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This Speakout has not been edited.

By Lucia Guzman

For decades, many of us have been fighting for change in the Denver Public Schools, so that our kids can have the quality education that every child deserves. For many years, our voices went unheard and, as a result, our children continue to languish in schools that are only compounding problems caused by poverty. The result is a dead end for our children, living as they do, in a great American city where only 9% of today’s ninth graders ever finish in a four year college, fifty percent drop out of high school, and only 50 African-American students are proficient on the 10th grade math test. If things do not change in Denver (and across all American Cities), the notion that our children will have any chance to participate meaningfully in a global economy or in this democracy is simply a cruel lie.

Recently, we have a glimmer of hope in the winds of change at Denver Public Schools. Over the past two years, we have gained confidence that the district administration, school board and the greater Denver Business and non-profit community understand our sense of urgency and agree that the outcomes for our kids are intolerable. They have met us in our neighborhoods, in our homes, and in our community centers to discuss the reform in our schools. Although we all may not agree with every decision the superintendent and the board makes, I have no doubt about the community- wide commitment to make things better. This has been a big step in the right direction.

I know there are a number of very fine schools in DPS. I want all of Denver’s parents to know that we are proud of those schools. However, there are so many schools in Denver where reform is desperately needed, and where the consequences of our failures are urgently felt. I want all of Denver’s children to have a chance to be successful.

Our children cannot sustain a change in direction, especially one which has the potential of de-railing the reform plan underway at DPS. Recently, a slate of candidates has been endorsed and supported in an effort to unseat the current school board president and vice president; Theresa Pena and Bruce Hoyt. Pena and Hoyt, and my other colleagues on the school board have worked hard to become one of the strongest reform boards of education in the nation. Replacing Pena and Hoyt at this time would be extremely detrimental to the children of Denver.

I know that change is difficult. I also recognize, as the superintendent is fond of saying, that we have the choice to embrace the politics of hope or exploit the politics of fear. I choose hope, and I plead with the parents and communities around our successful schools to recognize our plight, and support the continuing reform of the Denver Public Schools. Please vote in this election and support the current school board President, Theresa Pena and Vice President Bruce Hoyt. This may be our last chance to save our kids.

Lucia Guzman is completing her second term on the Denver School Board representing Northwest Denver.

READER COMMENTS

Harry the difference between Public Schools and Charter Schools is the curriculum.

The public schools keep coming up with new and approved programs ,only to find they don't work and then the start the whole cycle over again. This has been going on for decades.

Most charter schools I have looked into teach The Core Knowledge Curriculum,Saxon Math and other proven methods and programs. They also allow a student to work and be at their level not a stay within the lines ,out of the box education being force fed to our children today.

To the failing schools I say this, IT"S THE CURRICULUM STUPID!!!!

The middle school near me is nothing more than a glorified daycare center and bug factory. I'm supposed to go there to vote - no way I'll set foot in that place!

Lucia,

If you want to make Denver Public Schools better, then start by breaking up the district into smaller, more manageable pieces. Eliminate the giant beauracy and replace it with several smaller community districts.
If you truly care about the Denver schools, you must first admit that the Denver School district is too large to be centrally managed.
The school district is an abysmal failure and has been on a downward spiral since the late sixties. If you really want a better school district, then break it up or our district will remain broken forever.

I'm sorry, Lucia.
These efforts are about twenty years too late to be impressive to anybody in Denver.
DPS has always been, and remains, a hostile, secretive and oppressive governmental entity -- equipped with legislative immunities and political excuses aplenty.
Everyone who is able to educate their children elsewhere, does so. The latest "reforms" are leading only one place: people living in those areas are making plans to get the heck out -- or at least get their kids out. Being loyal to DPS is not worth the sacrifice of their children's educations.
IMO, those of you who have sat on that Board and never once seen to the publishing of where DPS' administrative money goes (or the nepotism and other insider-hiring practices that have been the norm there) do not deserve another minute of the public's time. You have fostered an environment in which Admins are members of an elite group that has its salaries high and its benefits fully paid by the public -- while teachers are expected to serve as your "working class" and janitors & other classified members are viewed as the "lower class." In many cases these people have given you their entire careers and gone without PERA and Social Security in order to do it.
This has left us all embarrassed, disgusted and appalled. It has left some of us financially broke, emotionally brokenhearted and intellectually disspirited to boot -- and what have you cared?!! Heck, my own husband gave DPS 23 (that's TWENTY THREE) solid years of good-faith service and when he left in despair, you simply watched him go and dared him to sue you. Do you know, or care, what he is doing now?--of course not!!! You got the 23 years you wanted, the rest of his life is none of your concern.
Lucia, if people at our public school districts are as uncaring and unfair as we experienced you Board members at DPS, what do you expect the city's children to look forward to?! NOT working for the DPS Political Machine and NOT having to send their own kids to its failed and failing schools -- that's what.
We are a family of Denver natives who will never forgive DPS for ruining Denver's school system, and know we are not alone in that thought. What you did to our personal family was an unspeakable wrong. Any worker who suddenly left DPS after 20 years should have received an apology or at least an exit interview -- while you threw my husband away like an old shoe. You threw your credibility away in the same moment.
Once you are no longer there, please remember that we lost everything to DPS -- from our school district to our little house in town, to our faith in government -- to our husband/father's commitment of 23 years (which occurred while you were on the Board). Now you want the public to "believe" and "have faith" in DPS?! Please.

Lucia, you speak/write well. Do you really believe it though?

Changing the board Pres and VP may not be be the answer. But they must also address the following:

1) Why is it it took 5 years and a professionally conducted study to tell that CSAP hasn't benefited the schools? All it has done is provide a gage for the obvious.

2) Why was the obvious not so obvious to the school board? Or did they just want/need solid proof? They wasted 5 years to get this solid proof.

3) Why is it most charter schools are doing so much better on the CSAPs than public schools? Aren't they establishing a pattern that perhaps the public schools should be following? Why aren't they following the successes of the charter schools?

4) It seems to me that if there are so many things that are obvious (at least to me, one that only has a 13th grade level education), why is it the "professionals", the "educators" don't seem to have a clue?

I've heard from many teachers in the DPS (my kids use to go to DPS) that there is a big problem with the poverty level and the rate at which kids move around and that this plays a big factor. All I got to say is that if all public schools were ran the same, had the same expectations then the kids moving would not be an issue. Again, to me this is pretty obvious.

I'm not just picking on DPS. My kids were also involved in Adams and Jefferson counties as well. They aren't any better. As a result they are now in a charter school. Interesting points to consider is that the charter school does not spend weeks or even days on training the students to take the CSAP but yet this charter school is one of the top performers, state wide, on the CSAPs, at every grade level. Hmm, I wonder what the obvious solution should be?

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