Colorado: vouchers start next year. (Update: education news from schools, businesses, research and government agencies).

About 4,000 Colorado students in the state's neediest districts will be eligible for school vouchers next year under legislation signed by Gov. Bill Owens in April. The voucher legislation is the first to be passed by a state since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that vouchers were constitutional last June.

When fully implemented, the law will allow for 20,000 students in 11 districts in the state that have low or unsatisfactory performance ratings to use state aid to attend private or parochial schools. High school students will be eligible for 85 percent of the state's per pupil funding, or about $5,000 in voucher funds. Students in grades 1-8 will receive 75 percent, or about $4,300. Kindergarten students are eligible for 37.5 percent, or about $2,200. Voucher advocates say the funding will allow students to attend up to 85 percent of all private and parochial schools in the state.

A 1999 law allowed Florida students to use vouchers for private schools, but a judge ruled it violates the Florida Constitution. The ruling has been appealed. The cities of Milwaukee and Cleveland have voucher programs as well.

"In Colorado, we no longer focus on what is best for the system, we focus on what is best for the individual children," Owens says.

Voucher advocates say many states will soon follow Colorado's lead, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Cleveland's law.

"Voucher's aren't an alternative to public education, just an expansion," says Lisa Keegan, CEO of the Education Leaders Council, a school choice advocacy group.

Voucher opponents say despite the U.S. Supreme Court decision, many states have constitutions that still prohibit the legislation. Colorado's new law will soon by challenged by the Colorado Education Association, which represents 36,000 K-12 educators, and other groups including People for the American Way. CEA spokeswoman Deborah Fallin says the law violates the state constitution's prohibition on state funding of religious or private schools. "We think public dollars should be used for public schools. Private schools are not accountable to taxpayers," Fallin says.

The state already has a strong public-to-public school choice system in place to provide parents with alternatives, Fallin says.

Voucher opponents say the U.S. Supreme Court's Cleveland ruling was very narrow in scope. They say many states that want to pass school choice laws based on the ruling will risk violating their state constitutions. About three dozen states have constitutions banning the transfer of public money to religious schools, educators say.

About 15 states are considering choice legislation this year.