The Denver Post carried an op-ed online by ACE’s Executive Director Norton Rainey on the defeat of a tax credit bill that would have given low-income families access to quality private schools.
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Defeat of tax credits to attend private school
Monday, March 8th, 2010School Choice Bill Killed
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010Yesterday the House Committee on Finance considered HB 10-1296, sponsored by Representative Spencer Swalm and Senator Josh Penry. Norton Rainey, ACE executive director testified in support of the bill, as did Jacque Graham, Principal at Inner City School and Theresa Gallegos, the mother of an ACE scholar.
The idea behind HB 1296 came from former U.S. Senator Hank Brown, and it would provide low-income families with an annual $1,000 tax credit for enrolling their child in a private school. The bill would also provide a grant of $1,000 to any public school that loses a student to a private school as a consequence of the tax credit.
Regrettably, the bill was killed on a Party line vote, six to five.
It is unfortunate, as the bill would have given low-income families a tremendous financial incentive to send their child to a private school, reduced public school class sizes as more children took advantage of the tax credit, and provided public schools with a $1,000 grant to help them give the children that remain behind a better quality education.
The bill would have even had a positive fiscal impact on our state, with a savings of $4.9 million in the first year, $8.7 million in the second year, and as much as $36 million in ten years, according to the official fiscal note prepared by Legislative Council.
It’s hard to imagine rejecting a bill that would do so much:
- Provide a much-needed financial benefit to low-income families;
- Allow low-income children to attend quality private schools;
- Support public schools with a $1,000 grant for not teaching a child who left for private school;
- Save the State of Colorado millions of dollars during one of the worst recessions in our history and at a time when the Legislature is proposing to cut K-12 education spending.
During the hearing several comments stood out as particularly alarming:
- The full-time lobbyist for the Colorado Education Association (the teacher’s union) testified against the bill, stating that the legislation “doesn’t support public education.” This statement perfectly sums up what is wrong with the CEA. The lobbyist was right that the bill’s intent was not to support public education, even though it would have provided each school $1,000 for every child they lost. The bill was intended to support children, not the bureaucracy of our public education system… and shouldn’t that be the point?
- Other representatives who voted “no” agreed with the CEA lobbyist, saying the bill “undermined” public education. It’s hard to imagine that giving a public school $1,000 for every child that leaves their school would be seen as undermining public schools. After all, most of the children who would choose to leave would do so because the public school wasn’t effective. Talk about rewarding failure!
While it was frustrating to watch this bill go down in defeat, ACE was proud to support the bill and share with the committee some of the amazing things that are happening through this organization. ACE will continue to provide these low-income children with immediate relief from failing public schools, and we will continue to support efforts to extend school choice to every child in Colorado.
Denver Takes Step Backwards
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009Yesterday, education reform in Denver suffered a significant setback.
In three competitive Denver School Board races voters elected two union-backed candidates - Andrea Merida and Nate Easley Jr. The only reform candidate to win was Mary Seawell, who won the at-large seat.
As the Denver Post reports today:
The seven-member DPS board, heralded nationally for pushing academic and administrative reforms, now is effectively split 4-3 along ideological lines, with the minority supporting reforms pushed by Superintendent Tom Boasberg and his predecessor, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.
It seems clear that the increasingly popular charter school movement will suffer most. During the campaign Merida and Easley expressed concern about the growth of charter schools, as well as the general pace of reform - as if hundreds of thousands of childrens futures aren’t at stake. The board is charged with approving charter applications, and could significantly impede the growth of the charter movement.
The Post continues:
Charter-school advocates had framed this election in stark terms: If union-backed candidates were elected, the district’s momentum toward improvement would suffer and that could ruin Colorado’s shot at a share of the U.S. Department of Education’s competitive $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” fund.
It is also important to note that many charter schools in Denver specifically serve low-income communities; impeding charter school growth reduces the options for low-income students.
So today ACE is more important than ever. We continue to provide the only alternative for hundreds of low-income parents who are tired of the status-quo and seek to provide a quality education for their children.
Poor in Colorado
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009The Colorado Children’s Campaign recently reported that the number of Colorado children living in poverty grew by 73% (87,000 children) from 2000 to 2006 – the nation’s highest rate of growth.
Over the weekend, the Denver Post examined this troubling increase. Economist Harry Holzer of the Washington-based Urban Institute and Georgetown University told the paper that “the problem is partly societal barriers – like bad schools in bad neighborhoods — and partly lack of initiative and failure of will.”
The statistics bear this out.
- More than 60% of the 1.2 million U.S. dropouts each year are from low-income families.
- In Colorado, where 16,500 high school students fail to graduate on time, the low-income graduation rate is 59%. In Denver only 45% of low-income students earn a diploma.
- Research shows that high school dropouts earn $260,000 less over the course of their lifetime.
Providing low-income children with a quality education - wether in a traditional public school, a charter school, or a private school - should be a state and national priority.
But if we continue to force low-income parents to send their children to schools that are not giving them the tools to work themselves out of poverty, we can’t possibly complain about a “failure of will” on their part. Provide them with options and most parents will find the “will” to choose the school that’s best for their child.