Justice Meyer has upheld the decision by a lower court that the state Charter School Institute is constitutional. Soon after the 2004 Charter School Institute law was adopted and the Boulder Valley School District was not granted exclusive chartering authority, BVSD along with the Poudre School District and Westminster 50 School District brought the suit. Poudre and Westminster later dropped out of the case. The year after the lawsuit was filed, BVSD received exclusive chartering authority from the State Board of Education.
At the heart of the lawsuit was the constitutionality of the CSI to authorize charter schools because the Colorado Constitution provides for the "local contol" of education. Key to the determination that the "balance of power" between the state and the local school district was the right of the school district to grant charters if they chose to do so. The CSI law doesn't make a district approve a charter, it simply gives them another venue if the local board denies the charter application or is otherwise unfriendly to charter schools. Further, a charter applicant can apply simultaneously to both CSI and the local district if the district doesn't have exclusive chartering authority.
Last year's legislature amended the CSI law to allow districts with exclusive chartering authority for an indefinite term. They no longer need to apply each year. Only a handful of districts over 3,000 students do not have exclusive chartering authority. Districts over 3,000 must demonstrate certain criteria in order to determine eligibility.
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