This story by Lindsey Toomer appeared on Colorado Newsline on November 18, 2024.
The Colorado State Board of Education maintained a majority of members who are sympathetic to charter schools following the November election, meaning that the board’s approach to charter school appeals could look similar to its current behavior.
The State Board of Education oversees the Colorado Department of Education and is responsible for setting curriculum standards and overseeing test scores. Additionally, when a local school board denies a charter school’s application, the school can appeal to the Board of Education, which has increasingly sided with charter schools over the last several years.
Democrats will now hold a 5-4 majority on the board, down from 6-3, having lost the 8th Congressional District seat to the Democratic incumbent’s Republican challenger, Yazmin Navarro. Navarro’s win also determined that pro-charter members would maintain a majority, as board chair Rebecca McClellan, a Democrat representing the 6th Congressional District, has shown more support for charter schools than some of her Democratic peers.
The board includes one member from each of Colorado’s eight congressional districts and one at-large member, elected to staggered six-year terms. Republicans Sherri Wright held onto her seat representing the 3rd Congressional District and Kristi Burton Brown, former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, was elected to represent the 4th Congressional District. Democrat Kathy Gebhardt will represent the 2nd Congressional District after running unopposed, netting a gain for charter school critics.
But because Navarro defeated incumbent Democratic board member Rhonda Solis, who is more critical of charter schools, pro-charter members maintained their 5-4 majority despite the gain Gebhardt’s election represented.
Colorado voters rejected a ballot measure that would have established school choice as a constitutional right. But because school choice is already established in Colorado law, little will be different compared to how school choice is currently approached.
Gebhardt said she’s “really disappointed” that people see board of education members as strictly pro- or anti-charter school. She said “people are not looking at the actual facts of what happened at the state board, and it’s a lot of opinion and scare tactics.”
Gebhardt said she hopes to see the board continue to review each charter school application individually based on what the school intends to offer. When reviewing charter school appeals, she said she will look at how the school is serving all students, their financial viability, and how they’re serving a unique need within the district.
“I don’t see a bias one way or the other, that’s what I’m hoping,” she said. She added that she doesn’t believe “that the structure of the school is what determines the outcome of the school.”
Navarro said her goals on the board are to protect school choice and parental rights, empower teachers and maintain high academic standards. She said she believes each board member brings their own expertise and experience and that they’ll “come up with the best ideas” to support the success of all students in Colorado.
“I just hope that we can all work together and that we don’t politicize education, and that we move forward,” Navarro said. “The people that I’ve spoken with on the board already, I can hear they have the heart set for children, and I think they’re going to be amazing coworkers, colleagues.”
Navarro said she will look for how charter schools will be successful when reviewing appeals on the board, and that they are abiding by all requirements, “just like a regular public school.”
McClellan said in a statement that she is “excited to welcome new board members and to continue working with returning board members to support the academic growth and achievement of all Colorado students.”
‘Uncertain times’
Dan Schaller, president of Colorado League of Charter Schools, the state’s nonprofit member organization for charter schools, said having a state board that is “fair and objective” when reviewing charter school appeals is “critically important” to his organization. He said looking at how the state board has handled past charter appeals, it has sided with the district 50% of the time and the charter school 50% of the time.
“We are glad to see that historically the State Board of Education has been a fair arbiter of determinations and decisions about charter schools,” Schaller said. “We’re very interested and involved in trying to maintain that fair, objective balance.”
Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, said he’s encouraged by “all the board members’ willingness to engage in productive conversations about the future of Colorado schools” and that he hopes they work to protect and support all students.
“Especially in these sorts of uncertain times around what may be forthcoming with schools, the board has a special responsibility to protect the students,” Vick said, “and I’m hoping that they rise to that occasion and do what’s needed to make sure that all our students in Colorado are safe when they’re at school.”
A task force established by the Colorado Legislature last week presented the state board with a report on its recommended changes to the state’s school accountability system.
“I look forward to that work a lot, because I think accountability systems are an important part of our system and letting our public know how our schools are doing and where we’re doing well and where we need to improve,” Gebhardt said.
Vick said he wants to see more balance and open conversation when it comes to accountability and innovation for all schools in Colorado. He said there’s a “pretty glaring double standard” where innovation in public schools is rejected in the name of high accountability standards, and accountability for charter schools is rejected in the name of innovation.
For example, Vick said he wants to see innovation when it comes to turnaround efforts for struggling schools.
“Instead of allowing these schools to be creative, they’ve put more and more restrictive measures on them, and that obviously has not worked,” Vick said. “I would like to see those schools have more autonomy to decide and find something that will fit for their particular situation.”
Schaller said he thinks “continuing to make enhancements to our accountability system as a state is always important, and there’s always room for improvement.” But its “fundamental, core function” of comparing how schools are performing and ensuring transparency for parents and families must be maintained, he said.
Going into a tight state budget year, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has committed to avoiding the budget stabilization factor — the amount of money the state might choose to owe schools when it spends instead on other priorities. But Gebhardt said even without a return to the factor, funding will be a major issue the State Board of Education will need to advocate for next year.
“We have been so underfunded as a state, and paying off the (budget stabilization) factor does not take us anywhere close to adequate and sustainable funding,” Gebhardt said.
Schaller said he appreciates Polis’ proposal of moving to a student-centered funding formula, and he hopes to see additional resources directed toward new approaches to serve historically underserved students.
“We need to continue to prioritize fresh approaches and new ways of thinking when it comes to serving some of our most historically underserved students,” Schaller said. “There are still far too many students that are falling through the cracks of our existing public education system, and in some respects, the pandemic just exacerbated that.”
Navarro said she wants to prioritize academics in the state budget.
“Always academics,” she said.