Colorado is now one of Hispanic CREO’s top priorities in terms of promoting school choice. It has been a hot spot for our field organizers, who have recruited many parent members and have launched programs to educate parents about their educational options and how to choose the best education for their children.
Along the road to making Colorado a full school choice state, we have had legislation passed and overturned, but we will continue to fight for parents to have parental choice in education. Here is a brief history of the school choice movement in Colorado and Hispanic CREO’s role in expanding school choice:
2003: Governor Bill Owens signed a school choice pilot program bill, making Colorado the first state to pass a voucher program since the Zelman Supreme Court ruling, which ruled that school choice was constitutional. The voucher program would have allowed economically disadvantaged families in 11 failing school districts to receive vouchers.
However, in June of 2003, the State Supreme Court overturned the program.
2003-2004: In response to the state’s rejection of the voucher program, Hispanic CREO launched an awareness campaign called “Cambio Accion y Educacíon” (Change, Action, and Education) with Univision-Denver to educate Hispanic parents about their educational options. This yearlong partnership allowed Hispanic CREO to run an average of 15 TV and radio public service announcements each and every day in addition to participating in talk show interviews on Despierta Colorado.
2007: Hispanic CREO continued to provide families with valuable resources, such as free bilingual workshops and information on educational options for their children such as public school choice, charter schools, private scholarships and virtual education.
In addition, Hispanic CREO and the Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA), a non-profit organization in Colorado, collaborated to provide a FREE bilingual parent resource guide on how to navigate Colorado’s school choice options. To request a copy of this guide, please download the PDF file.
