Bill would give parents money to pay for private schools

By Ryan Morgan
Denver Post Staff Writer

Thursday, February 13, 2003 - Republicans have spent the past decade trying to get school voucher bills passed into law.

This year, they're likely to succeed.

Rep. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, chairwoman of the House Education Committee, is pushing a bill that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle predict will become law. House Bill 1160 would take money out of school districts and use it to pay for private schooling for poor, low-achieving students. It has passed a House committee and is slated for action on the House floor as early as today.

Spence's bill in some ways is more modest than previous efforts. HB 1160 would launch a pilot program limited to Denver Public Schools, and the program would expire in 2008 unless lawmakers decided to renew it.

"We've got to do something to reach those at-risk, needy students to try and close that learning gap between the lowest-achieving group and the higher-achieving groups," said Spence, an early opponent of vouchers who has changed her mind.

"(Opponents) say, 'Keep more money in public schools, don't take it out.' Well, how long do we have to wait? I don't think parents are willing to continue to keep their students in schools where they don't have a quality classroom," she said.

The program would apply to students who receive scores of "low" or "unsatisfactory" on their CSAP tests, and who qualify for free or reduced-cost school lunches. Those students' parents could take money from the school - 85 percent of the school's "per pupil operating revenue" - and use it to pay for private or religious schools.

Spence's proposal has received the support of centrist - and even center-left - organizations, including the Bighorn Center for Public Policy and the Colorado Children's Defense Fund.
But Colorado Education Association officials and House Democrats aren't on board.
While they acknowledge that Spence's bill is almost certain to become law, they're not happy about it.

"It's a bait-and-switch," Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said recently. "You're going to have 500 kids in this so-called voucher program, and they're going to have these really rich backers making sure that this works for them."

The backers Pommer refers to are religious schools, some of which have large, wealthy backers who can help defray tuition and transportation costs.

If the program is expanded statewide, students trying to transfer to other, nonreligious private schools won't get those resources, Pommer said.

Or as fellow Democrat and Education Committee member Suzanne Williams put it: "What kind of school will this money buy them? Only a very small, Catholic religious school is going to take them."

But Spence said those small, subsidized religious schools are located where they can help students who need it the most, she said.

"Most of them are small religious schools in the inner-city neighborhoods where the poor students are," she said.