I-News Network

Colorado taxpayers will spend $100 million this year on online schools that are largely failing their elementary and high school students, state education records and interviews with school officials show.

The money includes millions in tax dollars that are going to K-12 online schools for students who are no longer there.

More Colorado public school children are meeting state education standards for reading than they were 15 years ago, but fewer are excelling at the subject, an I-News Network analysis of new school testing scores shows.

State education officials on Wednesday released scores for the standardized Colorado Student Assessment Program tests – known as CSAPs – which showed the portion of fourth graders in state public schools who meet or surpass state reading requirements has risen 10 percentage points since testing began a decade and a half ago.

I-News, a collaborative of Colorado media, analyzed 10 years’ worth of air safety reports and found that Colorado’s air traffic controllers reported 32 serious safety concerns last year, ranging from confusion during severe weather to too many trainees in control facilities.