Denver Catholic

School choice a legislative priority for the archdiocese in 2017 BY AARON LAMBERT T he O°ce of Catholic Schools, the Colorado Catholic Conference and a diverse group of state-wide allies are teaming upª to make school choice an important issue this legisla- tive session, which opened Jan. 11. Superintendent Kevin Kijewski and Colorado Catholic Conference executive director Jenny Kraska are pushing for Colorado legislators to con- sider implementing aª scholarship tax credit program within the state, which wouldªgrantªa taxªcredit to individuals and/or businesses who make donations to scholarship-granting organizations. Those organizations canª then use the donations to create scholarships that can be given to help pay for the cost of tuition at private schools or out-of-dis- trict public schools that would other- wise be too expensive for families. The overarching goal for passing such a law is to promote school choice, or as Kijewski and Kraska prefer to call it, parental choice.ª "We've been making a concerted eŠort to get away from using the term 'school choice' to the term 'parental choice,' because really, it's about par- ents being able to make the decisions for their kids," Kraska said. Implementing a scholarship tax credit programªcould be beneficial not only for Catholic schools, but for private and charter schools as well. Ultimately, it empowers parents to be, as the Cath- olic Church teaches, the primary edu- cators and teachers of their children. "It's not just about Catholic schools; it's about giving kids and parents choices," Kijewski told the Denver Catholic.ª The concept of school choice is a hot button issue in education, made even more so with the nomination of known school choice advocate Betsy DeVos as education secretary. School choice, in its simplest form, can be defined as programs that oŠer students and their families alternatives to public schools. Every taxpayer funds public schools with the taxes they pay; school choice allows for these public funds to follow students to the schools or services that best meet their needs, whether that be public schools, private schools, charter schools or homeschooling.ª While the current federal ruling supports private school choice through public funding — a precedent set by the 2002 Supreme Court case Zelman V. Harris — the mainªobstacle to school choice lies within the states. In Colorado's case, there are two Blaine Amendments in the state constitution that strictly prohibit any public funds from being allocated to private school entities. These provisions date back to the late 1800s and are named for Con- gressman James G. Blaine, who fueled theª anti-Catholic rhetoric of the time by lobbying for these provisions to be passed in each of the states after a fed- eral proposal was shot down. Thirty-eight of the 50 states in the U.S. still have some sort of Blaine amendment in their state constitutions. "[Blaine amendments] »B‰ PHOTO BY ANDREW WRIGHT S TAT E P O L I T I C S 2 01 7

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