A recent School Reform News article by Heather Kays on the potential state takeover of 30 schools based on a first-time Colorado accountability deadline featured remarks from the Education Policy Center:

“As Colorado’s perennially weakest schools approach their day of reckoning, there are few quick fixes and no one-size-fits-all solutions,” said Ben DeGrow, senior education policy analyst for the Independence Institute. “The record of turnarounds and conversions hasn’t been great. More freedom to innovate may help, but some schools will need to go through the painful process of starting from scratch.”

“While some schools face major changes to earn a new lease on life, heavy-handed state control is not a promising long-term solution,” DeGrow added.

The Independence Institute’s senior education policy analyst also mentioned one policy Colorado could consider that would offer help to some of the kids trapped in the schools facing sanction:

“One avenue to help some kids trapped in dire straits would be to make more private tuition scholarships available,” DeGrow said.

“Colorado could provide such new life preservers by adopting a scholarship tax credit program like 14 other states have done. Thousands of high-quality private school seats await students who can access them,” he explained.

More information on scholarship tax credits can be found at the Colorado Kids Win website.