Tag Archives: Charter School Institute

Update, 8/18: Denise at Colorado Charters offers more information on the new Thomas MacLaren School, as well as an account of the ribbon cutting ceremony. If you live in the Colorado Springs area and have a student heading into the middle school years, you may want to take a look at the new Thomas MacLaren School. The tuition-free public charter school opens this month with classes from 6th to 9th grade. Eventually the school will serve students all the way up through high school. Many things set MacLaren apart from traditional public schools, but most prominent are: A classical education curriculum that builds from the basics of grammar (6th-8th grade) to the logic of finding “implications and relationships that exist among the ideas already learned” (9th-10th grade) to the higher-level rhetoric (11th-12th grade) “wherein students begin to synthesize and relate concepts already learned” — all students will be required to take four years of Latin Student uniforms Single-sex classrooms (that’s right: No yucky girls! I may have to look into this school….), except the fine arts classes (including choir, drama, etc.) and lunchtimes will be co-ed

Guess what? It’s that time again — time to highlight some of the exciting new educational options opening up for Colorado students and parents this fall. Last year we were able to give readers a glimpse at 10 new schools. My goal is to do at least that many for 2009. First on the list, we start at the far end of the state in Durango for the opening of a new public charter school for 9th graders. Authorized by the Charter School Institute, Animas High School. Animas, which is intentionally modeled after San Diego’s innovative High Tech High, is slated to add grades each year so the first class will graduate in 2013.

Update: The good people of Ed News Colorado have also written about The State of Charter Schools in Colorado (PDF), breaking down some of the key information if you don’t have time to dig through the whole report. Do you need a good reference digest of important information on charter schools in Colorado? Well, my friend and Education Policy Center senior fellow Krista Kafer has done it again, joining Dr. Dick Carpenter to co-author another valuable report for the Colorado Department of Education. The brand new report is called The State of Charter Schools in Colorado (PDF). Skim through it, and you’ll see there really is no such thing as an average charter school. As the movement has grown in our state over the last 15 years, both the number and the diversity of charters has increased.

The Boulder Valley school board doesn’t seem to be learning too quickly. As the Boulder Daily Camera reports, at least they have put off their decision to waste more taxpayer money by continuing their lawsuit against educational opportunity through the state’s charter school authority. But they’re not making many winning arguments to justify their past actions, either. My Education Policy Center friend Pam Benigno was quoted in the story: Pam Benigno, director of the Independence Institute’s Education Policy Center, said Boulder Valley leaders should be held accountable for their “waste of taxpayer money.” “I’m a strong supporter of school choice,” Benigno said. “Families should have as many options as possible, and the state charter institute is a good idea for Colorado.”

My friends in the Education Policy Center never quit. They have good new ideas all the time. The latest is the site GoBash (“The Good, The Bad, and The Shameful”): The purpose of the site is to raise public awareness of influential figures who either support or oppose needed reforms of a public education system that has failed thousands of children. The first posting there takes a little different angle on the recent Colorado court victory for parents and charter schools I wrote about last Friday. GoBash files an open letter with the Boulder Valley school board: Just how much of the taxpayers’ money did you spend in your lawsuit against the State Charter School Institute? You lost the suit in district court but appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, costing not only the school district but the state more money. All to deny families more educational choice and opportunity. Thankfully, the appeals court justices had the good sense to uphold the district court’s decision. Shame on you, Boulder Valley School District! Agreed. Since GoBash filed its open letter, the Boulder Daily Camera reports that school board members are meeting tonight to decide whether to appeal the lawsuit and […]

Yesterday provided great news for Colorado families who live in school districts unfriendly to certain public education options. The Charter School Institute, a state body created by the legislature in 2004 as another way to authorize charter schools, secured an important legal victory. From a press release in the Attorney General’s office: Colorado Attorney General John Suthers praised a decision by the Colorado Court of Appeals today that upheld the constitutionality of the Colorado Charter Schools Act. The case centers on Boulder Valley School District’s claim that the General Assembly does not have constitutional authority to create and fund charter schools that are not controlled by local school boards.

As usual, Denise at Colorado Charters is keeping close tabs on the world of charter schools in our state. In the last few days, she has posted about: Support for a new charter school application in Colorado Springs Harrison School District An increase in the enrollment cap for Boulder Valley’s alternative charter Justice High The impact of this week’s elections on charter school support and opposition in the state legislature She also has more on Boulder Valley’s pending court case against the Charter School Institute. Public charter schools represent an absolutely vital type of alternative for parents seeking options for the best education available to their children. The grassroots movement continues to grow in Colorado, and you really can’t keep tabs on important developments without regular quick stops to Colorado Charters.

I know, I know. Yesterday there was this big election, and some things happened that will have an impact on education reform in Colorado. I’m going to let you know more about that a little later. For now, regardless of winners and losers at the ballot box, there are real threats to face – like school officials who won’t give up on using the courts to wrest control and choice from parents: The Charter School Act was passed by the then-Republican controlled General Assembly in 2004 to meet a growing demand for charter schools statewide. The legislation established the Charter School Institute, which provides oversight and funding to state charter schools. Over the last four years, the Boulder Valley School District has consistently tried to tear down the law by challenging its constitutionality. The district says the law takes away its constitutional right to govern schools operating within its boundaries. Provisions in the state constitution allow school districts local control on education policy. This particular complaint was first heard in district court with two other similar cases brought forth by Adams County School District 50 and the Poudre School District. However, when all three complaints were shot down in December […]

For students or parents of students on the verge of entering the high school years, a new option is opening up this fall in Jefferson County, just west of the Denver city limits. The Early College High School (ECHS) at Arvada begins its first day of classes for 9th-graders only on August 18. Eventually, ECHS will serve all four high school grades, and is scheduled to graduate its first class in 2012. Authorized by the Charter School Institute board, ECHS at Arvada touts itself as a small school. In fact, the facility space – a former credit union office currently under renovation – will be able to serve only up to 450 students. But the real appeal of this charter school, located just east of Sheridan Blvd. on 60th Ave., is the design to help kids earn both a high school diploma and up to 60 transferable college credits in their four years. This dual-enrollment program especially is aimed to help young people whose families have limited background and financial resources that would allow them to enter the world of postsecondary education. It’s not too late to enroll in ECHS at Arvada. If you need to find out more, though, […]