Colorado’s second-largest district, Jeffco Public Schools, stands as a stark warning of what happens when a school system prioritizes self-preservation over outcomes and safety for children. The district’s turmoil highlights the need for more school choice — private schools, charters and homeschool co-ops — throughout Colorado.

The district’s notorious failure to protect students from sexual predators is a betrayal of public trust, exacerbated by its hostility to school choice — a proven mechanism for empowering parents and improving outcomes.

In contrast, Colorado Springs District 11 is embracing educational choice like never before, adding charters and options that allow families to escape failing systems and support those that adequately teach and protect their children.

Jeffco must face accountability and reform, or risk further decline.

Since 2022, Jeffco has seen 26 documented cases of sexual abuse, misconduct and grooming, including six arrests since late 2023. The case of David Weiss, the former chief of schools investigated for child sexual assault material before his suicide in January 2025, exemplifies the district’s corruption and negligence.

Other incidents — like Imagine Kay Ewer’s four-year sentence for assaulting a student and a bus driver’s alleged inappropriate behavior — highlight a pattern of inaction. Parents, through Jeffco Kids First, are demanding change, accusing the district of minimizing misconduct and failing to report issues promptly.

State Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer’s recent letter to the board echoed this, stating, “This district has repeatedly chosen to protect itself instead of protecting students.”

The board can fire Superintendent Tracy Dorland, but that would not ensure student safety and other needed reforms. With or without Dorland, the best option for improving the district’s culture is to embrace alternative schools that provide options for escaping underperforming or dangerous attendance centers.

Market competition is a proven means of forcing bad actors to improve or shut down, whether one looks at restaurants, hotels, merchants, colleges, energy providers or anything else that peddles services in the open market.

Conversely, resistance to competition enables everything from mediocracy to outright criminal conduct.

Beyond competition, consider that charters have more flexibility in hiring and firing staff, potentially allowing quicker removal of abusers and underperformers. Unlike traditional schools, charters are not typically under the thumb of teachers’ union bosses who automatically protect and defend their dues-paying members from allegations of poor performance and misconduct. Students and their parents don’t pay union dues, so they are a secondary consideration in union-dominated schools.

As opposed to welcoming and acquiring charters, the Jeffco district has historically resisted them. Academic outcomes suffer, with 65% of sixth graders failing to meet state math standards in 2019, signaling a systemic failure to prepare students for the future.

Contrast this with Colorado Springs District 11, the state’s seventh-largest district, which has increasingly embraced and annexed charters for the past three years.

D-11 schools like CIVA Charter and Community Prep offer innovative curricula, focusing on arts and dropout recovery, respectively. This expansion has made District 11 a magnet for families seeking better options, with enrollment in choice programs growing steadily. Because school choice fosters competition, it drives schools to improve or lose students — a dynamic Jeffco ignores at its peril.

School choice is the best defense against troubled systems like Jeffco’s. It empowers parents to protect their children by choosing safer, higher-performing options. District 11’s success proves this, while Jeffco’s scandals and declining outcomes demand urgent reform.

All Colorado school boards should prioritize safety and restore trust by embracing choice — or watch families flee to the districts that do.

The Gazette Editorial Board