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Parents Challenge Founder Named to Colorado Charter School Institute

Dwight D. Jones, Colorado's Commissioner of Education, announced the appointment of Joyce Schuck to the Board of the Charter School Institute.

Joyce Schuck is a published author living in Colorado Springs with her husband Steve. A graduate of Loretta Heights College with a major in Human Services and Counseling, Joyce remains very active in Colorado Springs and Denver.

 Joyce and her husband Steve Schuck founded Parents Challenge in 2000 to open the doors of opportunity for low-income kids in Colorado Springs by giving their parents educational choices. Parents Challenge is a privately funded 501(c) 3 educational organization which provides children who live at or below the federal poverty level with three choices; tuition assistance for those who choose to attend private school, tutoring assistance and/or transportation funding to those choosing to attend public school, or funding for educational materials to those choosing to home school. In its eight-year history, nearly 1,500 kids in public, private and home schools throughout the Pikes Peak region have benefited from Parents Challenge support.

 Joyce's extensive work on behalf of troubled teenagers, the homeless, and the disadvantaged embodies her volunteer spirit. Included among her many projects are: being a co-founder of Community Transitions in Colorado Springs, vice president of the Community Council of Pikes Peak Region, the El Paso County Shape Up Program, Residential Treatment Center - Vision Quest, program designee for student services at PPCC and the 4th Judicial District Attorney's office. Joyce is a recipient of the Colorado Springs' Mayor's award for Civic Leadership, as well as being a board member of Partners in Housing, Youth Transformation Center, and Cesar Chavez School Network. She is also included in Who's Who in the West, Who's Who of American Women, and Who's Who in America.

In 1986, Joyce experienced the travails of the campaign trail firsthand when her husband, Steve, sought the Republican nomination for governor in Colorado. As a would-be first lady, she lamented the political spouse's lot in her 1991 book, Political Wives, Veiled Lives, published by Madison Books. Joyce presented the startling and often unsettling views of political wives who share a difficult position and tenuous status in the world of politics. In this warm and humorous account we see the private side of what it's like to be a political wife, and whether one wins or loses--life is never quite the same.

The mission of the Charter School Institute is to foster high-quality public school choices offered through Institute charter schools, including particularly, schools for at-risk students. The Institute acts as a model of best practices in authorizing charter schools, uses state and federal systems for ensuring the accountability of each Institute charter school in meeting the obligations and goals set forth in its contract, measures the academic success of each Institute charter school student through longitudinal indices, and measures the academic success of each Institute charter school through performance-based means rather than process-based means.