Douglas County CO (south Denver) is considering issuing school vouchers

[Esse Quam Videri]

"The Douglas County School District is examining starting a voucher program to give students state money to attend private or religious schools.
The school board this summer hired a Colorado Springs lawyer to develop a plan for a voucher system that would give parents 75 percent of state per-pupil funds to attend "nonpublic schools," which could include religious schools.
No other Colorado school district has a voucher program.
A 2003 state law created a voucher pilot program for poor students but was ruled unconstitutional by the Colorado Supreme Court the next year. That 4-3 ruling said the voucher program unconstitutionally stripped school boards of their local control authority.
Douglas County's Option Certificate Program "fulfills the local control principle" of the Colorado Constitution, according to a draft policy developed for a School Choice Task Force, a community group developing school-choice options."


Read more: Douglas County School District considers starting voucher program - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16528490#ixzz14PQBA

[donco6]

1. I sent a letter to the Post about it

Dear Editor,

I read with interest your article on Douglas County school district's plan to implement a voucher program for private schools in the county. I wonder if they've considered the following:

Only 35.5% of Douglas County School's per pupil funding comes from local taxpayers. The majority of their funding comes from the State of Colorado. Are they planning on pulling this portion out of their private school voucher amount? Because if not, I'd think the rest of the state would like to have a say in this program. I, for one, don't want my tax dollars going toward schools that teach a religion that I do not follow.

The plan calls for 75% of the per pupil funding to be forwarded to the private school, while Douglas County Schools keeps 25%. Why? If the school district counts the students and receives the funding, but provides no services to them, why would they get to keep any funding at all? Even a charter school gets 95% of their funding, and the remaining 5% has to be documented by the district as benefiting the charter.

This program is just a cash-cow for Douglas County schools as it's structured. Suddenly, they can include in their pupil count all of the students in all of the private schools in the county. From that per pupil funding, they get to skim off 25% of every student's funding, without providing any services at all! I suppose from a business perspective, that makes perfect sense - especially in today's amoral business climate. But as a taxpayer, I have to ask, Why am I giving Douglas County schools over $1,600 per pupil for doing nothing?

[Hannah Bell]

2. wow. just wow.