Archdiocese lets students have a choice

An interesting program starting up in Denver:

------------------

Archdiocese lets students have a choice

By David Harsanyi

Denver Post Staff Columnist

DenverPost.com

Why are well-funded teachers unions so fervently opposed to school choice for poor, mostly minority, kids?

For the answer, you could visit the Presentation of Our Lady School in west Denver this morning.

A couple of years ago, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the state's school voucher law was in violation of the state constitution. In doing so, the justices temporarily pulled the rug out from underneath hundreds of poor Denver kids.

And since the Democrats in the legislature - heavily supported by union dollars - won't help fix the technicalities necessary to restart the voucher program, other avenues have to be taken.

Today at Presentation of Our Lady, Seeds of Hope, a Catholic charity, will take on some of the responsibility that government has ignored.

This private program will supply 250 poor kids with $3,000 vouchers each. The families will then be able to shop and pick one of the 30-plus Denver-area Catholic schools. The only stipulation placed on them is that the families demonstrate an "economic need."

The voucher is good for one year, but it is renewable for up to four years - as long as the kids "stay in good citizenship" and make good use of the opportunity.

"We have a very simple application to fill out which gives us basic family data, the reason they would like a voucher, and verification of their economic status," said Richard Thompson, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Denver.

Thompson said there already has been significant interest in the program.

"The interest we're receiving is far greater than we expected," he said. "I've already reviewed 100 applications, and the program hasn't even been officially announced yet."

Which isn't surprising. Whenever parents in low-income areas are given the option to take their kids out of public schools, they clamor for the chance.

Unions know that's bad for business.

This program, Thompson said, isn't only about this batch of underprivileged kids, but it will help the church study the positive impact it can have on the community.

"It's measuring a premise for us," he said. "People indicate that money is a factor that makes the difference in attending Catholic school. I'm never so sure of that. The rigorous academic environment, the requirements we place on parents to be engaged, may also have something to do with it."

According to Thompson, there are too many parents who simply can't be involved as much as they'd like to in their child's life.

"When a family's making $14,000 with four kids, it's obviously really hard for them," he said. "It's not that we reject them for that reason," but they often don't believe they really belong or can be a part of a Catholic school. "By giving them this economic incentive, we're hoping to engage them positively."

By fear of a "rigorous academic environment," Thompson doesn't mean these families fear the hard work but rather that they may worry that it's too much for them to handle or that they may lack the tools to compete.

He said they needn't worry.

"We take many kids who don't even speak the language. I've had a least 30 of these applications who are in Spanish. That's kind of what we're dealing with."

As always with these types of programs, expect many disappointed families to be turned away.

But don't expect voucher programs to be shut out for too long. Across the country, Democrats have also begun to support the school choice movement.

Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., support giving families this chance, along with the incoming Democratic mayor of Newark, N.J., Cory Booker - a graduate of Stanford, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School.

It's an idea whose time has come.

(Today's news conference is at 10 a.m. at Presentation of Our Lady School, 660 Julian St., near U.S. 6 and Federal Boulevard.)

David Harsanyi's column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-820-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.