By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

Charter School Accountability: A Warning

Charter schools are public schools that are managed by third-party contactors and governed by their own board of directors instead of the local school board. They must follow state standards unless the Colorado State Board of Education (SBOE) grants them a waiver. Currently, the law allows charter schools to waive certain requirements in state law automatically. Things like teacher requirements, school schedule, and prescription of textbooks can be waived automatically. These waivers allow charter schools to offer different programing than the traditional public school. Since the inception of the charter school law in 1993, just five years after the passage of the homeschool law, the number of charter schools has grown from 2 to almost 300.
 
Last month, a bill (HB24-1363 Charter Schools Accountability) was introduced that will devastate the uniqueness of charter schools. The sponsors of the bill claim it will bring better accountability and transparency for parents, but it is clear the provisions are meant to align these schools with all the other public schools by placing more controls on them. One aspect that removes the flexibility of what, how, and when charter schools teach their students is the removal of automatic waivers. Another aspect gives authority to the local school boards to close charter schools within their borders simply because enrollment in traditional public schools declines. The 55-page bill holds more accountability measures —see this article for a good synopsis. The House Education Committee will probably hear this bill next week.

Homeschoolers should consider this bill a warning for several reasons — the education industrial complex does not like competition and their aim is to control and standardize all forms of education. As homeschooling grows, home education has increasingly become a topic of conversation among the legislators, and not always in a good way.
 
Charter schools are government-funded schools leaving the government with a vested interest in how the money is being spent. History has taught us that as government grows, it seeks increased control, and it does so by funding what it wants to control. Home education is currently free from government control because the government does not fund it. We will have to fight for our freedom to educate our children in the not-so-distant future. If we take their money, as charter schools do, we will have no ground to demand liberty and no place to stand for freedom.
 
Don’t forget to join CHEC for the 30^th Homeschool Day at the Capitol Rally on Thursday, April 11^th! Register here.


Trusting in the mighty power and grace of Jesus,
Carolyn Martin
CHEC Director of Government Relations 
Carolyn@CHEC.org

About the Author: Carolyn Martin

Carolyn Martin serves as CHEC’s Director of Government Relations, working for you and other liberty-loving families to protect homeschool freedom, parental rights, and religious liberty at the state capitol. Subscribe to the CHEC blog for Carolyn’s regular updates here, learn more about legal issues in Colorado here, and donate to support Homeschool Freedom here. Contact Carolyn directly at carolyn@chec.org.