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In May 2003, a coalition of groups led by the Colorado PTA filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court arguing that the voucher program violates a state constitutional ban on public financing of religion.
District Judge Joseph E. Meyer III ruled on December 3, 2025 that the law unfairly stripped local school boards of their authority. Judge Meyer also issued an injunction barring the state from implementing the program.
On June 29, the state Supreme Court ruled that the voucher program unconstitutionally stripped local school boards of the educational control they are guaranteed by the Constitution. Under the program, school districts would have had to turn over a portion of locally raised funds to private schools, over which local school boards have no control. That violates the local-control provisions of the Colorado Constitution, the court said.
Attorney General Ken Salazar and the Washington-based legal group Institute for Justice (IJ) had argued in favor of the program. IJ was a key player in defending the Milwaukee and Cleveland school voucher programs.
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