A bill introduced by a group of liberal Democrats that was designed to tighten rules for Colorado charter schools and make them more transparent and accountable failed Thursday during its first committee hearing.
The House Education Committee rejected the measure on an 8-3, bipartisan vote, with four Democrats joining the four Republicans on the panel in voting down the legislation.
House Bill 1363, introduced in March, proposed a range of changes that would have imposed stricter rules on charter schools and affected how they operate. Opponents of the legislation called it “a blatant attack” on charter schools and the families they serve.
Bill proponents and advocates doubled down on what they say is a need to ensure charter schools are as accountable to taxpayers as district-run public schools.
“I expect most charter schools are good stewards to public tax dollars,” state Rep. Tammy Story, an Evergreen Democrat and one of the bill’s main sponsors, said during the committee meeting. “However, it is important that financial records are publicly available. This bill requires charter schools to ensure their revenue and expenditures are available on their website.”
Story added: “The public deserves this, and families within charter schools deserve to know how their public tax dollars are being spent — the same as traditional public schools within public school districts and every government agency and department that we have.”
Charter schools — which date back to 1993 in Colorado — are public schools managed by outside nonprofit operators that establish 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 children, but they are still subject to the same standards and assessments as traditional public schools.
The state has more than 260 charter schools that educate more than 135,000 students, which represents roughly 15% of the state’s public school population in preschool through high school.
Among the policies under House Bill 1363 was a proposal that set out to amend a law that forbids local school boards from placing a moratorium on the approval of charter schools. Under the bill, a district facing declining enrollment or a projected drop in enrollment would have the power to prohibit charter schools from opening in their district. And school boards would have the authority to revoke or not renew a district charter school contract due to declining enrollment in either the district or the charter school. Charter schools would still have the option to appeal the decision.
Another provision under the legislation would have established harsher consequences for charter schools that do not provide information “in plain and easy-to-understand language” about laws and policies they’re exempt from on their website and their school districts’ enrollment website. Charter schools that failed to comply could lose their charter contract, according to the bill.
Charter school advocates balked at the sweeping policies with fears that it would undermine Colorado’s entire charter school sector.
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Among those who testified against the bill Thursday is Dan Schaller, president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools. He said the bill was “an extreme proposal that had garnered bipartisan national attention because of the extreme nature of it.”
“It would have had devastating consequences for the very healthy charter school sector that we’ve developed here in Colorado that has national accolades,” Schaller told The Colorado Sun, “and it should not pass.”
Gov. Jared Polis, a founder of charter schools before he became governor, including The New America School, also expressed opposition to the measure.
In addition to Story, the bill’s other main sponsors were Rep. Lorena Garcia of Adams County and Sen. Lisa Cutter of Morrison. Garcia and Cutter are also Democrats and along with Story they’ve supported or sponsored some of the most progressive legislation debated at the Capitol in recent years.
Colorado Sun staff writer Jesse Paul contributed to this report.