The Colorado Charter School Institute fills a statewide need for a chartering agency that acts independently of local school districts that are hostile to charter schools. If you doubt the need, look no further than the lawsuits filed by three such hostile districts trying to shut it down. Two of the suits are set for trial in October, and a third was filed last month.
The institute was set up by the legislature in 2004, and when classes begin in the fall, it will oversee seven schools with a combined enrollment of about 3,000 students. Five schools will be new.
These litigious districts - Boulder Valley and Westminster filed suit in 2005, Poudre in June - claim the state chartering law is unconstitutional. They argue the state Constitution gives them authority over all publicly funded schools located in their districts. They cite a high-minded concern for the well-being of taxpayers. "We want to keep the decisions about educational opportunities at the local level, where the taxpayers are," said Jana Ley, chairwoman of the Poudre school board.
Why, yes, that is exactly the point. An institute- chartered school doesn't claim local tax money. Rep. Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, who sponsored the bill creating the institute, says a charter school's funds come from the state.
That a charter school is physically located in one district - after all, it has to be somewhere - doesn't directly affect that district at all. Its physical location should not bestow any special standing on local officials.
Indeed, it does not. Districts can already issue charters to schools that will be located outside their boundaries, provided "a majority of the charter school's pupils, other than online pupils, will reside in the chartering school district or in school districts contiguous thereto." Especially in the metro area, "contiguous to" can take in several jurisdictions.
Carroll wrote his bill so that districts making a good-faith effort to give charter applicants fair consideration could retain exclusive control over the local chartering process, but barred districts from adopting moratoriums on new charters. The state Board of Education makes that decision.
The legal situation is complicated by the fact that Boulder Valley had a moratorium on new charters before the institute was created, yet was granted exclusive chartering authority, while Poudre, which hadn't formally adopted a moratorium, was denied it. So unsuccessful applicants in Boulder Valley can't turn to the state institute instead. The courts will have to resolve that issue too.
Charter schools are an important option for thousands of children. Districts shouldn't have the power to block them, and the institute takes away that power. It's needed.
KEEP SCHOOLS INDEPENDENT
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