Tag Archives: School Choice for Kids

Yes, I’m not ashamed to admit it: I’m a big (and maybe the youngest) fan of Krista Kafer. The column Krista wrote for yesterday’s Rocky Mountain News is just the latest reason — even though she does tell readers to do more homework: While rankings and other analysis can provide the public and parents confidence in charter schools as a whole, school-by-school information is actually more important to individual families. When considering public schools – whether district-run or charter – the [School Accountability Report] is great place to start when choosing a school. Parents shouldn’t stop there. They should check out other sources of information such as www.greatschools.net, www.schoolmatters.com and www.schoolchoiceforkids.org. Next they should visit the school’s Web site and the school building. You don’t have to be an education expert to recognize student disengagement, apathy or boredom. Kids wandering aimlessly, teachers yelling angrily or trash scattered about the floor – these would be bad signs. Talking to other parents, teachers and students is a must. Families who want to look for a charter school for their child, or to take advantage of the open enrollment process and find a different traditional public school, you have to read the whole […]

It’s Friday. I couldn’t resist the chance to play in the snow before it melted. And my friends in the Education Policy Center are all recovering from last night’s big Founders’ Night party (that nobody invited me to). So there’s not a lot of time to write. But I did see this about the guest speaker Michelle Malkin: Malkin said she felt liberated to have escaped the Beltway, having come West specifically for the educational opportunity available to her children. Apparently, a major reason Michelle Malkin and her family were attracted to move to Colorado was the availability of high-quality education options. That was terrific news, and very true! While there is still plenty of room for improvement, Colorado does have a thriving charter school sector. Charter schools and all other education options can be found at our amazing School Choice for Kids website.

Like other public schools, charter schools can fail, too. The advantage is it’s generally easier to shut charters down or to reconstitute them in a way that better ensures success. The Denver Post has a story today about giving just such a second chance: An embattled Denver charter school has a new name and a new agreement with Denver Public Schools after a vote by the school board Thursday. The former Challenges, Choices and Images charter school for kindergartners through 12th-graders is now Amandla Academy — named after the Zulu word for strength. The school voluntarily terminated its charter contract with the district, effectively severing the district and the current school leaders from any financial liabilities incurred by CCI. “This was all legal stuff to get the new school to go forward without being encumbered,” said Russell Caldwell, senior vice president at the brokerage firm D.A. Davidson. “The good news is DPS financially and legally acted very prudently to allow the new charter to have conditions in which it will grow and flourish.” The agreement turns the K-12 school of 600 students into a contract school through June 30, and Amandla officials plan to submit an application to become a […]

Some really smart people think online schools are the wave of the future that will completely innovate and transform the way we do and think about public education. I don’t know if they’re right or not, but the growth of online public schools in Colorado certainly makes their case a little stronger. Take for example Kaplan Academy of Colorado, new for 2008-09. Kaplan is an individualized, tuition-free, accredited program authorized by the Garfield School District in Rifle, Colorado: Imagine learning in a flexible, results-oriented environment that allows you to learn at your own pace—one that is free of the distractions of the traditional classroom. Learning from home, students can take a number of different courses, including “Language Arts, Foreign Languages, Health, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Electives such as Art History, Computer Applications, Journalism, Web Design, and more.” Go to the Kaplan website to sign up for more information. According to my friends at the Education Policy Center, you can also now see a brand new page on the School Choice for Kids website that shows all the home-based public online education programs in Colorado – hosted in places from Denver to Branson to Julesburg (and now) to Rifle. But […]

I still need to learn how to add and subtract, but someday I may want to learn a lot more about math and science. A good place to look is the new Colorado Springs high school that has a special focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. In addition to a comprehensive high school curriculum, sports, and extra curricular activities, Vista Ridge High School offers several technology-based career academies: Engineering, Biomedical Science, and Information Technology. The engineering program is based on the Project Lead the Way curriculum, which is comprised of hands-on, real-world projects designed to make math and science relevant for students. The biomedical sciences program is also based on Project Lead the Way curriculum. Students will be introduced to many medical career possibilities through the classes they take. The information technology program will focus on networking and programming skills. The school is also piloting the school district’s 7-period modified block schedule. Students will attend seven classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday for approximately 48 minutes each. On Wednesday and Thursday, classes have an extended block of time, with half of the classes meeting on each day. A weekly advisory period and additional elective course will also meet on […]

Yesterday I told you about the Democrats’ national education platform. So what about the other side? I had to go to bed while it was still going on, but my mom and dad said that Republican presidential candidate John McCain gave an important speech last night. He talked about education: Education — education is the civil rights issue of this century. Equal access to public education has been gained, but what is the value of access to a failing school? We need… We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice. Let’s remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work. When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parent — when it fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them. Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have the choice, and their children will have that opportunity. Sen. Obama wants our schools to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucrats. […]

Retiring Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo – and former president of the Independence Institute (long before I was even born) – has a great piece published in today’s Rocky Mountain News. Most people associate Rep. Tancredo with the issue of immigration, but his deepest roots go back into education as a former public school teacher and as regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education during the 1980s. As he gives advice to Colorado’s current governor and one of his recent predecessors, the themes in Rep. Tancredo’s Speakout column are not novel or startling, but they’re important reminders we can’t hear enough: Last week, Gov. Bill Ritter and former Gov. Roy Romer wrote a column about the state of education in America. In it, I believe they’ve unwittingly made a powerful argument for precisely the kind of educational reform that they have publicly opposed for many years: school choice…. If history has taught us anything, it is that solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems have come only when we have unleashed the power of the free market. The answer to the education problem, simply put, is more choices for parents, and more competition by schools for students. It […]

The Education Policy Center people said they’re a little busy today. So instead of having them write anything, I asked them to show you this video, which makes a very compelling argument for school choice: This clip from the 1980s British sitcom Yes Prime Minister should be required viewing for education policy makers. It may come from overseas, and it may be 20 years old, but the brilliant common sense that flows through the satire in this piece feels like a breath of fresh air for Colorado. Of course – for the choices already available to them, Colorado families have a great resource in the School Choice for Kids website. (H/T Jay Greene, via What’s Wrong With the World?)

In large part due to its remarkable success with its original Pueblo school, the Cesar Chavez School Network is expanding. 2008 brings the opening of Cesar Chavez Academy-North Central in Colorado Springs, open to students in kindergarten to 8th grade. The free public charter school is authorized by the state’s Charter School Institute. The original Cesar Chavez Academy (CCA) has forged an excellent reputation. Working with a high-minority and high-poverty student population, CCA has helped nearly all its students to reach proficiency in reading, putting it on a rare plateau. The school’s success in closing the achievement gap has earned the attention of the U.S. Department of Education and generated a substantial waiting list of families waiting to get in. The website for the new Colorado Springs school declares the focus of its mission up front: It is the primary goal of the school, through an integrated K-8 program to dramatically increase the number of students who exceed district and state averages on the CSAP assessment and who enter secondary education prepared to succeed in a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum. High expectations, equal learning opportunities, teacher teamwork, and parental involvement are all hallmarks of the CCA franchise. Like its predecessor, Cesar […]

In Sunday’s Denver Post perspective section, Lisa Geissler urged parents to expand their horizons in looking for special services to meet their child’s individual educational needs. She wrote: Colorado’s state law allows for parents to open enroll in other public schools, and the No Child Left Behind act mandates that your district pick up the transportation tab to another public school if your school is failing. There are caveats to that open enrollment. You can find out more from your local school district’s enrollment or admissions office and the Colorado Department of Education’s website, www.cde.state.co.us.