Dec 12, 2024

Celebrating our Accomplishments while Remaining Clear-Eyed about the Future

We are celebrating an extraordinary year for Colorado charter schools with record-breaking achievements, but we must stay vigilant for the challenges that lie ahead, says League President Dan Schaller.

With the holiday season upon us and the end of 2024 closing in, we have much to celebrate across the Colorado charter school community. In many respects, 2024 was our most successful year on record, including such important accomplishments as:

Finally attaining full mill levy override equalization for CSI schools and the more than 20,000 students who attend them;
Securing over $65M in state-level facilities funding for Colorado charters for the next 5 years;
Decisively defeating the most anti-charter bill in Colorado history at the state legislature;.
Welcoming seven new schools to the Colorado charter school family;
Bringing over $100M in new, dedicated funds to Colorado charters via competitive federal grant programs; and
Preserving a charter-friendly majority on the State Board of Education so that charter appeals can continue to be heard in a fair and impartial fashion.

All of this was accomplished while we continued to deliver compelling results for Colorado’s students and families. By any of these measures, we have much to be proud of, and I hope you’re all able to look back at 2024 with a sense of pride and accomplishment as you take a well-deserved break in the weeks ahead.

At the same time as we celebrate these successes, however, we must remain clear-eyed about the future. For there are no shortage of challenges ahead, and unless we remain united and on alert, we could easily see so many of these accomplishments undone.

For example, many of the same legislators who were behind last year’s terrible anti-charter bill are returning this year, and we would be naive to assume that they won’t try and take another run at something similar. And no sooner did we finally attain full equalization for CSI schools – after 7 long years of fighting for it – than just in the past couple weeks a draft of a bill started circulating that would grant the legislature unprecedented veto power over the establishment and continuation of CSI schools on funding grounds alone.

Couple all of this with the fact that Governor Polis, a staunch supporter of ours, only has 2 years left in his tenure, and there are plenty of warning clouds on the horizon. This won’t stop us from pursuing an assertive and ambitious agenda on your behalf during the upcoming legislative session (join us today at 12:30 to learn more), but we all need to look to the future with eyes wide open and a full understanding of the potential hazards ahead. For it’s only with this realistic understanding regularly in mind that we can collectively maintain the proper level of preparedness for what lies ahead.

But during this season of hope and respite, let’s not let all of that detract from what truly has been a remarkable year.

I wake up every day grateful to be part of this community and the countless dedicated and tireless individuals who comprise it.

None of the accomplishments mentioned above would have been possible without you. Thank you for all you do each and every day on behalf of Colorado’s children and the more than 135,000 students we serve. You truly are an inspiration, and I hope you’re able to realize and reflect on that during the holiday season ahead

We look forward to seeing you in the new year.