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Searching for to reverse a current choice by the Denver college board to shut 10 faculties, a gaggle of oldsters sued Denver Public Faculties this week, alleging district leaders had an “ulterior motive” for the college closures “of changing public sources to the non-public market.”
The 142-page lawsuit was filed Thursday by Mamas de DPS. Based on the lawsuit, Mamas de DPS is a restricted legal responsibility firm made up of oldsters whose kids attend DPS. The group registered as an LLC with the Colorado Secretary of State’s workplace on Dec. 12.
A gaggle with the same identify, Mamás de DPS Peliando por Las Escuelas Públicas, rallied in 2022 in assist of bilingual programming in DPS and towards college closures, however it wasn’t instantly clear Friday whether or not the 2 teams are the identical or affiliated.
The Denver college board voted on Nov. 21 to shut seven faculties and partially shut three extra on the finish of the college 12 months. The closures have been proposed by Superintendent Alex Marrero to deal with declining enrollment. Board members stated the closures are crucial due to the monetary pressure of working faculties with low enrollment.
However the lawsuit alleges that DPS isn’t being clear about its enrollment, that its claims about underutilized college buildings are doubtful, and that it’s unclear how the $6.6 million the district stated it’ll save by closing the ten faculties is sufficient to clear up any monetary issues.
The lawsuit names Marrero, all seven college board members, and a guide that the district employed to advise the board on a number of matters, together with its college closure coverage.
A spokesperson for DPS stated the district wouldn’t touch upon the lawsuit.
The lawsuit additionally accuses the district of getting an ulterior objective for the college closures “to switch public sources, together with cash, buildings, and management of the important public good of training, to the non-public market.” It criticizes Denver’s publicly funded however privately run constitution faculties, in addition to the district’s system of college selection.
The lawsuit attracts connections between economist Milton Friedman, President Richard Nixon, the American Legislative Trade Council, and Colorado’s 1993 constitution college legislation. It additionally factors out what it says are similarities between racist insurance policies that led the U.S. Supreme Court docket to order DPS to desegregate its faculties in 1973 and the methodology district leaders used to resolve which faculties to shut on the finish of this college 12 months and the place to reassign the scholars.
“A technique or one other, Defendant Alex Marrero (superintendent of Denver Public Faculties), with the Denver Board of Schooling’s assist and complicity … is intent on closing public faculties,” the lawsuit says. “That is, certainly, a core technique of the ‘free market’ agenda.”
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.