Bad News for Families: State Cuts Printed School Report Cards

Yesterday the Joint Budget Committee cut the printing of next year’s School Accountability Reports (SAR). Also, a bill going through the legislature that will make major changes to Colorado’s accountability system does not include printing of the new reports. Not sending home a SAR (aka school report card) keeps parents in the dark about a school’s student performance. This is BAD news for families!

When you look at the cost of printing the reports, it would cost less than a can of cheap soda pop per kid.  Yet the value of parents reading the SAR can mean the difference between failure and success for thousands of children. 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. Oh, but that is an unfunded mandate!

The government needs to get in touch with the basics of school reform. Parents are very important to improving a school. They should be provided with the truth about a school’s student performance. The best way to disseminate that message is to send home a school report card. If Colorado schools can find the money to buy ice cream on the October 1 count day to ensure every penny due to them, they can certainly find the money to print a copy of the SAR for each child. It is SHAMEFUL if every effort isn’t made to inform parents about student performance!