As Coloradans get ready to vote on whether school choice rights will be written into the state constitution, a new survey shows Colorado has among the highest percentage of families in the nation who understand they currently have a choice in where they can send their children to school.
The report also reveals low confidence among parents that their children are being prepared for college and the workforce, despite the state’s leadership in career and workforce development.
“We clearly have a lot of work to do as a state to provide both transparent information for working families and expand high-quality opportunities available to all children, both inside and outside the classroom,” said Nicholas Hernandez, executive director of Transform Education Now.
The study was released by 50CAN, a nonprofit education advocacy organization, and Transform Education Now, a local nonprofit education organization that promotes school choice and family empowerment. The report is part of “The State of Educational Opportunity in America: A Survey of 20,000 Parents,” one of the largest education-focused surveys of parents in the past decade.
Seventy-five percent of Colorado families in the survey feel they have a choice in what school their child attends. That compares to 65 percent nationally. Only 60 percent of low-income families, however, feel like they have a choice in what school their child attends, 16 points lower than middle-income families. Barriers in the past have included a lack of transportation.
Colorado was one of the first states in the nation to enact a school choice law in 1993. It allows children to attend any public school for free regardless of where they live. Amendment 80 on the November ballot would go a step further, enshrining access to school choice in the constitution, with the addition of private and home schools as options guaranteed by the constitution.
In other areas of the survey, Colorado had good rankings compared to the rest of the nation in participation in tutoring, summer school and after-school and school arts programs.
Report shows information and access gaps
One surprising finding revealed a gap in parents' understanding of what opportunities are available to their children in terms of career and technical education opportunities. Colorado has been recognized as a leading state in career development programs and passed the Successful High School Transitions bill in 2021 to allow students to gain credit for the workforce and other experiences outside the classroom.
Many districts have implemented career pathways, where students can earn associate’s degrees before they graduate. Others offer apprenticeships and have built local industry partnerships. However, the survey showed that only 29 percent of Colorado parents were “extremely confident” that their child would be well-equipped to succeed in the workforce. That compares to 34 percent nationwide.
Other findings
The report shows an urgent need for student mental health support. Only one out of every three
Colorado families are very satisfied with their school’s support of student mental health, including just 29 percent of low-income families.
Many families aren’t extremely knowledgeable about or engaged in their children’s school, though Colorado ranked higher than the rest of the nation in some categories. One in five attended a meeting held by a PTA or other parent organization at their child’s school, the same number were familiar with how budget decisions are made at their child’s school and less than a third reviewed information about their school’s performance compared to other schools.
Families, however, could be active in their child’s education in other ways that weren’t studied.
The study is based on a representative sample of 410 parents and guardians of school-aged children in Colorado who were surveyed between July 8 and Aug. 22 as part of a nationwide research effort that reached more than 20,000 respondents.
