Now that the U.S. Department of Education has an advocate for privatization in charge, Denver’s charter chains have moved for rapid expansion.
Denver has been under corporate reform control for several years. The charter industry and equity investors have poured large sums into school board elections, squeezing out ordinary candidates who wanted to help public schools. Now the district, with a board fully committed to closing public schools and opening new schools, kind of like shoe stores, is fully committed to becoming a corporate reform Mecca.
“Leaders of four charter school networks delivered an open letter to Denver Public Schools leadership Friday asking the district to let them open more new schools in the coming years to help meet ambitious goals to improve the city’s schools. [i.e., by turning them over to private management].
“The charter school executives’ letter, a copy of which was obtained by Chalkbeat, came on the deadline for responses to the district’s annual open call for new school applications.
“Three of the networks — University Prep, STRIVE Prep and Rocky Mountain Prep — submitted 10 charter school applications this cycle for schools they hope to open over the next few years.
“The school board already has approved six additional DSST schools to open in the coming years, and two existing STRIVE charters are awaiting permanent placement. If all those schools are approved and open, they would serve 11,300 additional students at full capacity.
“In all, the district received 23 letters of intent for new school proposals, 17 of them from charters, by Friday’s deadline.”
Churn, churn, churn.
Thanks for writing about this, Diane. Jared Polis (DEM) has charter schools in Denver. He lives in Boulder.
Polis is so often in the news for being such a soft-hearted “caring” man. A serious problem with school reform has been that when arms-length “caring” reformers like Polis get involved, somehow actual compassion ends up in the back room….
I’ve got a post coming Sunday night showing how Nashville could be moving towards a Denver model.
According to the 2010 United States Census, Colorado had a population of 5,029,196. Racial composition of the state’s population was:
81.3% White American (70.0% Non-Hispanic White, 11.3% Hispanic white)
20.7% Hispanic and Latino American (of any race) heritage
7.2% Some Other Race
4.0% Black or African American
3.4% Multiracial American
2.8% Asian American
1.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
I wonder how many states have similar demographics…..not that it would matter, or have any effect on performance.
Hey Diane,
Thanks for sharing. I am a former educator who has worked in some of the organizations you mention in this post. I know the concerns you share, but would love to chat with you in more detail about the complexity of the issues.