Thursday, December 10, 2009

Charter School 'Witch Hunt' Defeated


Charter School 'Witch Hunt' Defeated

"It looks like a 'witch hunt' against charter schools,"
-Sen. Lois Tochtrop (D-Adams County)

Senator Tochtrop's comment above was in response to yesterday's attempt by Representative Michael Merrifield (joined by Senators Bacon and Hudak, as well as Rep. Solano) to force a hostile, costly, and unnecessary "performance audit" of all Colorado charter schools through the Legislative Audit Committee. Fortunately, the Colorado League of Charter Schools and a bi-partisan coalition of supporters made sure the audit request was rejected on a 5-2 vote. We applaud the members of the Legislative Audit Committee who voted against this audit request - Sen. Lois Tochtrop, Sen. Kevin Lundberg, Sen. Josh Penry, Rep. Cheri Gerou, and Rep. Frank McNulty.

The League is not opposed to legitimate review of the policies and practices in place across Colorado's charter sector, but this attempt was not the right way to do it. Notably, we have been trying to meet with Rep. Merrifield about this since October.
If you have any questions about this audit request, please contact Sean Bradley at the League at 303-989-5356, ext. 105 or sbradley@coloradoleague.org.

Sincerely,


Jim Griffin, PresidentColorado League of Charter Schools