Posted January 30, 2025
Selection of officers for the Colorado State Board of Education is usually a routine affair, with the positions of chair and vice chair rarely contested. There hasn’t been a contested vote for either position since 2015, the year that the elected chair resigned six months after her election, citing dysfunction on the part of her fellow board members.
Heading into the officer selection process at their first meeting on Jan. 8, the makeup of the board was 5-4 in favor of Democrats. During the sometimes awkward election process, there were two nominees for chair and vice chair. Newly elected Republican Yazmin Navarro nominated Democrat Rebecca McClellan for chair, while Democrat Kathy Plomer nominated Democrat Karla Esser. Four-year veteran Esser asserted that her experience earned her the chair position, adding it was customary to rotate that role, since McClellan had already served as chair.
Several board members tried to discuss each of the candidates, but the board attorney stated that was not allowed by the rules. McClellan secured the chair position in a 5-4 secret ballot vote. Then, in what is being described by the Working Families Party as a “shameful” move, McClellan nominated Navarro for vice chair, while former Vice Chair Lisa Escárcega nominated Esser for vice chair.
Navarro won the position in another 5-4 secret vote.
There were several issues that upset Democrats, but the primary one was with the selection of Navarro by McClellan. In their news release, Wynn Howell, state director for Colorado Working Families Party, stated, “Rebecca McClellan outed herself as Colorado’s Joe Manchin — a turncoat willing to throw her own party under the bus and align with both Trump Republicans and corporate campaign donors in order to advance her own political ambitions.”
The Education Initiative group for the state Democratic Party also published a statement, saying, “The election of new board member Navarro, a supporter of Moms for Liberty and Project 2025, as Vice Chair is very concerning.”
Democratic leaders expressed their preference for Esser for at least the vice chair role, “especially since Trump and Republicans are poised to set the national agenda.”
Navarro was backed by the Colorado League of Charter Schools, which helped contribute over $300,000 to her campaign. The Colorado Sun reported that these donations have been linked to dark money groups such as Education Reform Advocacy Now, which supports “school choice through charter schools and the elimination of teacher tenure in public schools,” according to Ballotpedia.
Navarro narrowly won her race against former state board member Rhonda Solis, who believed that charter schools should be transparent and accountable to the public. Brenda Dickhoner, president of the conservative group Ready Colorado, stated, “With Yazmin’s win, our State Board of Education will retain a pro-school choice majority on the board. Her victory ensures that school choice can continue to flourish.”
Overall, the Democratic Party in Colorado and nationally is split on the issue of charter schools. The billionaire-backed Democrats for Education for Reform promotes charters and funds campaigns for legislators who agree with their beliefs. They insist that Democrats need to support charter schools to retain the support of certain voting groups.
Teacher unions like CEA and AFT argue that charter schools need to be more accountable and express concern that charters often take essential resources from the local public schools. McClellan has been more closely allied with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on the charter school issue. Polis is a strong supporter of charters and school choice. He joined with the Colorado League of Charter Schools and other conservative dark money donors who spent millions to support the primary opponent of Democrat Kathy Gebhardt, though Gebhardt ended up winning the state board seat in the 2nd Congressional District.
McClellan received the endorsement of CEA and the AFL-CIO during her campaigns for the board in 2016 and 2022. The “Joe Manchin label” may be accurate as McClellan, a Democrat like Manchin, has usually supported charter schools during their appeals process before the board. CEA was a major force in defeating Amendment 80, which would have enshrined “school” choice in the state constitution and potentially opened the door to vouchers in the state. The AFL-CIO has not supported charter schools, which do not allow their teachers to be union members.
Rebecca McClellan outed herself as Colorado’s Joe Manchin.”
Colorado Working Families Party
With her vote for Navarro, who supported Amendment 80, McClellan seems to be saying she agrees fully with the school choice, pro-charter stance. She may even support a renewed effort to pass a school choice amendment in 2026. Advance Colorado, which initiated the amendment, thinks Amendment 80 “set the groundwork” to bring a similar initiative back in 2026.” As she praised Navarro’s win, Ready Colorado’s Dickhoner said that “Amendment 80 saw majority support in communities with large numbers of Hispanic voters.”
It remains to be seen how significant this relationship between McClellan and Navarro will affect the rest of the board and their future deliberations on charters and other issues impacting local control across the state. The other question is how 6th Congressional District voters who reelected McClellan in 2022 react to her current actions. When she spoke on her behalf for the chair position, McLellan stressed that every board member had a duty to represent the needs of their respective districts, regardless of political affiliation.
A majority of voters in her district voted against Amendment 80. The 6th District voters won’t have an opportunity to weigh in on how McClellan is representing them for four more years.
Mike DeGuire, Ph.D., is an executive coach for school leaders in Denver, and he is the vice chair of Advocates for Public Education Policy. This commentary is republished from Colorado Newsline under a Creative Commons license.
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