Education

Choices, choices, and more choices. That best describes the educational scene in Metro Denver. Your child loves music and dancing? Denver Public Schools offer the Denver School of the Arts. You have a child who’s goofing off and not living up to his or her potential? Numerous private schools offer a low pupil-­teacher ratio and individualized instruction. You want your child to have rigorous college-­prep courses? Several public schools offer the International Baccalaureate program. No matter what you’re looking for, chances are good that you’ll find it here.

Better yet, Colorado’s public schools were made more accessible in 1994 by legislation creating open enrollment statewide, meaning you can enroll your kids in any public school at no extra cost. Got your eye on a school with some real nice programs but live outside the traditional enrollment area? That problem has been eliminated by open enrollment. Of course, local children have priority, so it depends on whether space is available.

Overview

The state stands at the educational forefront in many ways. In 1993, for example, Colorado became the third state after Minnesota and California to enact charter schools, which are publicly funded but run by groups of parents, teachers, and other individuals who want to devise their own curriculum. Metro Denver now has charter schools in operation in every one of its counties. Many schools are governed by cooperative decision-­making teams, made up of parents, teachers, administrators, students, and local businesspeople. And, not surprisingly, the end of 25 years of court-­ordered busing in Denver Public Schools in 1997 has already brought a tremendous amount of community support for what will now, once again, be neighborhood schools.

The state of Colorado maintains lots of data about its public schools; it’s available through the Department of Education’s Communications Center at 201 E. Colfax in Denver (303-866-6600; cde.state.co.us).

Colorado’s colleges and universities in many ways stand among the nation’s best, and its residents are some of the best educated. Higher education is available in a wide variety of forms in Metro Denver, the most obvious choices being the major institutions such as the University of Colorado at Boulder and Denver, or the Metropolitan State College of Denver. Private colleges and universities are generally smaller but are numerous and diverse. In many ways the most important part of Metro Denver’s higher-­education establishment is the community college system. At any one time about 40,000 students are attending the area’s five community colleges. These are public colleges so well distributed around Metro Denver that no resident is very far from one of them. They tend toward curricula that are career oriented and designed for accessibility by working students.

Our list of colleges and universities is by no means a full account of local adult educational opportunities. Colorado has nearly 200 private occupational schools, ranging from the A-­Plus Real Estate School to the Xenon International School of Hair Design. The bulk of these are in the Metro Denver area. Contact the state of Colorado’s Department of Higher Education, Division of Private Occupational Schools at highered.colorado.gov for more information.

Whatever educational needs and interests you may have, Metro Denver has an abundance of opportunities to offer. We’ll begin with the public school systems.