The Douglas County School Board on Tuesday night narrowly passed a resolution that re-launches a controversial voucher program exactly five years after it was originally put in place, but significantly excludes religious schools from the mix.
The late-night 4-3 vote came after a contentious discussion between ideologically divided members of the board.
Members elected to their seats last November argued that shifting taxpayer money to private schools is unconstitutional.
“Private school is not a right, it’s a privilege,” said board member Anne-Marie Lemieux.
Doug Benevento , the board member who brought the measure forward Tuesday, countered that if the district can help just one kid get into a school that is unreachable to them right now, then the program is worth it.
“We don’t just fund the brick and mortar, we fund education for kids,” he said.
Chalkbeat was first to report last week that the board would be considering the new voucher plan Tuesday. The proposal came five years to the day after a previous Douglas County school board voted in favor of the Choice Scholarship Program, which aimed to use taxpayer money to send children to private schools.
More than 90 percent of the students in the program — put on hold within months of its passage because of a legal challenge — chose to attend religious schools.
After a four-year battle in the courts, the state Supreme Court in June ruled that the district’s 2011 program conflicted with “broad, unequivocal language forbidding the State from using public money to fund religious schools.”
The case awaits a decision by the eight justices on the U.S. Supreme Court as to whether they will take it up or not.
Benevento told Chalkbeat last week that the district is pressing on with its legal case and would include language in the amended voucher program that will open it back up to religious schools if the court were to rule in its favor.
All the public comment about the proposal Tuesday was negative.
“This voucher program is an entitlement scheme for high-income families,” said county resident Bob Kaser. “Your vouchers will discriminate against students who are on reduced or free lunch.”
He said Douglas County voters in November made it clear how they feel about the issue when they voted in three new board members who are voucher opponents.
“Please honor the majority of Douglas County voters and vote no on vouchers,” Kaser said.
Cindy Barnard, with the anti-voucher group Taxpayers for Public Education, said the new plan is not sound.
“Every dollar put into the voucher program is a dollar taken out of the public school system,” she said.
But Board President Meghann Silverthorn said the proposal introduced Tuesday is “reasonable.”
“It is following the mandates set for us by the courts who have ruled so far,” she said before the meeting. “The religious schools are clearly forbidden by the Colorado Supreme Court from participating in our program, but the other matters have all been decided in DCSD’s favor by other courts.”
Silverthorn said a voucher program in Douglas County that provides “additional choices for parents is the right thing to do.”
Wendy Vogel, a board member elected in November, said she is wary of vouchers on principle. She challenged the board majority on whether the voucher program was a violation of the state’s School Finance Act and its directive to not spend public money on private education.
“I don’t think public dollars should go to private schools, whether they are religious or not,” she said.
John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or @abuvthefold
