Colorado governor defends charter schools from bill proposing crippling regulations

A Colorado bill to tighten charter school regulations has faced strong resistance, including from the state’s Democrat governor.

Although charter schools are technically public schools, Democrats have increasingly seen charters as competitors – and therefore enemies – of the traditional public school system.

HB 24-1363, sponsored by three Democrat legislators, would place more regulations on charters in the name of accountability.

Some of its proposals include: 

• Requiring at least one-third of the charter school board to be comprised of charter school parents and “people who reflect the demographics of the community where the charter school is located”; 
• Repealing a provision which currently allows charter schools to use school district facilities rent-free; 
• Repealing a provision which requires school districts to provide information about its vacant or underused properties to charter schools; 
• Diminishing charters’ ability to appeal local school board decisions to the state school board; 
• Allowing school boards to revoke or not renew a charter school because of the district’s declining enrollment; 
• And allowing school districts to keep more of the per-pupil funding of charter students. 

The measure has met with resistance on multiple fronts. 

“This bill would kill charter schools in Colorado and take the right to educational opportunity away from parents and kids,” Kristi Burton Brown, former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, commented on X. “We must defeat this bill and put the right to school choice in our state constitution.” 

Charter school leaders agreed.  

“This bill is aimed at restricting those freedoms for parents to choose, and really cutting down the quality of education that charters could provide because it cuts down on their resources,” explained Laurajean Downs, director of Mesa Valley Community School. 

And Dan Schaller, president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, questioned the purpose of HB 24-1363. 

“Why would we undermine a system that has proven to be fair and effective over time?” he asked. 

But the bill’s most influential opponent is a Democrat, Gov. Jared Polis.  

Polis is a long-time advocate of charter schools as a form of school choice. 

In 2022, he even wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post criticizing the anti-charter reforms of the federal Department of Education. 

Naturally, he’s also opposing HB 24-1363.  

“Colorado is a national leader in education access, innovation and choice,” said a statement from Polis’ office. “Public charter schools are a popular option in Colorado, serving around 15% of our school-age children. This bill would weaken, rather than strengthen, school choice in Colorado, and the governor strongly opposes it.”  

As interest in school choice soars nationwide, Colorado’s charters continue to become more popular. 

According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, charter enrollment increased more than 8% between 2019 and 2023, while traditional public schools declined more than 5%.  

Both are publicly funded, but national data shows charters provide better academic outcomes despite receiving less per-pupil funding than traditional, government-run schools.