Speaker 1: Right now, we're going to talk about some ignorance lying
Speaker 1: around about the proposed Amendment number eighty. Joining me now
Speaker 1: is Christy Burton Brown with Advanced Colorado. Also side note,
Speaker 1: she's also running for the Board of Education in the
Speaker 1: fourth district. And I already voted for you or her,
Speaker 1: So there you go. My secret ballot is out now Christy,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: First of all, thank you, Mandy, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Andrew vote, Well, we're going to talk first about the
Speaker 1: Amendment eighty, which is a school choice amendment and Advanced
Speaker 1: Colorado and what other organization put this forth? It just
Speaker 1: went out of my head.
Speaker 2: Actually we are the organization of posts. Okay, so we
Speaker 2: have a good coalition supporting it.
Speaker 1: Okay, great, So Advanced Colorado puts this forth. It is
Speaker 1: a very simply worded amendment and that I think is
Speaker 1: part of its beauty but also part of the issues
Speaker 1: that have arisen, or at least issues that have been
Speaker 1: seized on by people who don't want this to pass.
Speaker 1: And I want to start by talking about where are
Speaker 1: the money's coming from on the anti side, Kelly, because now, no,
Speaker 1: let's not start there. Tell people what amendment eighty does,
Speaker 1: and why it's important that it passes first, Let's start.
Speaker 2: There, sure your right, Mandy, that is actually completely simple.
Speaker 2: Out of all the fourteen measures on your ballot, Amendment
Speaker 2: eighty is basic. It is putting the right to school
Speaker 2: choice we've enjoyed in Colorado for decades in our constitution
Speaker 2: so that it's no longer at the mercy of politicians
Speaker 2: who can change it whenever they want.
Speaker 1: So the purpose of this is to push back against
Speaker 1: the sort of shifting tides in Colorado because Colorado, and
Speaker 1: I talked to my listeners about this earlier, Christy, Colorado
Speaker 1: was really at the forefront of the school choice movement
Speaker 1: many years ago, and because of that, we have a
Speaker 1: vibrant charter school community. We have a vibrant home school
Speaker 1: community with great supports, but they are outside the control
Speaker 1: of the teachers union. And that's what brings us to
Speaker 1: who's spending against Amendment eighty. Is it all coming from
Speaker 1: teachers unions or there are other people trying to get
Speaker 1: this defeated.
Speaker 2: So it is almost entirely coming from the teachers Union.
Speaker 2: And what I think people really need to know is
Speaker 2: that it's the National Teachers Union who's funding the majority
Speaker 2: of the campaign, putting those ads on your TV and
Speaker 2: lying about an amendment eighty. As of a few days ago,
Speaker 2: the National Teachers Union had put in over four million dollars,
Speaker 2: and the other roughly million dollars that they have has
Speaker 2: come from in a state, the Colorado Teachers Union and
Speaker 2: a couple other organizations that smaller amounts. But it really
Speaker 2: is National Teachers Union doesn't understand our system here in Colorado,
Speaker 2: doesn't know how popular it is, aligned to voters telling
Speaker 2: them this is threatening public school funding when the Colorado
Speaker 2: Fiscal note by a non partisan government agency say this
Speaker 2: is zero dollar fiscal impact. This is not a funding amendment.
Speaker 1: So one of the things I want to take a
Speaker 1: little bit of a different tact than you just did.
Speaker 1: I do believe that the teachers unions know how popular
Speaker 1: this is. I do believe that they understand that we
Speaker 1: have a vibrant charter school system and they absolutely hate it.
Speaker 1: And even though all of the people who voted for
Speaker 1: school choice and all of the people who have supported
Speaker 1: charter schools in Colorado over the years, they've all moved
Speaker 1: on right because they have jobs and families and they
Speaker 1: figure it's done so we don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: it anymore, whereas the teachers' unions never stop thinking about
Speaker 1: how to undermine and destroy a parent's option to choose
Speaker 1: the educational opportunity for their kid that best fits that kid,
Speaker 1: which is at the heart of this amendment. I do
Speaker 1: want to ask them, yeah, oh go ahead.
Speaker 2: I was just going to say, and I agree with
Speaker 2: you that their motives are very interfarious when you look
Speaker 2: at what they do. They like to come in from
Speaker 2: any you know, from their national high place, and come
Speaker 2: into any state and say, doesn't matter what you guys
Speaker 2: think of your system, right, hate it, and so we're
Speaker 2: going to fight it.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you about some of the criticisms
Speaker 1: that have been levied against Amendment eighty And the biggest,
Speaker 1: most common one that I have heard from kind of
Speaker 1: a surprising place is from homeschoolers or charter school parents
Speaker 1: who say, wait a minute, does this give the government
Speaker 1: any way to sort of snaggle their way in under
Speaker 1: the guise of quote ensuring equality education.
Speaker 2: Sure, and I've heard that's concerned as well, and I
Speaker 2: think it comes from a good motive, but it's misplaced
Speaker 2: when you look at that amendment eighty. It is like
Speaker 2: the fact is the legislature could meet tomorrow in their
Speaker 2: next session and put any restrictions on our rights to
Speaker 2: school choice that they want to. They don't need our
Speaker 2: permission to do that. And that, in fact, is the
Speaker 2: exact reason we need Amendment eighty is because you tell
Speaker 2: politicians to get their hands off your rights when you
Speaker 2: put them in the constitution, because only the voters in
Speaker 2: Colorado can change the constitution, not the legislature. So you
Speaker 2: know the language, the operative language, this is very simple.
Speaker 2: It is the right to school choice. And parents always
Speaker 2: exercise rights in Colorado on behalf of their children, so
Speaker 2: that's also very clear. Even though the right to school
Speaker 2: choice is being given to every case through twelve child,
Speaker 2: the purpose language also says parent and have the right
Speaker 2: to direct the education of their child. That's an general
Speaker 2: precedent Colorado camp violate. So that's immense parental rights and
Speaker 2: school choice rights in our constitutions.
Speaker 1: This to me should be a no brainer, I mean honestly,
Speaker 1: but is it enough of an issue to get people
Speaker 1: to say, yeah, we need to put this in our constitution.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know that we have a large chunk
Speaker 1: of our children for any state. We have a pretty
Speaker 1: good chunk of our children in charter schools. I know
Speaker 1: that out of the top ten most successful schools in
Speaker 1: the state, a good chunk of those are charter schools
Speaker 1: or private schools. I think there's only one public high
Speaker 1: school in the top ten. So I mean, I'm just
Speaker 1: afraid there's complacency and people saying, look, why do we
Speaker 1: need this, why do we need this now after we
Speaker 1: have this vibrant system already?
Speaker 2: Sure and media, I actually think you're right that people
Speaker 2: tend to get complacent when you have rights that are
Speaker 2: currently protected and you're not seeing the attacks coming on
Speaker 2: the horizon. Where we work in the education issue every
Speaker 2: day and we see what the legislature is proposing and
Speaker 2: that they're trying to, in their own words, attempts to
Speaker 2: create the beginning of the end for charter schools. In Colorado,
Speaker 2: we have the second highest population in the nation of
Speaker 2: charter school students. But I think a good relation that
Speaker 2: people can see is to property taxes. Before our property
Speaker 2: tax spike that happened last year, there was actually an
Speaker 2: amendment on the ballot that would have stopped whose spikes
Speaker 2: from happening and replaced Gallagher with something effective, and voters
Speaker 2: voted it down because they weren't feeling the effect of
Speaker 2: high property taxes. And now that this year you saw
Speaker 2: everyone in the really have said about it and wanted
Speaker 2: to fix I hope the same thing doesn't happen to
Speaker 2: school choice. That people are like, well, we have the rights,
Speaker 2: we like them, why put them in the constitution. And
Speaker 2: then two years from now we see major attacks succeed
Speaker 2: against school choice rights, and then people are like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 2: we should have passed it. Like we're basically saying, be proactive.
Speaker 2: If you like the rights you have on school choice,
Speaker 2: get ahead of the politicians, put them in the constitution.
Speaker 2: Don't leave yourself at their mercy.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I think people don't
Speaker 1: necessarily pay attention to is the Board of Education in Colorado.
Speaker 1: And people may not realize that if you are in
Speaker 1: the Boulder Valley School District, your chances of getting a
Speaker 1: charter school approved are very very low. So the option
Speaker 1: to go and become a charter school under the Board
Speaker 1: of Education to get around from anti charter union controlled
Speaker 1: school boards is a huge thing that has to remain.
Speaker 1: But it's my understanding and maybe you can correct me
Speaker 1: if you're wrong, since you're running for the Board of Education.
Speaker 1: The makeup of the Board of Education has changed in
Speaker 1: such a way that puts those new approvals through the
Speaker 1: state perhaps at risk. Is that accurate?
Speaker 2: Yesinitely, Actually all going to depend on the election this November,
Speaker 2: because right now, even though it's a six ' to
Speaker 2: three Democrat majority on the board, it's full of five
Speaker 2: to four pro charter majority. But because what happened in
Speaker 2: one of the Democrat primaries this year, it's set up
Speaker 2: to be an anti charter board unless Yasmin Navarro and
Speaker 2: CD eight when the Board of Ed seed if she wins,
Speaker 2: there's still one Democrat on the board who's pro school choice,
Speaker 2: in pro charter, who could still have a pro charter
Speaker 2: majority if Yasmin wins.
Speaker 1: You know, Christy, it's kind of crazy to me that
Speaker 1: this has become so politicized on the Republican and Democrats side,
Speaker 1: because there's an organization called Democrats for School Choice. So
Speaker 1: this didn't used to be a highly politicized issue. When
Speaker 1: did that happen? I mean, when did we go from
Speaker 1: everybody saying, look, we want every kid to succeed and
Speaker 1: we want parents who know their kids better than anybody
Speaker 1: else to help them succeed. And yet here we are
Speaker 1: still having this conversation. When did that shift take place?
Speaker 2: You know, I think, honestly, Mandy, it has been a
Speaker 2: shift among to your point, elected Democrats, not Democrats on
Speaker 2: the ground when we've been pulling this issue. Their support
Speaker 2: for school choice and keeping those rights in the constitution,
Speaker 2: you know, a majority among all political parties. And that's
Speaker 2: true across the nation because parents belong to all political
Speaker 2: parties and want their kids to succeed. But I'd say
Speaker 2: it about the last ten years in Colorado, the Democrat
Speaker 2: Party has elected more people who are anti charter school,
Speaker 2: anti choice, and you know, want to in my opinion,
Speaker 2: they're leaving minority students, economically disadvantaged students in sailing schools
Speaker 2: and saying you're stuck there. Too bad for you, this
Speaker 2: is the only system you can choose, and studies actually
Speaker 2: show that's what's going on. You know, when people like
Speaker 2: that get elected to office, and so Amendment eighty gives
Speaker 2: people on the ground, like Democrats on the street, who
Speaker 2: don't feel that way, who want to make sure kids
Speaker 2: from those kind of families are most vulnerable. Kids have
Speaker 2: the option to go to a better and different school.
Speaker 2: That's what Amendment eighty would cement and kind of put
Speaker 2: back on these politicians that just aren't representing what people
Speaker 2: in their party actually think.
Speaker 1: Well, let me read this text message I just got
Speaker 1: and people can text the Common Spirit Health text line
Speaker 1: at five six six. And I know if you have
Speaker 1: questions for Christy Mandy, the commercials against ad have said
Speaker 1: that it may take money away from public education. I
Speaker 1: know my wife voted against it for that reason. Can
Speaker 1: you go through that?
Speaker 2: Sure? And you know that is what the ads are saying.
Speaker 2: They're telling people this is going to put public school
Speaker 2: funding at risk. The problem is that's a lie. And
Speaker 2: the way you can know that, if you're like I
Speaker 2: don't know which campaign to believe, they read the Colorado
Speaker 2: Blue Book that is put together by non partisan analysts
Speaker 2: that always do a fiscal impact statement, which says, basically,
Speaker 2: how much is this measure going to cost us? Zero dollars.
Speaker 2: That's not from our campaign, that's from the Union. That
Speaker 2: is from non partison analysts who works for the state
Speaker 2: of Colorado, and they say there is no cost associated
Speaker 2: with this amendment. So I think people need to get
Speaker 2: to get the facts for themselves, because again, those ads
Speaker 2: on TV are being funded by the National Teachers Union.
Speaker 2: That's straight up line to voters and the union ad debates.
Speaker 2: I've debated them a couple of times. They acknowledge at
Speaker 2: the debates, well, no, it's true, this isn't a voucher.
Speaker 2: There is actually no funding, but maybe one day there
Speaker 2: could be. So they actually acknowledge in person that the
Speaker 2: suggestion this causes or sorry, cost money to voters is
Speaker 2: a lie.
Speaker 1: Well, now done a really good job just conflating a
Speaker 1: school choice with vouchers. Right, They've demonized vouchers, So now
Speaker 1: the move is to tie those two things together as
Speaker 1: if they are the same when they are not. Now,
Speaker 1: I personally am pro voucher, but I think that's going
Speaker 1: to be one of those things that you are going
Speaker 1: to have to get a lot of buy in from
Speaker 1: a lot of different people before you can even attempt
Speaker 1: it in a state. It can't be done at the
Speaker 1: district level. It's got to be done at the state level,
Speaker 1: and it's going to require a lot of conversation and talking,
Speaker 1: and you cannot inflict that on people and expect it
Speaker 1: not to just end up in the courts for decades,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, It's like vouchers. I love
Speaker 1: the idea, but the practicality of it, I have it
Speaker 1: on the back burner. I just want to make sure
Speaker 1: that parents can choose the best option for their kids.
Speaker 1: That's all I want out of this entire.
Speaker 2: Thing, exactly, Mandy and I think, and that's what we're
Speaker 2: doing in Amendment eighty. You know, I think if you're
Speaker 2: realistic about where we are in Colorado right now, and
Speaker 2: where we are in Colorado right now is a system
Speaker 2: that has been enjoyed and celebrated protected on a biperson
Speaker 2: basis for decades that you get to pick the best
Speaker 2: school for your kids. And in Colorado, if you want
Speaker 2: to put them in private school or homeschool, then, like
Speaker 2: my husband and I do, you've got to pay for
Speaker 2: that yourself. And then the eighty wouldn't change that. But
Speaker 2: what it does say is the government can't interfere with
Speaker 2: those rights. The government can't say, oh, sorry, we're going
Speaker 2: to close down the charter school in your districts because
Speaker 2: we don't like the enrollment numbers. That's as a local
Speaker 2: school doesn't matter the charter school succeeding. We want to
Speaker 2: close it down right now, they can do that in Colorado.
Speaker 2: You know, they could ban open enrollment if they want to,
Speaker 2: which is actually used by a lot of families in
Speaker 2: Colorado to cross district lines go to a better school
Speaker 2: for their kids. Then the legislature can dam that next
Speaker 2: session if they want to. The only way to stop
Speaker 2: that is to put those rights in the constitution, which
Speaker 2: is very simply what in an eighty does without impacting fundings.
Speaker 1: A lot of textures asking a variation of this question, Mandy,
Speaker 1: I heard this would allow funding of private schools by
Speaker 1: using tax money. Does it do that?
Speaker 2: Absolutely not, absolutely not, And that is what the Union
Speaker 2: is spending millions of dollars saying on TV to people.
Speaker 2: And it is an absolute why. And again people can
Speaker 2: look at the blue books take take non partisan analysts
Speaker 2: from the state's word for it. I mean, the state
Speaker 2: is no. The current state is no fan of any
Speaker 2: conservative issue. If this were going to cost money to
Speaker 2: public schools, they would say so. They put fiscal impacts
Speaker 2: on every measure, and they have said the fiscal impact
Speaker 2: is zero dollars. You cannot get less funding than a
Speaker 2: zero dollar fiscal impact. To no, this is not a voucher.
Speaker 2: It's not a funding program. Would not take money from
Speaker 2: public schools and put them into private.
Speaker 1: This person said Mandy. The concerns I'm reading from homeschoolers
Speaker 1: is that the amendment says quality education. The concern is
Speaker 1: who determines what is a quality education. They're afraid that
Speaker 1: the government will decide exactly what that means. Can you
Speaker 1: ask Christy if there's a possibility that the government can
Speaker 1: decide how homeschoolers are taught?
Speaker 2: Sure, great question, And I would say right now, the
Speaker 2: government could meet in next legislative session and put any
Speaker 2: restriction it wanted to on homeschooling families. It doesn't need
Speaker 2: anyone's permission or a new law to do that. That
Speaker 2: puts us, you know, if you are a homeschooler, and
Speaker 2: I am a homeschooler and a homeschool grad, Actually that
Speaker 2: puts us in a very scary situation where it's a
Speaker 2: mercy of politicians who can restrict us tomorrow if they
Speaker 2: want to so. And then an ad on the other hand,
Speaker 2: would actually put the right to homeschool your kids as
Speaker 2: a school choice option in the Colorado Constitution. You cannot
Speaker 2: have greater protection from the winds of politicians than putting
Speaker 2: that right in the Colorado Constitution. The quality language that
Speaker 2: some homeschoolers are getting a little bit hung up on,
Speaker 2: which I understand, is actually in the purpose language. And
Speaker 2: it's really really important that people understand the difference in
Speaker 2: purpose language and operative language. Operative language is the law,
Speaker 2: that's the language that establishes the right to school choice
Speaker 2: in our constitution. The purpose language basically answers, why are
Speaker 2: we doing this, or we're doing this because every kid
Speaker 2: should have access to quality education. But that is not
Speaker 2: part of the actual law here, and so no, it
Speaker 2: does not give the government any for permission to mess
Speaker 2: with education standards in Colorado.
Speaker 1: I guess when I just heard you say that this
Speaker 1: legislative session, the legislature could simply pass a law banning homeschooling.
Speaker 1: That never occurred to me until right now.
Speaker 2: I think the homeschool group are missing that hugely, which
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a homeschooler, so that that Bob and me,
Speaker 2: they're completely ignoring that. I saw an email from them saying,
Speaker 2: let's just be vigilant and defend the rights we currently have.
Speaker 2: At the legislature. The legislature doesn't listen to homeschoolers. They
Speaker 2: don't care what we say. They could absolutely restrict and
Speaker 2: ban whatever they want next session. And the only way
Speaker 2: to protect that is to put our right to homeschool
Speaker 2: in the constitution.
Speaker 1: All right, we're talking about Amendment eighty with Christy Burton Brown,
Speaker 1: also a candidate for the fourth District for the Board
Speaker 1: of Education. This is a critically important amendment to do
Speaker 1: exactly what Christy just said. This is going and let's
Speaker 1: be clear, Christie, there's no and people don't often understand this.
Speaker 1: We will pass let's see Amendment eighty passes. What we've
Speaker 1: passed is essentially the skeleton framework of what this is
Speaker 1: actually going to mean. And then they're going to pass laws,
Speaker 1: and then there's going to be lawsuits, and then they're
Speaker 1: going to put the meat on the bones of this amendment.
Speaker 1: So if we're worried about things like quality education, there
Speaker 1: are ways to address that going forward. As the meat
Speaker 1: gets put on the bones of this entire situation.
Speaker 2: Sure, and you know it's not what people are worried about,
Speaker 2: they can certainly involve themselves in any discussions later that
Speaker 2: may happen. I do think that people do need to understand,
Speaker 2: like this is a constitutional right, like the freedom to speech,
Speaker 2: like the freedom of religion that we have in the
Speaker 2: US Constitution. Are there lawsuits that go on about those
Speaker 2: rights all the time? Sure there are. You know, people
Speaker 2: sue over rights to make sure they're protected. But that
Speaker 2: doesn't change the fact that we should have those fundamental
Speaker 2: rights present in our constitution. So that we're putting the
Speaker 2: government on notice you can no longer interfere with our
Speaker 2: right to school choice. Here in Colorado, every family gets
Speaker 2: to make the best choice for their child. You can't
Speaker 2: block access.
Speaker 1: Christy Burton Brown is my guest, Christy Burton. I know
Speaker 1: we're talking about the amendment. Well, why don't you give
Speaker 1: your sales pitch of why people should vote for you
Speaker 1: for the fourth Congressional District Board of Education seat.
Speaker 2: Oh thanks, Mandy. I am running to give parents a
Speaker 2: voice to empower parents. You should be able to pick
Speaker 2: any kind of school that you want for your child,
Speaker 2: and I don't think the state Board of Education should
Speaker 2: block your access to doing that. So that's one of
Speaker 2: the fights I'll engage with on the state Board. I'll
Speaker 2: support charter schools and people's choice. So that's the kind
Speaker 2: of voice we need. Also, I have school aged kids,
Speaker 2: and no one who's going to be on the board
Speaker 2: next year right now has school age kids, and I
Speaker 2: think that's also an important voice we need on the board.
Speaker 1: I agree, Christy. Thank you so much for making time
Speaker 1: for us today.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mandy all Right,