Could a potential school choice ballot measure lead to a voucher program in Colorado?

A proposed ballot measure pushed by conservative political nonprofit Advance Colorado Action aims to protect the right to school choice in Colorado’s constitution, cementing parents’ ability to send their children to any public school, charter school, private school or homeschooling program they want. 

But some education advocates and policy experts see a hidden motive, saying Initiative 138 could lead to a statewide voucher program that uses public dollars to send children to private schools, including those with a religious affiliation.

“I think it’s a steppingstone,” Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy Center and a professor in the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, told The Colorado Sun. “If the initiative passed, it could be a central part of a larger campaign, political and legal, that could ultimately result in a voucher program in the state. But I think that strategy looks to a five- to 10-year window or even longer and would have to have a lot of dominoes fall.”

Proponents say the measure simply strengthens school choice protections already found in state law — and they deny that the proposal is a school voucher play in disguise.

The proposed ballot measure is the latest salvo in a long political fight over what role school choice should play in Colorado’s education system and the degree of accountability and transparency charter schools in particular must uphold. Charter schools have been a regular subject of contention at the state Capitol, where lawmakers have repeatedly jousted over how tightly the state should regulate them, with charter school advocates calling state regulations an obstacle to innovation in the classroom.

Critics of charter schools say they take too much funding from traditional public schools, without being required to meet the same level of quality. 

Last year, a bill introduced by a group of liberal Colorado Democrats sought to impose sweeping reforms on charter schools in the interest of making them more transparent and accountable. That legislation, which charter school advocates called “a blatant attack on charter schools and charter school families,” failed.

Previous attempts to launch a voucher program in Colorado have likewise failed. The few school voucher programs that did manage to move forward were legally challenged and ultimately dissolved, including a school voucher law rejected by a Denver judge in 2003 on the grounds that it violated local control provisions in the state Constitution.

Debates over funneling public dollars to religious schools — both private and charter schools — have also swirled in other states in recent years. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in June struck down a school poised to become the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school. Another effort to benefit private religious schools with public funding through a tuition assistance program in Maine prevailed in 2022. 

Proponents say Initiative 138 is needed to protect school choice from repeated attacks

Initiative 138 in Colorado would add another layer of protection beyond state law by reinforcing in the state Constitution the right for parents to choose whether to enroll their child in a public school, charter school, private school; homeschool them; or send them to another district through open enrollment. The measure has not made it onto the November ballot yet. Sponsors submitted about 201,000 signatures in support of the initiative to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office last week.

State elections officials have until Aug. 22 to review signatures. The ballot measure would need 55% of voters to approve it in order to pass.

Michael Fields, president of Advance Colorado Action, said the proposed ballot measure is necessary because Colorado school choice laws are statutory, meaning “they could change at any point.”

“We’ve had broad bipartisan support of school choice for decades here, but I feel like that might not be the case in the future,” he said. “We’ve seen legislation this year going after charter schools. I think that will continue in the future from some legislators.”

Fields, who previously taught at a charter school and whose children attend district neighborhood schools in Douglas County, said Initiative 138 is not paving the way for a voucher program in Colorado, particularly since there is no cost associated with the measure.

“This is strictly locking in what we already have in place,” said Fields, who describes himself as a proponent of Education Savings Account programs, which give families government subsidies to fund tuition at private schools as well as pursue private tutoring, online classes and extracurricular activities.

“I just think that parents should be in charge of education,” he said. “I think it’s easier when they have resources to send their kid to the school that they want to. I believe that there’s good fits for kids in all different types of education. I just think that the options should be available for everybody.”

Fields said his organization’s lawyer submitted multiple possible measures to the Title Board to see which ones the Title Board would accept, which ones would abide by the mandate to address a single subject in a ballot measure and what the formal language of different versions would look like.

One submitted measure included text reflecting a voucher program: “Parents and guardians have the right to direct per-pupil funding for their child to the schooling of their choice.”

That language is not part of Initiative 138.

House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican, wrote in an email that preserving the right to school choice in the state Constitution “would provide essential protection against ongoing attacks on this fundamental principle.”

The measure “is a vital step in securing the ability of parents to make the best educational decisions for their children, regardless of future political pressures,” Pugliese wrote.The Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, opposes the potential ballot measure, according to President Kevin Vick.

Vick labeled the proposal “extremely troubling” with concerns that it would take a lot of taxpayer funding needed by Colorado students “and put it in the hands of a small number of private school people who could already afford to pay tuition themselves.”

He doesn’t see a need for the measure because Colorado already has “a pretty robust” school choice system.

Fighting “one battle at a time”

The possible ballot measure could open up “new policy ground” in establishing “a legal right to access private schools” in the state Constitution, said Van Schoales, a former teacher and school leader who is also senior policy director of the Keystone Policy Center. 

Schoales did not speak on behalf of the Keystone Policy Center. The nonprofit does not take a stance on political issues.

A new legal right to access private schools could then enable legislation or a court case pursuing the start of a voucher program, Schoales said.

Welner, of the National Education Policy Center, said many more political puzzle pieces would have to fall into place to actually introduce a voucher program in the state. If Republicans win federal elections, gaining control of the presidency and Congress, and then open up federal funding or incentives for states to adopt voucher policies, that could create more momentum for voucher programs. If Republicans also gained more power in Colorado and voters elected a conservative governor, that could usher the state close to adopting its own voucher program, Welner said.

Those circumstances could set the stage for a voucher policy, Welner said. But right now, Colorado parents’ appetite for public schools presents another hurdle to a voucher program, he added.

“Colorado families overwhelmingly like their public schools so voucher supporters face a steep uphill battle,” Welner said. “They have to fight one battle at a time, and this is one battle or one steppingstone.”

Welner said it would be hard to persuade voters or politicians that Colorado should join the ranks of states that provide taxpayer subsidies for private schools or homeschooling.

Other education advocates and organizations are waiting to take a position on Initiative 138 until it becomes an official ballot measure, including the Colorado League of Charter Schools. President Dan Schaller said if it becomes an official ballot measure, the nonprofit organization will conduct a deeper legal analysis of its potential impacts to present to its board.

Beyond the political battle over voucher programs is the question of whether they lead to better academic outcomes for students. Schoales said there is no strong evidence to suggest that kids in voucher programs perform significantly better or worse than other students. 

Giving public funding to private schools, including religious schools, “is not a strategy to improve outcomes,” Schoales said. “It’s just a different way of delivering education.”