Giving Compass' Take:

• The biggest critique of Denver Public Schools system is that it could do more to improve student transportation.

• How will collaborative efforts help the schools system with transportation issues?

• Read about what school transportation means for educational equity.

Denver gets national kudos for its robust school choice system, but the district has also been criticized for not doing enough to help some students get to their chosen schools. Now, as families begin submitting their school choices for next year, one of the most persistent local critics has offered a set of recommendations to improve what it calls the district’s “antiquated transportation policies.”

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg had not yet seen the recommendations on Friday. But he noted that expanding bus service presents financial challenges. Colorado has among the lowest per-pupil funding of any state, he said, which “creates significant pressure on everything from class sizes to professional compensation for teachers … to transportation.”

Some of the recommendations released by the Denver-based Donnell-Kay Foundation would cost the district money, while others would save money or even generate it.

The recommendations include:

  • Decrease the “walk zone” distance for high school students.
  • Remove a requirement that to be eligible for an RTD pass, high school students must attend the boundary schools that serve the neighborhoods where they live.
  • Take a hard look at whether ongoing attempts to expand transportation are working.
  • Hold a hack-a-thon to solicit ways to make the transportation system more efficient.
  • Ask voters to approve a tax increase to fund transportation.

Boasberg has repeatedly emphasized that Denver Public Schools can’t solve its transportation issues alone. The district must work with the city and RTD on a solution, he said.

Read the full article about Denver public school recommendations by Melanie Asmar at Chalkbeat.