Yesterday, 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.