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Complex eligibility requirements for students to receive a voucher were designed to target low-income and under-performing K-12 students.
Under the original program design, students in participating districts would have been eligible for a voucher if they attended a public school the previous year (except Kindergartners) and were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Of these students, those in grades K-3 would be eligible if they met selected at-risk factors or are assigned to a school rated “low” or “unsatisfactory” by the state. Students in 4-11th grade would be eligible if they scored unsatisfactory on at least one subject on their most recent state test.
For the first year (intended to have been 2004-05), no more than one percent of a participating school district’s enrollment in 2003-04 would receive a scholarship. This percentage would grow by one or two percentage points each year until in 2007-08 when up to six percent of a district’s population would receive a scholarship.
The Rocky Mountain News estimated that “about 3,200 [students] … will be eligible [if] the program begins in fall 2004. That number can grow to about 20,000 students when the program is fully implemented in fall 2007 –- potentially making Colorado’s program the largest in the nation.”
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