Some educators are downright hostile to meaningful school reforms, and they suffered a well-deserved setback this week when the Colorado Court of Appeals struck down an attempt to gut the state's charter school efforts.

A 2-1 majority of the court rejected an appeal by the Boulder Valley School District to shut down the Colorado Charter School Institute. The lawsuit claimed the institute's powers to establish charter schools independent of the supervision of local school districts violate the state constitution.

It's an important and encouraging decision. Had the court sided with Boulder Valley, districts across the state that are unfriendly territory for charter schools might have been able to foreclose that option permanently.

Colorado's charter school statute does not compel local school districts to operate charters, and many do not. So the institute was established by the legislature in 2004, championed by current Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll, D-Denver. The idea was to provide a safety valve for parents and students who lived in districts resistant to charters. Schools chartered by the institute - there are 16, educating more than 6,000 students - get all their funding from the state, and are regulated by the State Board of Education. School districts have no jurisdiction over the schools.

Boulder Valley had declared a moratorium on charter schools at the time it joined two other districts in a lawsuit against the state in 2005. The suit claimed that the institute bypassed the state constitution's guarantee of local control and accountability for public schools.

In December 2006, Denver District Court Judge Joseph E. Meyer III said not so fast: The institute uses state money to finance the schools, and it creates schools in districts that have not allowed new charters. Meyer rejected the districts' arguments and let the institute continue creating charter schools independent of local control.

The other two districts didn't participate in the appeal, but Boulder Valley kept the case alive, arguing that by creating the institute, the legislature has let the state board butt into the affairs of local districts. Fortunately, the appeals court sided with Meyer. Since institute-created charters get all their money from taxpayers across Colorado, why should those schools answer to local officials, who have nothing to do with deciding budgets, curriculums, faculty and so on?

The court also noted that the constitution gives the legislature authority to establish and maintain "a thorough and uniform system" of free public schools throughout the state. But it doesn't say that those schools must be created and managed by local districts.

Indeed, the court cited a Colorado Supreme Court decision from 1999 upholding the original charter school statute. It concluded that the legislature has "almost unlimited power to abolish, create, divide or alter school districts," including, quite logically, the power to create an independent statewide district to operate charter schools.

Charter schools have thrown a lifeline to children who may not be comfortable in traditional classroom settings or for whatever reason haven't been well-served by their local public schools. We're glad the courts have quashed attempts by the more hidebound segments of the public education establishment to stifle these choices.