All eyes are on State Rep. Karen Middleton as she shepherds the Interim School Finance Committee. Can she prevent it from being commandeered by corporate charter interests?
The committee is heavily stacked with charter supporters who are setting the agenda and calling up “witnesses” from within their own ranks. Among them are Sen. Keith King, a charter operator; newly appointed Sen. Michael Johnston, a “school reformer”; Sen. Chris Romer, a self- styled agent of the KIPP charter corporation; Sen. Nancy Spence, author of school-privatizing voucher legislation; and state Rep. Amy Stephens of El Paso County. Their pro-charter witnesses include Randy DeHoff and Dr. Alex Medler of the State Charter Institute and Jim Griffin, director of the Colorado League of Charter Schools.
The goal of this committee is presumably to protect Colorado taxpayers and students and to seriously consider the facts, one of which is that charters cost taxpayers as much as $5,000 more per pupil than district programs while producing no added achievement. With 60,000 charter students in the state, this wastes $300 million per year. Even if they were previously well-intentioned, charter backers now must concede that the jury is in on charters: Their cost to taxpayers is staggering without improving achievement.
But, despite the failures of charter schools, charters want even more funding.
Because King’s charter school has fewer “at- risk” students than district or state averages, he is pushing to change the definition of “at-risk” in what appears to be a self-serving gesture. Johnston has twice called to change the funding of districts based on size — an apparent attempt to increase the money given to charter schools.
Charter interests also want to terminate the existing efficient district-funding model, which has maximized choice in school districts for decades by generating hundreds of millions of dollars in added purchasing power. In reality, much of Colorado’s $674 million in unfunded district mandates is paid for by these larger-district efficiencies.
Charter interests are trying to promote an alternative model, one in which the state sends money to schools on a student-by-student basis, extinguishing much of the buying power generated by funding through districts. This “by-the- student” funding hides the staggering waste of dollars caused when administrative tasks are pushed to the school-site level.
Charter interests also twist the priorities of the new federal Race to the Top school funding, saying it favors charters, but that is not the case. Instead, this funding’s priority is on closing the achievement gap; teacher experience and accountability; and turning around schools in crisis. District schools out-perform charters in all of these areas in Colorado.
Even now, this committee is drafting legislation. Will it promote the interests of Colorado’s children or of the charter lobby? Middleton should require that anyone who benefits from the charter lobby recuse themselves from votes that could benefit this special interest.
Lisa Mieritz is director of Economics in Education, Inc., based in Colorado Springs.
