Thoughts on Exclusive Chartering Appeal
In the immediately preceding post, below, I gave the history and details of PSD's Exclusive Chartering appeal. My personal thoughts are as follows.
First, I strongly feel that government works better the closer it is to those who are governed. In other words, for school issues, it is better to have a local Board of Education make decisions on how to spend local taxpayers' money, because it gives the local taxpayers a much stronger voice in the makeup of that Board. In my mind, the Charter Institute goes against this principle. As it grows and authorizes charters across the state, it will become a centralized bureaucracy, directly accountable to no elected board (the Institute Board is made up of political appointees).
Second, the Colorado Constitution seems to give the Legislature little power to actually create something like the Charter Institute
Third, it seems clear to me that our previous "limit" was not a "moratorium" as defined by State statute.
Finally, in my mind, the State Board acted arbitrarily in approving other Districts' requests while denying PSDs.
This lawsuit will not be free. It will require time and energy from District staff. However, in my mind, the local control issues are important enough to spend the estimated $10,000 to $15,000 that the lawsuit will cost. Additionally, the per-pupil-revenue that the District stands to lose to Institute schools is much greater than that amount.
This is not the only avenue we should pursue. I feel we should continue to lobby our State Board representatives. I will update this post later with contact information for others who wish to lobby our State Board.
First, I strongly feel that government works better the closer it is to those who are governed. In other words, for school issues, it is better to have a local Board of Education make decisions on how to spend local taxpayers' money, because it gives the local taxpayers a much stronger voice in the makeup of that Board. In my mind, the Charter Institute goes against this principle. As it grows and authorizes charters across the state, it will become a centralized bureaucracy, directly accountable to no elected board (the Institute Board is made up of political appointees).
Second, the Colorado Constitution seems to give the Legislature little power to actually create something like the Charter Institute
Third, it seems clear to me that our previous "limit" was not a "moratorium" as defined by State statute.
Finally, in my mind, the State Board acted arbitrarily in approving other Districts' requests while denying PSDs.
This lawsuit will not be free. It will require time and energy from District staff. However, in my mind, the local control issues are important enough to spend the estimated $10,000 to $15,000 that the lawsuit will cost. Additionally, the per-pupil-revenue that the District stands to lose to Institute schools is much greater than that amount.
This is not the only avenue we should pursue. I feel we should continue to lobby our State Board representatives. I will update this post later with contact information for others who wish to lobby our State Board.
posted by Ross Cunniff at 7:34 AM
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