Speaker 1: Column this joy over Back, who's recent column in The
Speaker 1: Rocky Mountain Voice don't align with teachers' unions against Amendment
Speaker 1: eighty for school choice.
Speaker 2: Joey, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 3: Hey, thank Andy, great to be here.
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about our Amendment eighty. What it would do.
Speaker 2: Let's start with that.
Speaker 3: Okay, Well, it would put in the lock box I
Speaker 3: call the lock box of the Colorado Constitution the right
Speaker 3: to school choice for parents to direct And that's really
Speaker 3: an important word, to direct their kids schooling, where their
Speaker 3: kids go to school. In other words, a lot of
Speaker 3: people are misunderstanding this because the actual amendment language says
Speaker 3: the children have the right to school choice. So some
Speaker 3: people are mistaken mistakenly thinking that that means that the
Speaker 3: kid has the right to decide on the school the
Speaker 3: kid goes to, and that's just preposterous.
Speaker 1: Well, it also says it says clearly in the initiative
Speaker 1: that parents have the right to direct their children's education. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the language is there's.
Speaker 3: But people are ignoring that because I think that language
Speaker 3: is not in the actual uh, in the in the
Speaker 3: language that's said that's on an Amendment eighting on the ballot,
Speaker 3: and so people are missing that really important part. And
Speaker 3: and some of the homeschoolers and some of the charter
Speaker 3: people are saying, oh, my kid is going to decide
Speaker 3: and I can't have my kid, and that if you
Speaker 3: just follow that and let's just have a little fun
Speaker 3: and follow that ridiculous assumption. Do they really think that
Speaker 3: that a kid is going to sue the parent in
Speaker 3: a Coloro court and have a radical judge who's usually
Speaker 3: a Democrat who's totally against school choice and public money
Speaker 3: being used to fund any private school, is going to
Speaker 3: stay to the parent, Okay, Now your kid wants to
Speaker 3: go to private Catholic school with his friends, so you're
Speaker 3: going to have to fund that private Catholic school and
Speaker 3: you're going to have to uh allow this kid to
Speaker 3: do it. Or conversely, if the kid wants to go
Speaker 3: to you know what, prepare it to homeschool. Does anybody
Speaker 3: really think adem just going to say, okay, parent, you
Speaker 3: need to quit your job and stay home and homeschoolier kids.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just so ludicrous and far fetched and
Speaker 3: not happening.
Speaker 1: Well, and for me, I mean, for me, the whole
Speaker 1: argument stops when in the amendment it says parents have
Speaker 1: the right to direct the education of their children. That
Speaker 1: is part of the actual Amendment. So that should not
Speaker 1: even we shouldn't even be doing like you know, hypotheticals
Speaker 1: joy because I don't want to encourage people to think
Speaker 1: down that line, because the language says the exact words,
Speaker 1: parents have the right to direct the education of their children.
Speaker 2: So we need to just put that to bed.
Speaker 3: Believe. I know, I've gotten on Facebook from people who
Speaker 3: do not understand that elementary fact that parents direct the right.
Speaker 3: That's why I went to the to the preposterous scenario
Speaker 3: of the judges. They just don't seem to get that.
Speaker 3: And the other thing they're saying all over the place
Speaker 3: is that the schools will be told by you know,
Speaker 3: there's a line about quality education, that the kids have
Speaker 3: a right to quality education. Or people are saying, oh, well,
Speaker 3: quality education is going to be defined by the state,
Speaker 3: by the government, and they're going to come in and
Speaker 3: tell homeschoolers and charter parents and private schools this is
Speaker 3: what you have to do. And you know what, already,
Speaker 3: the Department of Education, the Board of Education in Colorado
Speaker 3: is the one who really sets the curriculum. You know,
Speaker 3: essentially for schools and so the government is already influencing
Speaker 3: that and they're not going to influence anymore when this
Speaker 3: an eighty passes. And that's the thing that people are
Speaker 3: just they're just being gripped by these rational fears when
Speaker 3: they should be welcoming this Amendment eighty with glad hosannas
Speaker 3: and singing in the crashing of drums and symbols. Instead
Speaker 3: of that, they're coming up with these really frankly ridiculous
Speaker 3: objections to it. And as you said, actually at the
Speaker 3: top of the hour, I think if we don't have
Speaker 3: this Amendment eighty, the legislature is going to continue to interfere.
Speaker 3: And they're already trying because they're going to say, oh,
Speaker 3: look at the Republicans, the charter people, they don't care.
Speaker 2: They failed this.
Speaker 1: I think this is a big, big deal because now
Speaker 1: that it's on the ballot, if this fails, because people
Speaker 1: don't necessarily understand, and you've got this in your column
Speaker 1: that last year House Build twenty four thirteen sixty three
Speaker 1: was designed to start eroding charter schools and it would
Speaker 1: have taken away their ability. A charter school can now
Speaker 1: use available school buildings for free, and that would have
Speaker 1: taken that away.
Speaker 2: It repealed the Yeah, it repealed.
Speaker 1: The ability of district charter schools to apply to use
Speaker 1: the district building or land. So they're going to start
Speaker 1: chipping away. And if we don't have this protection in
Speaker 1: the constitution, those chipping away, they will just continue and
Speaker 1: they will smell blood in the water if this pass.
Speaker 2: If this doesn't pass now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And actually the worst provision of that bill that
Speaker 3: the Democrats tried to pass last time to erase charter
Speaker 3: schools actually just to destroy the ability of charter schools
Speaker 3: to function at all. At about fifteen percent of kids
Speaker 3: in Colorado go to these wonderful and by the way,
Speaker 3: they're public charter schools, which a lot of people.
Speaker 2: Don't get that either.
Speaker 3: They also, in this terrible bill that thank god didn't pass,
Speaker 3: they would give the district the right to actually eradicate
Speaker 3: all charter schools, even existing charter schools in the district,
Speaker 3: if the district's per pupil enrollment is projected to decline,
Speaker 3: not even if it declines, but if it's projected to decline.
Speaker 3: So you see what that does. That absolutely strangles the
Speaker 3: ability of parents just to me, It just effectively bans
Speaker 3: all charter schools in the district if they're per pupil
Speaker 3: enrollment is projected to decline, because, of course, the public
Speaker 3: school people, the Democrats don't want the competition.
Speaker 2: Of charter schools.
Speaker 3: That's why they're trying to kill charter schools and homeschooling
Speaker 3: because these always are nearly always score a lot better
Speaker 3: in testing and in proficiency than the regular public school.
Speaker 3: So that's why they want they can't handle the competition.
Speaker 3: And by the way, of course, just the mere fact
Speaker 3: that the National Education Association at that crazy Randy Winingarten
Speaker 3: and our local school unions teachers' unions tearing Paulo, have
Speaker 3: actually kicked in between eight and ten million dollars to
Speaker 3: try to destroy Amendment eighty. That should tell oh, it's working.
Speaker 1: I want to read this to you, this text message,
Speaker 1: I just got it.
Speaker 2: Joy.
Speaker 1: If the kid wants to go to the school where
Speaker 1: they're encouraged to be trands, the legal system has already
Speaker 1: wiped out parents. If the wording recognizes the rights of
Speaker 1: the parent, cool, But if it bestows rights to a child.
Speaker 2: No go for me.
Speaker 1: So let me explain to this text where they're wrong. Okay,
Speaker 1: they're run because it clearly delineates parents have the right
Speaker 1: to direct their children's education. The implied right that you're
Speaker 1: giving children is not clearly spelled out in this language,
Speaker 1: and it would come in conflict with the clearly spelled
Speaker 1: out language that gives parents the rights to direct their
Speaker 1: child's education.
Speaker 2: So one of them is assumed. One of them is
Speaker 2: clearly in the amendment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they just have to Well, if they look at
Speaker 3: their blue book under this, I think page three nine
Speaker 3: or something, then the language is explained about the parent
Speaker 3: having the right to direct education and people just need
Speaker 3: to look up the word direct. Do you understand what
Speaker 3: direct means? People? I mean sincerely. And also this completely
Speaker 3: ridiculous scenario that the parent is going to be taken
Speaker 3: court by the child. That's just not happening for the
Speaker 3: reasons that I explained. And even if it were to happen,
Speaker 3: the parent would not be instructed by the court to
Speaker 3: quit his or her job at homeschool the kid or
Speaker 3: to pay her religious school, which is another thing people
Speaker 3: a parent are terrified of, and to pay tuition for real.
Speaker 3: I mean, no court is going to it's going to
Speaker 3: command a parent to pay for religious instruction for their
Speaker 3: kids at some Catholic school or Lutheran school or whatever.
Speaker 1: So I've got another text message I want to address here,
Speaker 1: and that is how is this taking money from public schools?
Speaker 1: That's what the antis are claiming. There is no money
Speaker 1: being directed anywhere. All this amendment does is say that
Speaker 1: parents have the right to choose the best educational choices
Speaker 1: for their children, and that existing charter schools, homeschool options,
Speaker 1: private schools.
Speaker 2: Have the right to exist. That's all it says.
Speaker 1: There's no money, there's no economic impact, there's nothing. But
Speaker 1: that's the scare tactics used by the unions who say
Speaker 1: that this is going to be used for vouchers, when
Speaker 1: no one is talking about that at all.
Speaker 3: No, that's exactly right. And so also the homeschoolers don't
Speaker 3: want vouchers, right, they don't want vouchers for whatever reason.
Speaker 3: And they're all using the weirdest thing and the most
Speaker 3: bizarre thing is that the homeschoolers and the unions are
Speaker 3: using the same language to try to defeat AMT eighties.
Speaker 3: And that should be a clue. People don't want to
Speaker 3: be on the side of the teachers' unions if you
Speaker 3: care about school choice, because they don't. They've been trying
Speaker 3: to destroy school choices, excuse me, absolutely forever, and that's
Speaker 3: why they're spending, as I say, eight to ten million
Speaker 3: dollars to destroy the amendment. And the other thing that
Speaker 3: people say is, oh, we already have school choice in howrall. Well,
Speaker 3: I live in the district that happened to have a
Speaker 3: one person conservative majority on the board, but a while
Speaker 3: ago they didn't. And any district area that has liberals
Speaker 3: on the board, on your school board, they can just
Speaker 3: deny school choice by denying charter applications, Willy Nill, you
Speaker 3: just at the district level. And people don't seem to
Speaker 3: get that either. But if we put it in the
Speaker 3: lock box of the constitution, that's what we must do.
Speaker 3: If you care about school choice, forget all these frivolous,
Speaker 3: absolutely you know, bizarre, preposterous arguments about how the kid
Speaker 3: is going to decide what schools she or he is
Speaker 3: going to be in. That's just not true. And as
Speaker 3: you say, there's no fisical what we call a fiscal
Speaker 3: note on this amount. The fiscal note would be spending
Speaker 3: of public money. There's no spending, and there's no possibility
Speaker 3: of spending public money. This is just a clear statement
Speaker 3: that we in Colorado and we parents and believe in
Speaker 3: school choice for kids, period.
Speaker 1: Joy Overbeck, I appreciate your time today. Hopefully people will
Speaker 1: read Amendment eighty and see clearly that parents are given
Speaker 1: control of their child's education.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you coming on the show today. Joyce Our Joy.
Speaker 3: Thanks Mandy, thank you.