They were actually able to resolve it (sort of) yesterday with the following quick fix, though it is not a comprehensive solution:
"-Embedded jquery in the HEAD using the form in moodle’s interface
-Used JQuery script in the question body to re-order the options, putting the “Choose…” option on top still.
This only works if any new entries are added to the list at the bottom. Items can’t be removed, though if there is no better solution in the future we may want to just find a way of doing that in javascript while leaving the choice in the database for reporting purposes."It's too soon to know if there are any long term drawbacks to this approach.