The Colorado legislature has passed, and Governor Bill Owens is expected to sign, a bill creating a voucher program for higher education in that state. The new program will give Colorado students $2,400 to spend on up to 140 credit hours at state colleges and universities. It will also loosen some of the arcane?and ruinous?funding regulations that Colorado colleges labor under. Critics, of course, vow a court challenge, with one state senator muttering darkly about "hidden agendas." (An aside: nationwide, voucher opponents are beginning to sound like Howard Hughes in his tissue-box-shoes phase, no?) To us, it sounds like a solid step toward rationalizing an increasingly burdensome higher education funding system. Let's hope other states take notice.
"Voucher bill passes," by Peggy Lowe, Rocky Mountain News, April 28, 2004