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Letter: Straw man response to Rankin

On May 10, Erwahon Schwartz wrote a letter and tried to assault charter schools and state school board member Rankin’s praise for the state’s charter school performance. Rankin was discussing research my organization conducted showing that Colorado’s charter schools outpaced all 50 states in eighth grade reading in math on the most recent national testing: https://bit.ly/2EYdaGd.

Rankin highlighted charter schools’ NAEP scores for the entire state of Colorado, the response was discussing charter schools in the 3rd Congressional District, Rankin’s district. It was a misguided attempt and was not an accurate comparison.

NAEP scores are not available by Congressional district, so there would be no way for her to look at the data from the test simply in her district. The statewide results are from a national test, and the demographics of our charter populations in the entire state so she could compare apples to apples. But, as a fourth generation Western Sloper, I am also proud of the charter schools serving Western Slope kids.

The letter also referenced charters receiving less money because of serving smaller populations, which also wasn’t an accurate assessment of what Rankin was saying. They receive less money per student from state and local funding sources, so again, Rankin was spot on.

It was very misleading to set up a straw man to attack the accuracy of Rankin’s comments. I am glad our school board member continues to fight for parents and students in attending any public school of their choice.

Luke Ragland

Denver


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