Last year, the Colorado Education Association - the statewide teacher union - filed suit alleging that the newly adopted statewide voucher program violated eight provisions of Colorado's constitution. Last December, Denver judge Joseph E. Meyer struck down the program on the grounds that it violated Colorado's constitutional guarantee of "local control" over instruction. In January, Justice Meyer heard the same case on appeal and, not surprisingly, upheld his original decision. (See http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=125#1566 and http://www.edexcellence.net/gadfly/issue.cfm?issue=129#1616 for more.) This week, in a 4-3 ruling, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld Judge Meyer's decision, arguing that the voucher program "violates the local control requirements of our state Constitution because it directs the school districts to turn over a portion of their locally raised funds to nonpublic schools, over whose instruction the districts have no control." In a dissenting opinion, however, Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis makes the logical distinction between control over school funding and control over instruction. "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," Kourlis argues, "I do not view the program as unconstitutional." We're sure this fight is not over yet. Stay tuned.
"Voucher program quashed," by Nancy Mitchell and John Sanko, Rocky Mountain News, June 29, 2004
"Colo. Court rules against school vouchers," by Jon Sarche, Associated Press, June 28, 2004