Douglas County's school board on Friday began carefully weighing the pros and cons of starting the state's first voucher program.

The district is in the first stages of looking at giving parents a portion of public money to send their children to private and religious schools.

"I believe we should look at it because we have clear problems with choice in this country," said school board president John Carson, who said he believes competition will make the district better.

This morning, the district will hear recommendations from a task force that has been meeting for months on strengthening the choice programs, including creating a voucher program.

But the idea of a voucher program has gotten the most attention.

A handful of community members attended the first day of the two-day retreat, which is being held in the offices of an Englewood software firm.

The seven-member board questioned Colorado Springs attorney Eric Hall, whom the district paid to consider the legalities and draft a policy.

The program he recommended would take about 75 percent of the state and local money that comes in for each student and allow parents to use that money for private-school tuition.

Much of the conversation centered on finances — costs to the district, impact on student enrollment and jobs.

Board members asked district staff to provide them with more information, such as how many private schools would be interested in joining the program and what the Colorado Department of Education would say about the funding.

"We are having discussions right now," said Superintendent Elizabeth Celania- Fagen. "We have to explore absolutely every pro and con.' "

Celania-Fagen said she appreciated that the board was moving at a deliberate pace.

"Too much too fast will rock the system to the core," she said. "This is a healthy conversation. No one is saying, 'Decide right now.' "

It was clear the board was leaning toward starting a small pilot program that possibly could be limited to special classes of students.

"It won't impact the district in terms of revenue and employees," said board member Dan Gerken.

And it likely wouldn't be implemented until the 2012-13 school year.

"I'm concerned that we have all of this good stuff going on in the district but everyone is worrying about this," he said.

Nevertheless, board members agreed that no matter what is implemented, it would probably get challenged in the courts. "What would it cost to defend something like this, and how do we handle that?" asked board member Clifton Stahl.

"The litigation is on scale," said board member Craig Richardson. "If you start small, the litigation risk is smaller. If you go full-scale, it goes to the Supreme Court and it's seven figures."