Colorado’s innovative charter schools have been raising the bar for public education in our state — and setting the pace nationwide — for over three decades. They also have been winning parents’ hearts and minds along the way.
The wildly popular charter school movement now serves some 137,000 K-12 public school students at 268 public charter schools across Colorado. Charter students in fact account for over 15% of total public school enrollment in our state.
Charter schools haven’t been the only game changers in public education, of course. There also are all-online programs and homeschooling. Both work well for some students and further complement Colorado’s public education landscape.
What all such choices have in common is they give a meaningful option to families stymied by failing neighborhood schools.
Amendment 80 on this fall’s statewide mail ballot would ensure the right to such educational options, placing that right in the state’s constitution. It would do so not merely to celebrate the obvious strides of school choice — but to protect them.