School choice – an issue that has long divided conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans and often Black and White educational activists – is at the heart of The State of Colorado v. Center for Excellence in Higher Education (College America). It is a lawsuit by Democratic Colorado Attorney General Philip Jacob Weiser that challenged the veracity of the school’s marketing ethics and won all the way up to the Colorado Court of Appeals, but remains in the courts today.  

As a result, the issue of school choice is now being visited on the college and adult education level while it is normally discussed on the K-12 grade level. Notwithstanding the fact that Weiser won the original lawsuit, resulting in millions of dollars being returned to students who were ruled to have been misled by College America on quality of education, post-graduation salaries, etc., a new level of debate has come about as a side effect of sorts after the school was forced to close following the court action.

There is concern over the way higher education laws were used to cut off student loan funds thus forcing the school to close before the courts issued a final decision. The Colorado Supreme Court has now asked the appellate court to reconsider its ruling in part to assure that the issue of public impact is adequately addressed.

At the heart of the case are key issues that could reframe future school choice debates across the nation.  Those issues include:

     ·While not everyone supports career and other non-traditional post-secondary schools receiving public funds, the important programs that they offer are often sought by students from all walks of life for a variety of reasons; including skill development, crucial job training programs, location and financial needs.  For example, College America, including its Denver campus, provided career training to more than 11,000 students annually, offering 41 degree programs across a wide range of professional areas, including 15 degrees in health care, 13 business degrees and nine degrees in information technology. Has the law gone too far in being used to cut off funds so a school closes its doors while the case is still pending in court?

Former Colorado Rep. Ken Buck recently commented on what appears to be a fight to shutter career colleges in Colorado, “But despite their popularity and the value these institutions provide to America's future workforce, the state of Colorado continues its attempts to litigate many of these schools out of business.”

Escalating the possibility of a shift in the debate is the fact that Colorado Senator and Gubernatorial Candidate Michael Bennet – a Democrat – has not only been a supporter of school choice, but he is the sponsor of the bipartisan school choice bill and legislation to expand Pell Grants to apply to career-training programs.

“Every student deserves access to a high-quality education that prepares them for future success,” said Bennet in a release introducing the Equitable Access to School Facilities Act in the U. S. Senate.

Just as organized efforts have consistently fought school choice at the lower K-12 level, similar arguments are now being heard against these schools at the post-secondary education level, leading activists to ask the question, is there something driving a commitment to combatting choice in Colorado?

     ·Meanwhile, Attorney General Wesier, also a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, has spent millions of dollars to force College America to close, and continues to spend more on the case four years after its closure and more than a decade after the case against College America first started back in 2014. A key question being asked by some is why are these schools being denied funding and regulated differently than other higher education schools, who are the adult learners, veterans, and others who choose these schools, and do they have the right to do so?

Typically, the opposing answer would be because underperforming schools on the K-12 level need funding from public dollars and private, specialty schools are syphoning from those needed funds. But increasingly, that opinion appears to be changing.

For example, Sen. Bennet is not only a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, but he is also former superintendent of Denver Public Schools. He is staunch in his belief in school choice even introducing a bill alongside Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has described charter schools as a “valuable option for parents looking to meet their child’s educational needs.”

Could the school choice issue on the K-12 and post-secondary levels be evolving to a place of compromise on both sides? That depends, says African-American political scientist Dr. Wilmer Leon.

“The major sticking point is funding,” says Leon, who has discussed the school choice issue in media appearances. In an interview with the Trice Edney News Wire, he said school choice might well become an issue on which opponents can agree.

^{“At the state level, I think there might very well be an opportunity for school choice, but that depends on the state and the budget,” he said. “Budgets are numeric representations of priorities.”}

Leon pointed to the years before the election of President Ronald Reagan when Community Development Block grants were often distributed from the national to state governments for various purposes. But those funds dried up and have remained elusive with the conservative Republican movement toward a smaller federal government.

Colorado was one of the earliest states to adopt school choice and the desire for options extended to higher ed in the state.  A recent report found that over the past decade, roughly 40 percent of Colorado students chose to enroll in a school outside their zoned neighborhood.

Despite this historical precedent and demonstrated desire for school choice shown in the report, Amendment 80, which would enshrine school choice in the Colorado Constitution was defeated last year. While it was favored by 49.3 percent of voters, as a Constitutional Amendment it needed 55 percent to pass. It was opposed by the Colorado Education Association, the ACLU of Colorado, the Colorado Democratic Party, the Colorado PTA, and other traditional opponents of school choice.

This same fight is taking place at the higher education level in Colorado as activist organizations and a progressive attorney general collaborate to shut down career schools that opponents perceive as simply offering students choice. The Colorado Court of Appeals will soon issue its next ruling on College America.  Whatever the court’s decision, the case highlights the school choice debate at the higher education level, and how a gubernatorial candidate will be forced to decide how much longer the decade-long case funded by taxpayer dollars will be allowed to continue. When that happens, perhaps the school choice debate will take a new direction across the nation.

_{By Hazel Trice Edney}

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