Colorado Revised Statute 22-36-101, better known as the Public Schools of Choice Act of 1990, allows students to choose a school outside of their neighborhood school boundaries, in either their own school district or another Colorado public school district.As of 2013, Maryland and Alabama are the only states lacking some kind of open enrollment policy, whether voluntary or mandatory, intradistrict or interdistrict, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.Josh Cunningham, senior education policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislature, said some states across the nation have employed funding options to help parents pay to send their children to a private school, as part of their open enrollment policy. He said there are three main funding programs: vouchers, education savings accounts and tax-credit scholarships. According to the NCSL website, ìSchool vouchers, also referred to as opportunity scholarships, are state-funded scholarships that pay for students to attend private schools rather than public schools.îCunningham said education savings accounts are similar to the voucher program in that the state provides the funds. However, in a traditional voucher system, the state either pays only the private school tuition or another set maximum amount. With an education savings account, the state sets up an account and deposits money for parents to use for qualifying education expenses that include private school tuition, tutoring, textbooks, homeschool curriculum and online courses, he said.ìIn order to receive the money, you have to agree not to put your child into a public school,î Cunningham said. ìThey are paying for it (the education savings account) because the student is moving from a public school to a private school so that state funding basically just switches over.îCunningham said another difference between vouchers and education savings accounts is that any unused funds in the latter can be deposited into a college savings account. ìIt gives parents more options for that money,î he said.Sixteen states have implemented tax-credit scholarships, which are similar to the voucher program in that students use the money they receive to pay for private school tuition only, Cunningham said. The major contrast is that the money does not come from the state; it comes from a nonprofit organization that receives funds from private donors. The donors, in turn, get a tax credit, Cunningham said.ìThe individual state places a maximum dollar amount on the scholarships, but a lot of different organizations offer scholarships for less than that to reach more students,î he said. The state also determines who gets the scholarships based on certain qualifying criteria, as with the traditional voucher system.There are drawbacks to each program, Cunningham said. Some states, like Colorado, have language in their constitutions that prohibit the state from funding religious organizations, and many private schools are faith-based. Additionally, if a student is eligible to receive a voucher, they might not be able to afford the added costs for transportation to the private school or the other expenses related to a private school, Cunningham said.Oversight is a concern for tax-credit scholarships and education savings accounts. Because the state is not as involved in the tax-credit scholarships, there is not as much accountability for student performance, Cunningham said. ìThat is certainly a concern because we do not know if these kids are doing well or not,î he added.With education savings accounts, parents can only purchase educational items from state-designated vendors; and, with limited resources, obtaining those items can be difficult, Cunningham said.A poll published in December 2015 by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice found that 61 percent of Colorado voters support school vouchers; 60 percent favor education savings accounts; and 54 percent favor tax-credit scholarships. But Colorado does not participate in any of these funding programs that support school-of-choice options.Lacey Frey, a parent in Falcon School District 49, said, ìWe have always had a desire to homeschool our children but financially it was impossible, so we put our daughter in public kindergarten. After unforeseeable difficulties, we are rearranging our budget in order to homeschool them.îFrey said knowing that Colorado does not offer a funding program like an education savings account, which she could use to purchase homeschooling items, is frustrating.ìAt this point, we are looking at putting our first payment (for a homeschool curriculum and materials) on a credit card because we did not plan on starting so soon,î she said. ìWe have been checking our credit card balances and just trying to make it work.îCunningham said the Douglas County School District in Colorado attempted to start a pilot voucher program; but, in June 2015, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the program violated the state provision that prohibits funding religious organizations with state money. The court rejected the pilot voucher program, and Douglas County is appealing the decision to the United States Supreme Court, he said.ìEven though Douglas County lost their attempt at a voucher program, the door is open for a tax-credit scholarship program,î Cunningham said.Dana Smith, chief communications officer for the Colorado Department of Education, said a program like that would require legislation. ìRight now, we just do not have the legislation in place that authorizes those types of programs,î she said.ìTo be able to count on the state for some assistance, any assistance, would be a huge weight lifted off our shoulders,î Frey said.
