Colorado long has been a trailblazer in advancing one of the most important innovations ever to benefit public education: charter schools. Our state was among the first in the nation to authorize the autonomous public schools, through bipartisan legislation adopted in 1992 and signed into law by then-Gov. Roy Romer, a Democrat. Since then, Colorado’s charter movement has flourished – exploded, really – now serving nearly 115,000 students in 238 schools across the state.

Clearly, charters have caught on. With their many and varied approaches to education, they offer a meaningful option to parents who long have sought alternatives to one-size-fits-all neighborhood schools in a wide range of districts around the state.

Yet, for all its groundbreaking work establishing charter schools, our state continues to discriminate against them. Charter schoolers don’t get to ride the bus, for example; their families must provide them transportation. And charters don’t necessarily open their doors on Day 1 in a new school building provided by taxpayers the way neighborhood schools do. Most charters operate in locations their boards have found on their own – sometimes former neighborhood schools; often storefronts, former warehouses and so forth.

Such basic inequities aren’t easy to fix given political and fiscal realities. However, there is one modest effort to level the playing field between charters and other public schools that is pending in the state Legislature, and it warrants lawmakers’ support.

Read more at The Colorado Springs Gazette.