OPINION

Schaffer: Colorado charter schools serve all, deserve equal funding

Bob Schaffer

Fairness in public education is about the relationship between individual students, not the relationship between school buildings, political districts, school employees or states. This is an especially important maxim this week as equitable funding for all public-school students becomes a central topic under consideration in the Colorado Senate.

On Monday, the state senators who represent Larimer County — John Kafalas, Kevin Lundberg and Vicki Marble — will cast their (actually our) final votes on legislation to address widespread funding disparities between public schoolchildren. The proposal is Senate Bill 61. Its aim is to ensure funding fairness for all children in every public school.

In the interest of the most equitable public-education system possible, I hope each of our Larimer County legislators supports the tens of thousands of Colorado children who are currently treated unfairly due to the inequitable distribution of public-school funds.

In full disclosure, I am hardly a neutral figure where education policy is concerned. I am an unapologetic opinion columnist, not a disinterested journalist; and that’s why my viewpoints appear here on this page, not in a news section.

Despite my forthright favoritism for the private sector, I have always been a full-throated advocate for effective public schools finding philosophical agreement with American founders like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Adams wrote, “The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it.” Public schools should be established and maintained, he said, “at the public expense of the people themselves.”

As a former elected officeholder, I’ve expended the heft of my public service to the Colorado Senate Education Committee as its vice-chairman; to the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce as an active member and co-chair of the House Education Reform Caucus; and as chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education.

My dad was a career public-school educator, my mom a public-school finance officer. All five of my children received 100 percent of their education from dedicated instructors in the Poudre School District. My wife and I volunteered designing and establishing three successful PSD schools.

For the past seven years, I have led as a public-school principal at Liberty Common High School, which serves junior-high and high-school students. The school was initially chartered by PSD in 1997 and will soon celebrate 20 years of educating PSD students. My enthusiasm for Larimer County’s tri-district approach to educating all students — including those residing in the most remote parts of our far-flung county — is well-informed.

As taxpayers, we all contribute generously toward funding our public schools, and I am personally grateful for it. Our considerable public-school system is indeed established and “maintained at the public expense of the people themselves,” just as Adams hoped it one day would.

To help extend the reach of public education, Colorado added charter public schools to its education arsenal 22 years ago. Today, there are 238 charter public schools serving around 115,000 students, with thriving success.

Sadly, schoolchildren attending the average Colorado public charter school are funded by about 20 percent less when compared to the funding of students in public non-chartered schools. The primary cause of student-funding inequality is an imbalance in the distribution of local school revenues devoted to capital building costs.

In recent years, the Legislature considered remedies to address the disparity, but support proved elusive — barely. Obviously, there are some who still oppose evenhandedness for all public-school students. The state’s teacher unions are first among opponents. Their political influence at the state Capitol is forbidding.

Some opponents simply misunderstand Colorado’s Charter Schools Act, believing charter schools are somehow outside of our public-school system. Plainly, they are not. Anyone wanting to tour one or to learn more can simply contact me.

Charter public schools foster innovation within a public framework. They enjoy administrative flexibility through localized governance. They meet state financial-transparency guidelines and are held accountable to the highest, most demanding marketplace standards of academic rigor, safety and school culture.

They serve all students, including those with disabilities. Enrollment is by lottery. Selective screening is, in fact, against the law. Those who attend them deserve equitable funding.

Happily, SB61 enjoys both Republican and Democrat sponsorship. Prominent business groups like the Denver Metro Chamber, and advocacy groups like Democrats for Education Reform and the Colorado Children’s Campaign back it. Our own U.S. Congressman Jared Polis (D-2nd District) has articulated support for the bill, too.

Last November’s election launched a new General Assembly, which is now into only its ninth week. Monday's Senate vote could signal a hopeful new direction for all Colorado schoolchildren.

Funding equity is fair. SB61 is overdue.

Bob Schaffer is principal at Liberty Common, a charter high school and junior high school in Fort Collins. His column publishes monthly.

Bob Schaffer, principal of Liberty Common High School, now.