Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Colorado lawmakers want to dramatically curtail the power of Boards of Cooperative Educational Services to authorize certain kinds of public schools and homeschool enrichment programs located outside of their member school districts. With just a few days left in the state’s legislative session, the State House on Monday passed two amendments to Colorado’s School Finance Act that create new guardrails on the public education co-ops. There are still a few more steps before the Finance Act will become law, including a third reading of the bill and meetings to hammer out differences between the House and Senate versions, but the amendments face a good chance of survival. The two amendments represent the culmination of months of frustration by some state lawmakers over a Monument-based co-op they say has exploited loopholes in state law to open public schools and dozens of homeschool enrichment programs all over the state. Together, the enrichment programs cost the state tens of millions of dollars at a time when Colorado is facing a huge budget hole. The co-op that will be most impacted by the two amendments is called Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES. Last fall, the group quietly opened what its leader called Colorado’s “first public Christian school” and six months later sued the state, alleging religious discrimination. ERBOCES also has more than 50 enrichment programs, most created in the last few years, that offer tuition-free activities to homeschoolers, including martial arts classes and sports camps. One of the amendments passed Monday, Amendment 42, mirrors provisions of a bill the powerful Joint Budget Committee ordered to be drafted in April, but never introduced. It would limit the geographical reach of co-ops like ERBOCES, allowing them to authorize schools and programs only in their member school districts. The amendment would not impact the ability of public education co-ops to authorize online schools that enroll students from multiple school districts. ERBOCES has only two member districts: District 49 and the Elizabeth School District. The amendment would allow some existing homeschool enrichment programs to continue operating outside of their authorizers’ territory on a temporary basis if they meet certain conditions.Amendment 42 would also limit homeschool enrichment programs that can be approved by any kind of authorizer — a school district, charter school, or public education co-op. For example, programs wouldn’t be allowed to provide activities not generally available to students attending public schools. Finally, the amendment would bar publicly funded homeschool enrichment programs from enrolling private school students. Some of the homeschool enrichment programs authorized by ERBOCES provide one day of free programming a week — Lego-building, music and art, for example — to students who attend private school the rest of the week. When Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat, introduced Amendment 42 on Monday, she said audits by the state education department “have shown that public school dollars are paying for home school and private school students to receive all sorts of things like private ski lessons, private horseback riding, private music lessons, club sports … private jiu jitsu classes and more.”“And these are all things that families who have full time students in public schools have to pay for with their own money,” she said. The second amendment approved Monday, Amendment 33, clarifies an existing state law that describes how school districts and BOCES can contract out certain educational services. Under the amendment, that law won’t allow districts or BOCES to authorize schools — with the exception of online schools — that are entirely run by contractors. The amendment says a public school run by a contractor could be created under other state laws, such as Colorado’s charter school law. That would not apply to ERBOCES though because such co-ops are not allowed to open charter schools. It’s not clear what would happen to ERBOCES’ bricks and mortar schools, including Riverstone Academy, the public Christian school, if the amendment takes effect. The 30-student school is run by a contractor.Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
