Colorado voters will decide in November whether to add another layer of protection to school choice by enshrining a right to school choice in the state constitution – a step opponents worry could open a gateway to a statewide voucher program.
Voucher programs, which have drawn controversy across the country, use taxpayer dollars to fund private school education and can include schools with a religious affiliation.
Amendment 80, backed by a conservative political nonprofit, would place a right to school choice in the state constitution, with advocates saying the measure is a necessary step to insulate school choice from future legislative attacks.
The measure would need the support of 55% of voters to pass on Nov. 5.
Here’s what Amendment 80 would do and who is supporting and opposing the measure.
A Colorado law passed by the Legislature in 1994 grants students the ability to attend any public school for free, including neighborhood schools, charter schools and online schools. It also lets parents opt to enroll their children in a private school or a home schooling program.
Families can also navigate a process called open enrollment to send their child to a school district besides their home district.
Charter schools are public schools managed by a nonprofit that establishes a performance contract often with a school district, which serves as the authorizer. The contract grants charter schools more flexibility than traditional public schools over how they educate kids, but they are still subject to the same standards and assessments as district-run public schools.
Critics of charter schools often argue that they siphon critical funding away from traditional public schools at a time when those schools are underfunded.
While the right to school choice is protected by state law, that law can be changed by a simple majority vote of the Legislature. The state constitution, however, can only be altered by the passage of a ballot measure. Getting an initiative altering the state constitution on the ballot isn’t easy – it requires either the support of two-thirds of each the House and Senate or the collection of roughly 125,000 voter signatures, including a portion of the voters in each of the Colorado’s 35 state Senate districts.
That’s one reason that Michael Fields, president of the conservative political nonprofit Advance Colorado Action and the lead driver behind Amendment 80, wants to enshrine school choice in the constitution.
Fields said voters should be the ones making decisions about the schools children can attend, not lawmakers, particularly after a recent failed legislative attempt to make charter schools more accountable and transparent.
“We don’t believe that one-size-fits-all for parents and families, so we should be able to choose what’s the best school for our kids,” Fields said. “(Amendment 80) would just lock in the rights that we already have.”
Education policy experts like Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center and a professor in the University of Colorado School of Education, say Amendment 80 is “a step along the way” toward a statewide voucher program, especially when looking at how voucher programs have emerged in other states.
“The clear pattern in other states is that vouchers start off very limited and small and then increase in size and scope over time,” Welner said.
He sees the potential for Amendment 80 to spur a variety of lawsuits, including among parents who can’t afford private school tuition and argue that under the measure the state owes them a subsidy. Welner said he would not be surprised to see that kind of lawsuit, but he would be surprised if a court went along with it.
Still, should Amendment 80 pass, what comes next is up in the air, he said.
“Nobody – not me, not the people who wrote the language, not the state’s voters – can say with any confidence what inserting this language in the state’s constitution will eventually lead to,” Welner said. “The wording is intentionally – and I think mischievously – vague.”
Fields disagrees that Amendment 80 is a precursor to a statewide voucher program. He said the measure is not structured in a way that would open the possibility of a voucher program.
“I think there would have to be future legislation or ballot measures that passed (to create a voucher program),” he said.
The measure has significant opposition from public schoolteachers and their advocates, including the state’s largest teachers union, the Colorado Education Association. Those fighting the measure argue it is unnecessary and would lead to a system that would divert funding from public schools to private schools.
“The right to school choice is already well enshrined in our Colorado law and has been for over 30 years,” CEA President Kevin Vick said during a rally earlier this year at a Denver middle school. “The only reason this would be needed is if people want to further the funding of private schools.”
Vick worries about inflicting significant harm on rural schools, saying the measure could result in a system that pulls money from public schools all over the state to fund private school tuition for a small number of students primarily in metro Denver and Boulder.
“The pie (of public school funding) is only so big to begin with and whether you’re talking about money for traditional public schools or charter schools or even home schooling, I think parents that are in those programs already know the pie is too small and that the challenge to get resources that are needed for their kids parents realize is very difficult already,” Vick said. “And so this would just exacerbate that if this incremental approach is allowed to take hold in Colorado.”
School Choice for Every Child is the issue committee supporting Amendment 80. It hadn’t reported any fundraising or spending through Sept. 25 in support of the measure.
Advance Colorado may be spending directly in support of the measure, activity that wouldn’t show up in the state’s campaign finance system. The nonprofit doesn’t disclose its donors.
Public Schools Strong is the issue committee opposing the measure. It had raised $750,000 through Sept. 25 and spent just $71,000.
The committee’s major donors include the Colorado Fund for Children and Public Education, Stand for Children, the Colorado Education Association and Educators for Equity. The Colorado Fund for Children and Public Education, Stand for Children and Educators for Equity are all nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors.
Nonpartisan legislative staff creates a guide for each initiative on the statewide ballot. You can find their analysis of Amendment 80 here.
You can read the full text of the ballot measure here.
