Blazing New Trails - Connexions

278 CRITICAL ISSUES IN SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
In essence, although Illinois is often perceived as a wealthy state, in 2011, it faced a
$13 billion budget deficit. Historically, in spite of past state surpluses, the educational
opportunities provided to students varied greatly, depending upon their specific school
districts. Some students in property-rich districts received the best education possible, often
matriculating to the nation’s best universities. Others, often living only a few miles from the
most advantaged students, perhaps even in the same county, were educated in schools with
limited current curricular materials, supplies, access to technology, and excellent teachers.
UNIQUE COLORADO CHARACTERISTICS
Colorado educated 802,639 students in 178 school districts in 2007-2008 (Colorado
Department of Education, 2007). Colorado was selected for comparison with Illinois because
it differs from Illinois in its approach to schooling in major ways. While Illinois is heavily
unionized, Colorado is not as unionized as Illinois. This unionization extends to the teaching
ranks. In many instances, Illinois teacher local unions are very powerful and strongly impact
the bargaining which leads to teacher work conditions and compensation. Colorado’s teacher
unions are continuing to evolve, but do not generally have the influence seen in Illinois. Due
in part to the weaker teacher unions, Colorado has long had a number of options leading to
flexibility and options for parents and students. Colorado has been an open enrollment state
since 1991, which essentially means that any student may attend any school district in the
state, as long as there is room.
The popularity of the open enrollment option soon led to the growth of the charter
school movement in Colorado. In 1993, Senator Bill Owens, a Republican, and
Representative Peggy Kerns, a Democrat, introduced the original Charter Schools Act, which
was subsequently signed by Governor Roy Romer, a Democrat (C.R.S.22-30.5-101 et. seq.).
Thus, this Act had bi-partisan support in Colorado. Over the seventeen years since the passage
of the original Charter Schools Act, it has been modified numerous times, often liberalizing
the Act. The first Colorado charter school was initiated shortly after the passage of the Act,
and the growth in charter schools has been very strong. Six years after the passage of the
Charter School Act, there was a legal challenge to the State Board of Education’s ability to
appeal public school districts’ decisions regarding the granting of charters. In a Colorado
Supreme Court case, involving the Denver Public Schools (DPS), the Court denied DPS’s
contention that it had the right to determine educational delivery within its boundaries (Board
of Education School District No.1 vs. Booth, 1999). During the 2007–2008 school year, there
were 141 charter schools operating in the state of Colorado. These schools served 56,788
students which constituted nearly 7% of the K-12 public school enrollment in Colorado
(Carpenter & Kafer, 2008). According to Carpenter and Kafer, “If all the charter schools were
combined into an imaginary district, the enrollment of that district would be the fourth largest
in the state” (Carpenter & Kafer., 2008, p.10). While most of the charter schools are in Front-
Range cities and suburbs, some also exist in rural areas in the mountains and plains. By 2007,
46 of the 178 (25.4%) Colorado school districts had authorized charter schools (Carpenter &
Kafer, 2008). The charter school enrollment within districts with three or more charter schools
in 2007-2008 ranged from 4.1% (Adams-Arapaho 28J) to 16.9% (Northglenn-Thornton 12)
(Carpenter & Kafer, 2008). While it was initially thought that charter schools would primarily
serve at-risk students, that concept has changed and Colorado charter schools now serve all
types of students. There are often claims that charter schools are overly selective and do not
pull their student enrollments from a wide range of students. However, when reviewing one
often examined category, racial balance, Colorado charter schools enrolled 20,930