Colorado Congresswoman Vows to Keep Fighting for Vouchers
by Jim Brown
July 13, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Colorado lawmaker says she will not give up in her fight to bring true school choice to low-income children in the state.Recently the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the state's school voucher program was unconstitutional because it strips local school boards of control over education. That program would have offered $4,500 for private or parochial school tuition to poor students from failing school districts.
Colorado Representative Nancy Spence, who sponsored last year's bill that created the Colorado Opportunity Contract pilot program, says the court gave state lawmakers a clear roadmap for the future. "What we'll do next year, very likely, is to draft a plan that does not use any local tax dollars," she says, "and then, if we have the support in the House and the Senate and the governor's office, we'll try it again."
Spence says Denver Public Schools has the one of the highest dropout rates in the nation among minority youngsters. "These are kids who live in poor neighborhoods without being serviced by a good public school," she says.
For their sakes, the state congresswoman is determined not to give up on voucher legislation. As an education leader in Colorado, she says she feels compelled to do everything possible to help poor students who are trapped in failing public schools. "There are just too many children," she notes, "mostly poor, mostly minority kids -- who don't have a chance to get a decent education in Colorado."
Representative Spence anticipates the Colorado Education Association will challenge any new voucher plan. However, she notes, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 in the Zelman v. Simmons-Harris case that voucher programs do not violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
