One of the strengths of my Independence Institute colleague Pam Benigno is her dedicated focus on how parents are affected by school-related policy, especially on issues of choice and accountability.

Two years ago Pam raised the cry when a state bill provision moved forward that would have stopped requiring the School Accountability Reports (SAR) to be printed and distributed to parents. By alerting key people to the problem, we are glad to report the harmful provision was amended away. School report cards continue to come to Colorado parents.

Now the idea is back from the dead. Not only does SB 163 – which would realign school accountability measures – fail to include a SAR printing requirement, but the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) earlier this week axed the funding completely.

The SAR is an important tool that helps keep parents informed about the status of their child’s school, so they can be armed with knowledge to work to improve the school or exercise choice and find a new one. But I’m sure some readers are wondering what the big deal is: it’s not like the SAR is going away entirely. They’ll still be available online – albeit hopefully in a more easily located place on the CDE website. (Have you tried navigating to find the SARs lately? Our School Choice for Kids site has a helpful, easy-to-find link.)

On her new GoBash blog, Pam explains why printed versions are needed:

The kids that live in the big houses in safe neighborhoods will do fine.  Besides, they probably have at least two computers in their homes and if they aren’t happy with their neighborhood school or if they want to know about a school’s student performance, they will conveniently check out the school report card online.

But what about the other kids? The ones who don’t have a computer in their home? At the very least schools should be required to print the report on a piece of copy paper for every student.

Granted: the state budget is tight. The JBC has tough decisions to make. So what can be done to preserve the vital printing and distribution of SAR information? What about changing it from a two-color to a black-and-white print job? It’s one of the ideas I offered on this podcast discussion with Pam, an idea I believe would send the right message: Government recognizes the need to cut back some of the frills in tough times, but a parent’s right to know is NOT a frill.

If Boulder Valley can spend $198,695 to sue the Charter School Institute, if Jefferson County had to spend $145,000 to dismiss a teacher, and if Colorado school districts spent at least $776,000 in one year to subsidize union release time, you’d think the money could be found. It’s a small concession could be made to benefit the customers of the public education system.

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