Location, location, location.

Even when parents are able to pick which public school their children attend, it still matters a lot — and can limit the ability of low-income children of color to access high-performing schools.

That's the takeaway from a new study of school choice in Denver, a city widely hailed as a model for expanded public school choice.

The last sentence of the study, published in the latest edition of the journal Sociology of Education, drives home the key point: "In addition to being able to choose schools, parents need viable options from which to choose."

Authors Patrick Denice, of Washington University in St Louis, and Bethany Gross, of the University of Washington, find even in Denver — a city with one of the most robust and equitable school choice systems in the country — low-income children of color are less likely to have access to those viable options.

Denver Public Schools have an open-enrollment system for public schools, and the district has seen a proliferation of charter schools, magnet schools and other special programs.

It also has a central application system for all the public schools under its purview, including charters. This makes it easier for parents to select from the full set of options in their city. As a result, unlike in many districts, where privileged students may be more likely to take advantage of school choice, Denver has "relative parity" among socio-economic and racial groups, the researchers write. (more…)

Anyone who thinks it's impossible to transform a large, urban school district under democratic control has to contend with Denver Public Schools. District leaders embraced a "portfolio strategy," of charters, choice and greater autonomy for district schools. How they transformed the district — and then stood for re-election and lived to tell about it — is the subject of  David Osborn's latest article in Education Next.

Over the past decade, Denver closed or replaced 48 struggling schools. The district's 55 charters and 38 "innovation schools" (schools controlled by the district that enjoy some charter-like autonomy) educate nearly one-third of its students. More importantly, student achievement for black and Hispanic students has risen faster in Denver than the statewide average in Colorado.

Under the portfolio strategy, districts manage pluralistic school systems that "give parents choices among the schools while working to replicate successful schools and replace failing ones," writes Osborn, a researcher at the Progressive Policy Institute.

Reform began in 2005, when the school board chose Michael Bennet to take the helm of a dysfunctional and struggling school district that was losing students to private schools and nearby suburbs. Bennet knew he needed outside pressure to shake up the system. Charter schools appeared to be the answer, but the district had only 17, and a powerful teachers union that opposed opening any more. (more…)

From voucher regulation to district-charter collaboration, here is our weekly rundown of what happened over the past week in school choice.

There was some good news on the West Coast, from the L.A. School Report.

At her first community town hall as LA Unified’s superintendent, Michelle King received the most applause when she called for a healing between charter and district school factions. Seven weeks into her job, she met Tuesday morning with more than 700 parents, teachers, principals and local residents in a relatively low-income area in the north San Fernando Valley where many of those in attendance had strong feelings about charter schools.

“We are all LA Unified school students,” King said in response to a charter school parent who was asking about the district’s perceived bias against charters. “It is unfortunate we have labels, saying that this one is better than that one. It’s not us versus them.”

King then shared a plan she is developing. “One of the things we are looking at, and I’m meeting with charter leaders, is to have some sort of forum or event and bring those traditional schools, magnets, pilots, charters all together and share what is working best.”

She added, “I can’t do it alone, we need your help. We need all of us breaking down walls and barriers on behalf of kids and be working together. It doesn’t help to have battles over property.”

The idea here is that serving students and the public matters more than who happens to run the schools.

There are efforts to break down the walls between districts and charters all over the country, but collaboration isn't the norm, yet. And Los Angeles still seems to have rifts that need mending.

Once the hot politics are defused, a deeper question arises. Is it possible to create school systems where local governments focus on the "big picture" while educators focus on running schools?

Meanwhile...

Gov. Terry McAuliffe put the kibosh on a "Tebow Law" in Virginia, denying many home schoolers the "privilege" of participating in extracurricular activities or sports.

Rosa Parks dug school choice.

Helping parents navigate choice-based school systems.

As time runs out on Washington State charter schools, who will champion the cause of the students they serve?

Which is more likely to be terminated: A charter school's contract, or a teacher's?

Where does presidential candidate Bernie Sanders stand on charters?

D.C. designs schools to meet the needs of immigrant kids. (This is also happening elsewhere.)

What's next for education reform in D.C.?

The real goal of personalized learning.

School choice supporters rallied in Oklahoma.

Arizona's bid to expand education savings accounts ran into trouble. Were funding concerns misguided?

Louisiana lawmakers advanced a spending plan that would dismantle vouchers. Was that a mistake? Then there was the debate over regulation. More on that here and here.

"[S]chool systems could consider a system where dollars follow students and are weighted for certain student characteristics ..."

Kentucky could become the 44th state to allow charter schools.

Tweet of the Week

LA lawmakers debating killing this program based on new results, says @MichaelPetrilli, we all agree that's a bad idea #schoolchoiceregs

— Cato CEF (@CatoCEF) March 4, 2016

Quote of the Week

There’s no greater bully pulpit in most cities across the country than the mayor. And if we can elevate the issues of education, the issues of housing, the issues of safety then we use the bully pulpit to do that. When I came in as mayor, I came in very clear: I thought there was no issue more important than the issue of educating our young people properly.

—Denver mayor Michael Hancock, whose city knows a thing or two about district-charter collaboration, on how local officials can impact education without having direct control over schools. (The 74.)

We hope we can work better together. Send tips, links, suggestions or criticism to tpillow[at]sufs[dot]org.

This week in school choice is our weekly rundown of school choice news and notes from around the country. It appears on our blog early Monday morning, but you can subscribe to get it on Sundays here.

Eddie of Ed is Watching fame brings us news on school choice from Denver via The Denver Post. The Post is reporting that more than 1 of every 2 families in Denver Public Schools  is opting out of their assigned schools and taking advantage of the district's liberal open-enrollment policies or any of the other public options available to them. That means roughly 42,000 students are attending a traditional school outside their zone or any of Denver's magnet programs or 30 charter schools. That's up from a third of all Denver families just seven years ago.

To hear the district put it, as the Post reports, even more Denver families would exercise choice if they understood all their options. One parent, Armida Solis, explained her motivation accordingly: "What we look for is somewhere where I can trust leaving my kids all day and where I feel I can be a part of their education."

Given that explanation, it's disheartening to see recent news reports showing that districts in New York, Florida and Rhode Island are limiting or eliminating their open-enrollment policies to acheive greater cost savings. It's a stark reminder that many districts once pursued choice plans within their boundaries primarily as a way to balance enrollment with efficiency. Now that they've gotten those efficiencies, and since their budgets are souring, they're beginning to sound a little tone deaf to the needs and wishes of families, as evidenced by one Martin County, Fla., school board member: "Choice has served us well. It's beginning to create some problems for us."