Washington, D.C.-In a narrow ruling issued on June 28, the Colorado Supreme Court halted the state's groundbreaking school choice program, striking it down under the "local control" provision of the Colorado Constitution.
The Court in a sharply divided 4-3 decision determined that since the Opportunity Contract program was to be funded in part with local tax dollars, local districts must have control over the instruction paid for with those dollars.
In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Rebecca Kourlis countered that claim, writing, "Because the school district loses no control whatsoever over the education provided in its public schools, but merely loses some revenue that it would otherwise have, I do not view the program as unconstitutional."
She continued, "The language of the constitution itself does not in any way preclude the Pilot Program. Instead, the only support for that conclusion arises out of cases that responded to educational dilemmas entirely different from those faced today-cases that this court has already discounted in its more recent pronouncements."
The Institute for Justice, the nation's leading legal advocate for school choice, issued the following statements:
"We are extremely disappointed that disadvantaged Colorado families must continue to wait for the opportunity to select good schools for their children," said Chip Mellor, president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice. IJ represents 12 Colorado families defending Opportunity Contracts. "Their futures are thrown into doubt with this ruling."
The Opportunity Contract program would have enabled low-achieving, high-poverty students to opt out of public schools in low-performing Colorado school districts and select qualified private schools instead.
"While disheartening, the Court's decision was a narrow one that fortunately provides a clear roadmap for designing a constitutional school choice program in Colorado," Mellor said. "This decision does not touch the merits of school choice as a means to provide desperately needed educational options to children trapped in low-performing public schools."
"The original Opportunity Contract program was the work of an incredibly dedicated and diverse coalition that brought together leaders from the Latino and African-American communities, political and business leaders and grassroots support from across political and social divides," Mellor added. "We are confident they will not be deterred in their quest for equal educational opportunity."
The Colorado chapters of BAEO expressed sadness and disappointment at the ruling and released the following statement to the media:
�The ruling strikes an eerie resemblance to the ruling of a higher court more than a century earlier. In that ruling, the courts denied social and educational opportunity to an entire people based fundamentally on �state rights.�
�After the Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling of 1896, state after state enacted laws that greatly limited the freedom and opportunity of African Americans; nowhere more so than in education. Black children were assigned to and confined to schools that were unequal and inherently inferior as the states and school districts exercised their �local control.� Sadly, for economically disadvantaged families, �local control� is merely �social control� in disguise. It took more than 50 years for the courts to recognize the fallacy of �state control� that permits the consigning of a people to an inferior lot in life.
�Hopefully, it will not take 50 years before the courts of this state correct the faulty practices of endorsing �local control� that binds children to an inferior education.�