Politico reports this morning (open the link for many other links–and for an important story about an online for-profit “university’s” struggle to hold on to federal funding):
RESET ON COLORADO VOUCHER CASE STARTS THIS WEEK: A high-profile school voucher case that had made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court is in district court in Colorado this week after the high court justices kicked it back in light of their June ruling in a Missouri case that religious institutions cannot be excluded from state programs with a purely secular intent. The case, out of the Douglas County School District, represents school choice advocates’ next best shot at scrapping constitutional provisions in 39 states known as “Blaine Amendments” that prohibit public money from aiding religious organizations, including private schools.
– Last week, the Colorado Supreme Court, which had been ordered to take another look at the case, sent it back to the Denver district court. In 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court found that a voucher program in which the majority of participating students elected to attend a private, religious school was in conflict with the state’s bar on tax dollars going to religious groups. Attorneys for the taxpayer group challenging the voucher program said in a notice filed last week that they will contact the trial court judge’s chambers this week to start work on scheduling a status conference.
– The voucher program at the center of the case is also shaping up to be the central issue in a Douglas County school board race. Three of the board’s four pro-voucher incumbents are up for reelection this year, the Colorado Independent reports, and the race to fill those seats is already crowded with voucher opponents, including one of the plaintiffs in the court case. The state’s former Lt. Gov. Gail Schoettler, who lives in Douglas County, called the election “the most important school board election in the country,” the Independent reports. More on that here.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“The voucher program at the center of the case is also shaping up to be the central issue in a Douglas County school board race. Three of the board’s four pro-voucher incumbents are up for reelection this year, the Colorado Independent reports, and the race to fill those seats is already crowded with voucher opponents, including one of the plaintiffs in the court case.”
Great! Ed reformers hijack another debate for their pet causes.
Do any of our public employees work on PUBLIC education? You know, the unfashionable public sector schools?
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I live in Boulder, CO so I know about vouchers and charters in this state. IT’s HORRID.
Douglas County is ONE HUGE MESS.
Polis (House Rep DEM who lives in Boulder) own 2 charter schools in Denver. Polis is setting his eyes on running for governor. OY! Polis is RICH. His parents founded Blue Mountain Press.
Folks, VOTE with YOUR $$$$$ if you can.
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THANKS for mentioning the devastating complicity of Polis. It is hard to get anyone to even notice the absolute public school abuse brought by not only Polis but by TFAer Johnston who is also up for governor.
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In view of the SCOTUS ruling in Trinity Lutheran School v. Comer (2017), Where the court ruled 7-2 for the plaintiff, I would see little likelihood, that the court would revisit the issue.
The “Blaine amendments” were born in a time of religious bigotry, as a means to stop any public support for schools operated by the Roman Catholic Church. Our nation has moved forward from this mindset.
Publicly-operated schools are last unionized, top-down socialist enterprise in this nation. The failure of government to run educational systems is well-documented, and an embarrassment to our nation. The unions (NEA/AFT/AFSCME), and their liberal allies in government and the media, are fighting a “last stand” to stop the inexorable and inevitable path to educational choice, in our nation.
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Charles,
Yesterday you swore your undying love for public schools, now you return to slamming them.
I am confused.
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I did not swear any such thing. The fact is, I cherish our nation’s school teachers. I am blessed to be the grandson, nephew, and brother of school teachers.
I am, however, bitterly disappointed at how governments can muck up. The failure of some (NOT ALL) of our nation’s school systems to properly educate our nation’s future citizens, is a heartbreak.
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The schools are NOT failing. Our society is. We allow millions of people, black and white and Hispanic, to grow up and live in dire poverty and then blame the schools.
Charles, why don’t you spend a day or a week in what you sneeringly call a “failing school.” Ask yourself whether you could do what those dedicated teachers do every day.
I dare you!
What we know is that if you send the same kids to another school with a voucher, their problems go with them.
Will you take up the challenge?
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I have spent some days in the Washington DC public schools (on a telecommunications project). I have nothing but respect for the dedicated teachers in these schools. They must face crime, drugs, poverty, indifference, all of the scourges of inner-city life, and still they keep on “trucking”.
I have neither the training, nor the temperament to be school teacher in an inner-city school. Education should best be left to professionals. Same with airline pilots, basketball players, etc.
Although I believe that education should be left to professionals, all citizens have a duty to influence education policy. Clemenceau said “War is too important to be left to the generals”. Education impacts our society, and our society must control and direct education policy. If we fail to educate our youth, all of us will have to live with the failure: Crime, poverty, hopelessness. Our standard of living will collapse, and we will be heading back to the dark ages.
I am in agreement, with most of your points. If a child is learning-disabled in a public school, he will be learning-disabled in a non-public school. If a child is being abused in his home, it does not matter which school he attends.
How can you say Q The schools are NOT failing END Q ? You must agree ,that SOME schools in this nation, are failing to deliver a quality education to the students. Some states grade their publicly-operated schools, and SOME schools receive an “F” rating. Not all of the schools in this nation, are accomplishing the task of delivering a quality education to their students.
Q We allow millions of people, black and white and Hispanic, to grow up and live in dire poverty and then blame the schools. END Q
I dispute this. I remember back in 1965, when President Johnson announced the “war on poverty”. After half a century, and trillions of dollars being spent, we have a higher percentage of people in poverty, than before the war began. As far as I can see, the war on poverty is lost.
It is not fair to “blame the schools”, for the number of people living in poverty in this nation. The causes of poverty are many and diverse. I certainly do not blame the schools, for poverty. Some, not all, of the people who are living in poverty, are there as the result of their own choices. When young girls drop out of school, and get pregnant, and go on the welfare rolls, this is as a result of their own choice. Over 70% of all African-American children are born to unmarried women. The children do not get adequate pre-natal care, and the women who bear these children, are usually unable to secure employment, that is adequate to support their children. These children do not get adequate parental supervision, and do not get the guidance necessary to become productive adults. The boys turn to gangs and crime, and the girls engage in early sexual activity, and the entire cycle keeps repeating.
There is enough blame to go around for everyone.
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A mention that the candidate that is a plaintiff, along with Taxpayers for Public Education, would be helpful. It’s Kevin Leung, a Douglas County, CO resident for 27 years with over 10 years experience supporting public education.
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Douglas County Voters-Come November vote!!! Vote Graziano, Holtzmann, Leung and Schor. #kidsnotpolitics.
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As the great majority of Douglas County Colorado residents know, the miseries inflicted on our school system over the last nine years by the “reformers” are based not so much on a desire to improve schools as to pursue an ideological agenda. Ideologues like this don’t care how much damage they do along the way, because they believe that the END they are pursuing is worth it. So what if they tell lies, or abuse parents and residents who ask questions. The “reformers” think they know better, and they really REALLY want to reform the rest of us. So they don’t really care that our scores are down here in Douglas County, that our teachers are leaving, that they have no plan to stabilize our dazzling school finances economic decline, that their next school will cause havoc for the existing schools, etc, etc. The end they have in mind – privatization of our school system and vouchers for religious schools – justifies the means.
This of course, is the justification offered for all kinds of evil.
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Well said. And sadly all true.
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“Three of the board’s four pro-voucher incumbents are up for re-election this year.”
Technically true, but none of them have filed to run again. The fourth is term-limited. In fact, two of the four incumbents have been seen and photographed at the new pro-voucher candidates campaign kickoff, which should indicate they won’t file by the September 1 deadline.
One of the four on the new reformer slate is a former state BoE member whom lost her reelection bid in 2016. She chairs a department at Colorado Christian University, one of the entities poised to profit from Douglas Cointy vouchers if this lawsuit is overturned based on the recent ruling.
While one of the pro-public education candidates is a plaintiff to the voucher lawsuit, the pro-voucher candidate has just as much conflict of interest in the outcome of this lawsuit based on her profession vs being a concerned citizen.
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