Amendment 80: School Choice in K-12 Education-Who Supports and Who Opposes?

Dr. Mike DeGuire

Posted September 26, 2024

Amendment 80 will put “school choice” in the constitution. Yet, school choice is already in state law. It is not necessary, and voters should learn who gains and who loses before voting on this issue. The people who support this amendment are being backed by wealthy organizations. They have their own agenda. They want tax dollars to go to private schools instead of public schools. This amendment could hurt rural schools, and it would reduce funding for public schools. The wording is misleading, and will lead to years of legal battles.

The text of the amendment reads as follows:

(1) PURPOSE AND FINDINGS. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF COLORADO HEREBY FIND AND DECLARE THAT ALL CHILDREN HAVE THE RIGHT TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS A QUALITY EDUCATION; THAT PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DIRECT THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN; AND THAT SCHOOL CHOICE INCLUDES NEIGHBORHOOD, CHARTER, PRIVATE, AND HOME SCHOOLS, OPEN ENROLLMENT OPTIONS, AND FUTURE INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATION. (2) EACH K-12 CHILD HAS THE RIGHT TO SCHOOL CHOICE.

Colorado State Board of Education members Lisa Escárcega and Kathy Plomer expressed their concerns about the amendment in an article titled, “Don’t Be Fooled: Amendment 80 is not Just About School Choice”. They said Amendment 80 is being brought from “wealthy, in and out-of-state organizations.” It is part of a plan to push “vouchers” in our state. If the amendment passes, parents can insist that the state must pay for private schools, which is unfair to public schools.

Voters who care about their local public schools will want to think twice about whether they support this misleading, unnecessary amendment.

Vouchers and voucher-like laws are in about twenty states, primarily led by Republicans. Voucher-type legislation uses public taxpayer dollars so families can “choose any type of schooling for their child-private, public or home schooling.” In states where they use vouchers, research shows it can be very costly, states experience budget cuts, and students do not show academic success in voucher schools.

Over twenty organizations oppose this amendment. Some of them held a press conference on Sept 13, 2024, in Denver. At the press conference, teachers, the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), and a Fort Morgan superintendent spoke about the problems with this amendment. The speakers emphasized that school choice is already protected in law and has been for thirty years. They stressed that funding “private schools” would drain money away from rural public schools. As an example of how much vouchers cost taxpayers, CEA President Kevin Vick stated that “Arizona’s voucher program was projected to cost $64 million, and it ballooned to $550 million in year one. In 2024, it’s expected to reach $900 million.”

Local scholars have also weighed in on Amendment 80. Kevin Welner, a professor of education policy at the University of Colorado Boulder and director of the National Education Policy Center, says this amendment will result in many lawsuits. “It puts judges in the driver’s seat later on to try to make some sense out of this.” Even the sponsors of this amendment said it will end up in court for years in an interview on KOA radio. The Christian Home Educators association also says the amendment’s language is a problem for their families.

Currently, these are some of the groups opposing the amendment:

ACLU of Colorado, AFT Colorado, Colorado Fiscal Institute ,CEA, the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE), AFSCME ,

Advocates for Public Education Policy, Business and Professional Women of Colorado, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, League of Women Voters Colorado, Soul 2 Soul Sisters, Bell Policy Center, Colorado PTA, One Colorado, United for a New Economy,

Colorado Democratic Party, American Association of University Women, Colorado Wins, Colorado AFL-CIO, Stand for Children, and New Era Colorado Action Fund.

Advance Colorado is the conservative non-profit organization that is sponsoring Amendment 80. They say the amendment is needed so the legislature cannot change charter school laws. Advance Colorado started as “Unite for Colorado” in 2019, and it bankrolled almost every major Republican effort in Colorado in 2020. Unite for Colorado spent over $17 million in 2020 on Republican candidates, and they have “become the most important fundraising entity for conservatives and for Republicans,” said Dick Wadhams, a former chairman of the Colorado GOP. Advance Colorado works with other conservative organizations to promote their agendas.

One of them, Colorado Dawn, spent over $1.3 million to pay people to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot. Colorado Dawn is led by three Republicans: “Steve Durham, a Republican member of the Colorado Board of Education, chairman; Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, the vice chair; and Josh Hosler, the former chairman of the El Paso County GOP, treasurer.”

In addition to these conservative groups, the following organizations have announced their support of amendment 80: Ready Colorado, which supported vouchers for years, the Common Sense Institute, which is tied to the libertarian State Policy Network and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), “the Colorado Catholic Conference, and the Colorado Association of Private Schools.” Some of these groups will use the billionaire money they have behind them to flood the media with ads and flyers to support the amendment.

Voters who care about their local public schools will want to think twice about whether they support this misleading, unnecessary amendment.

Mike DeGuire, Ph.D., is an executive coach for school leaders in Denver, and he serves on the board of Advocates for Public Education Policy.