Unfortunately, many Democrats are working to undermine that choice, and indeed, take that choice away.

As of this writing, HB21-1295 hasn’t come up for a full vote in the House or Senate. Consequently, there’s still time for parents and those who support charter schools, to help defeat this bill.

Voice your opposition

If you’d like to voice your opposition to HB21-1295, contact your local legislator and tell him or her not to vote for this bill. Additionally, you can contact the legislators sponsoring HB21-1295, and tell them you want them to withdraw their support. Without exception, all sponsors of this bill are Democrats:

• Jennifer Bacon, 303-866-2090
• Cathy Kipp, 303-866-4569
• Steven Woodrow, 303-866-2967
• Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, 303-866-2954
• Mike Weissman, 303-866-2942
• Iman Jodeh, 303-866-2919
• Emily Sirota, 303-866-2910
• Judy Amabile, 303-866-2578
• Chris Kennedy, 303-866-2951
• Lisa Cutter, 303-866-2582
• Shannon Bird, 303-866-2843
• Monica Duran, 303-866-5522
• Adrienne Benavidez, 303-866-2964
• Meg Froelich, 303-866-2921
• Tammy Story, 303-866-4873

Finally, if you’d like to follow this bill as it moves through the Colorado House and Senate, go to openstates.org and click on the blue “Follow Bill” box. You’ll be prompted to sign up for a free account, and once you do, you’ll receive email updates.

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The Maverick Observer, or “The Moe” as we affectionately call it, is an online free-thinking publication interested in the happenings in our town. We launched in February 2020 to hold our politicians and businesses accountable. We hope to educate, inform, entertain, and infuse you with a sense of community.

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