Republican senators say they are not surprised that energy producers in Colorado are organizing their efforts against what they feel is an increasingly hostile environment under the new administration of Gov. Bill Ritter.

The latest round of distinctions bestowed on Colorado's burgeoning charter-school movement suggests that the spread of charters could help jump-start stagnant student performance statewide, the Senate GOP's leading voice for reform said today.

Assistant Senate Republican leader Nancy Spence, of Centennial, pointed to a charter school that was ranked No. 1 this month on a list of Denver's best high schools as well as a Pueblo charter program that is being touted by the U.S. Education Department as a national model for reaching at-risk kids. 

"For all our efforts to re-examine and reinvent public education on a grand scale -- including a blue ribbon panel studying education issues right now -- it is looking more and more like one of the best solutions has been right in front of us all along," Spence said. She denounced attempts by some members of the legislature's ruling party earlier this year to roll back charter schools.