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Public school choice is a core part of Colorado’s educational fabric. It empowers families, improves educational outcomes and strengthens our communities. Charter schools play a vital role in offering families choices when it comes to selecting where and how their students receive their education.
Research consistently shows that having access to this choice, in turn, fosters a healthy ecosystem where students and communities thrive. Charter schools, while often misunderstood and sometimes criticized, are serving Colorado students and their families well. To understand how charter schools are providing value to families and students, you need to know some background about what charter schools are.
In Colorado, charter schools are free, public, and open to all. They operate similarly to other public schools in the state, meaning that parents can select them, enroll, and have the same access as other students. If there are too many students who want in, there is a randomized process for gaining admission.
Schools can’t use testing to weed out prospective students, nor can they provide preferential treatment to students that they want. Notably, Colorado charter schools serve a higher percentage of multilingual learners and students of color than traditional public schools. Additionally, charter schools in Colorado must be nonprofit organizations.
Each school is run by a nonprofit board of directors, usually composed of parents, community members, and others who volunteer their time to the school, community, and students. Charters operate under a performance contract with their public school district, which serves as the authorizer. The contract gives charter schools more flexibility over how they educate children, but they are still subject to the same standards and assessments as other public schools in the state.
Charter schools have existed in Colorado since 1993, when a bipartisan group of legislators came together to make Colorado just the third state in the country to have a charter schools law on its books. Colorado’s charter school laws have consistently ranked among the strongest in the nation because of the balance they strike among autonomy, transparency, and accountability. Today, nearly 270 Colorado charter schools serve over 135,000 students.
That means that more than one out of every seven public school students across Colorado is enrolled in a charter school. If they were their own school district, Colorado’s charter schools would now be 50% larger than Denver Public Schools, the largest school district in the state. Charter students come from all corners of our state, all parts of the community, and often are in the neighborhood where the students live.
Charter schools focus on what communities want, reflect local values, and are often founded by ex-teachers, parents, and community members who simply want more say in how public schools operate. Charter schools deliver better results than traditional public schools while receiving less funding. While charter schools receive the same per-pupil allocation from the state as their district peers, their authorizing districts are allowed to keep a percentage of those funds for their own administration.
Most charter schools across the state also do not receive access to school buildings within their district, meaning that those schools must also purchase or rent their own facilities. This means that charter schools must educate their public school students using less money than their traditional public school counterparts. This can’t be overstated since work getting students up to grade level, demonstrating growth, or graduating is a resource-intensive endeavor.
Charter schools in Colorado are focused on the opportunities they can create for students of all backgrounds, with a particular focus on those who have been historically underserved by the traditional public school system. Here are a few sample measurements that indicate compelling performance despite having fewer resources: • Colorado charter school students are 20% more likely to attend a green (performance-rated) school than noncharter school students • Colorado charter high school students are also 20% more likely to matriculate to a four-year college after graduation • A study by Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that charter school students in Denver gained the equivalent of an additional 54 days of learning in reading and an additional 60 days of learning in math as compared to their noncharter peers • Six of the top 10 public high schools in Colorado as rated by U.S.
News & World Report are charter schools National studies of charter schools have reported similar findings: • Charter school students in poverty and those who are English-language learners had stronger growth than their traditional public school peers nationwide • Nationally, Black charter students received the equivalent of 35 more days of learning per school year in reading and 29 days in math than their noncharter peers • Hispanic students nationally grew an extra 30 days in reading and 19 additional days in math relative to their traditional public school peers These statistics align with numerous other studies that show that students of color and those in poverty progress in their learning faster and with stronger results in charter schools. The point isn’t that charter schools are perfect, but rather that there are good things happening here and lessons to be learned. And that is the part of the charter school story that critics often ignore.
Charter schools have been shown to positively impact traditional schools nearby, an outcome sometimes referred to as the “competitive effect.” When public charter schools are co-located near other public schools, the other schools also grow and improve. This proves that this is not a zero-sum game but rather a “both-and” solution.
A 2019 Chalkbeat article identified three separate studies that indicate that more charter schools in an area correspond with increased student performance by students inside and outside charters. And, in 2023, University of Colorado Denver researcher Parker Baxter released a report on how Denver Public Schools’ expansion of charter schools improved learning. The report found, “.
.. students enrolled in DPS between 2007-2018 received the equivalent of at least nine months and as much as 14 months of additional schooling than students in comparative Colorado districts.
Students enrolled during that entire period received an additional year to 1.5 years of additional learning.” Among the proposed solutions for improving education, charters stand out as one of the few opportunities that have made a tangible, lasting impact on marginalized students.
If we are serious about tackling the persistent opportunity gaps for marginalized students within public education, we should look to the schools that consistently show promise and results: 3.7 million students attend charter schools nationally;135,000 families choose charter schools in Colorado. Charter schools have existed in Colorado for over 30 years.
What began as a test is now a success with a solid set of proof points. Parents are demanding more and better educational choices for their students, and enrollment for charters has grown from zero to 135,000+ in Colorado alone. Charter schools are not only viable but also vital to the future of public education.
They are an important part of the ecosystem that offers a beacon of hope for students who have historically been underserved. By pairing decreased bureaucracy with enhanced accountability, we have a blueprint for how to improve education for our students. It’s time to stop politicizing public school governance models and embrace charter schools as a critical alternative in the quest to create more equitable and prosperous opportunities for every student.
Prateek Dutta is the vice president of policy for CLCS Action, the Colorado League of Charter School’s partner 501(c)(4) organization..
