Although details are still murky, this plan out of Denver, inspired by Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 and New York’s New Visions for Public Schools, seems promising.

The key here will be to keep these schools sufficiently insulated from district regulations. It’s unclear whether they’ll be charter schools, contract schools, private schools, or some hybrid thereof. But as long as they’re truly free to experiment with non-traditional schooling methods—e.g., extended learning time, college-prep culture, rigorous curricula, no-nonsense discipline, variable teacher pay—these schools could make a real impact in the Mile High City.

It’s great to see these bureaucracy-busting approaches catching on around the country.

Photo by Flickr user stevenm_61.