The Durango Herald editorial board did get one thing correct in its opinion piece, “Politics play out on state board.”
In the eight years I have been involved in the formation of Ascent Classical Academies and opening these classical charter schools, it, unfortunately, has always boiled down to a party-line vote. When Golden View Classical Academy was approved in Jefferson County in 2014, the vote to approve was 3-2, with the majority being charter and choice advocates.
In 2017, the Ascent Douglas County school was also approved on a party-line vote, 4-3. The dissenting school district board members gave the same reasons that 9-R gave for denial; that our charter school would not serve all students; that the curriculum was not diverse enough; that the school was not tailored enough for the community; and that the school was a thinly-veiled religious school, to name just a few.
Yet, our charter schools are currently at 100% capacity with a waitlist as least as long as enrollment. Indeed, if our charter schools were doing any of these things that school boards claimed we would do, our enrollment, our test scores, our parent and student satisfaction, and our authorizer relations would be in the tank. But they are not, instead they are thriving.
I have literally met thousands of families who are desperate for this type of tuition-free education. It is heartbreaking, once again, to see the politics of adults put before the well-being of a child’s education and future.
Kim Gilmartin
Golden
