Denverites should keep one thing in mind at the ballot box this November – Denver Public Schools has some of the very best schools in the state and also some of the very worst schools in the state.
Testing data released this month highlighted many bright schools in the district, and Superintendent Alex Marrero should be very proud that the district’s students are catching up to their pre-pandemic peers.
However, the data also made something else starkly clear: School choice has never been more important for our children’s educational opportunities. Two schools only miles apart can have dramatically different outcomes for students who enter a classroom at the same level. Because school districts have started measuring and emphasizing growth, we now know where student growth in math and reading excels and where it is stagnant.
There are some candidates running for the Denver Board of Education who would rather see the district’s world-class lottery system go away. Or even if they want to keep the lottery, they want to keep the best schools in Denver a secret by making student growth data difficult to find and even harder to analyze.
We must protect and expand Denver’s universal lottery system for school enrollment. The lottery is not perfect but it is far better than the alternative – students locked out of attending top-performing schools by difficult-to-navigate enrollment procedures that vary school to school.
This November voters will have a critical choice to make – do they support Denver’s lottery system, where any student can attend any school they want with one easy form, or do they want a student’s academic quality to be determined by their home address?
We’re afraid the two dark-money groups attempting to buy this election aren’t asking that question. Instead, they are focused on whether candidates support charter schools or district-run schools, and whether or not the candidate is supportive of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association — a union — or not.
The problem is that the ideal candidate will be independent enough to buck the union when it is wrong, and strong enough to stand up to failing charter schools and demand accountability. In short, the endorsement of either group – the Denver Classroom Teacher Association’s Action and the Denver Families Action – is a dark mark on a candidate’s résumé.
We need candidates who will demand that the district present every school’s student growth data on their website – regardless of whether it’s a charter school or a district-run school.
We need candidates who will support and expand the school choice lottery so that it is more equitable.
We need candidates who will wrap neighborhood schools in services and funding to ensure that students who don’t have access to transportation to exercise choice get the very best education possible, even if their school is not seeing the same student-growth results as peer schools.
We need candidates who will find ways to provide transportation to students using school choice.
We need candidates who will not squabble with the district’s excellent charter schools but will partner with them to expand their success.
We need candidates who will return autonomy to innovation schools and find other creative ways to break the mold of underperformance.
And finally, we need candidates who will end the cycle of embarrassment where personal grievances, unprofessional behavior, and mistreatment of district staff only distract from the important work.
Let’s reframe this election and make it about things that matter this school year to every single student. School choice enrollment begins and ends early this year on Dec. 2 and Jan. 20, 2026. With the election leading up to the lottery, every candidate must tell voters where they stand on the issue.
Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more.