I always like to check in on politics in Denver and Colorado, since that is where I cut my teeth in the political world. I’m still good friends with a number of elected officials out there and some of the Democratic Party officials.
So I was surprised to read this today. My brother, who is a Denver Democratic Party officer sent it to me. It seems as though Koch-style big money has trickled down to the school board races.
Emily had thought a “big” contribution meant a few friends joining up to scrape together $500. But, in the last few weeks, news broke that oil CEOs and financial executives were cutting $10,000 and $25,000 checks to her opponent. We found out that notorious front groups like Stand for Children were funneling in tens of thousands of dollars of out-of-state financial industry cash, and we started hearing about serious threats of retribution from big-time professional politicians.
Not surprisingly, many of these donors and politicians are part of the larger national network aimed at undermining traditional public education — a movement that has succeeded in voucherizing the school system in neighboring Douglas County and that has placed Rupert Murdoch-funded voucher activists right here in Denver. In the process, this little grass-roots school-board race has become so inundated by big money and national political forces that none other than former President George W. Bush just made an education-themed appearance – one clearly designed to influence the education debate dominating the upcoming school board election.
You read that correctly. W has lent his name to a Denver school board race. And these groups have ties to ALEC. ALEC passes itself off as a non-partisan group, but as The Nation exposed, they are tied to the Koch Brothers. And one of ALEC’s “scholars” is Kay Coles James, who was the ruinous head of the US Office of Personnel Management under W. She never met a contractor who donated to GOP politicians she didn’t like, handing out millions in no-bid contracts – money that ended up being wasted as none of the projects ever came to fruition. She also has ties to the Heritage Foundation and the Family Research Council.
Two of the largest donors in the Denver school board race are former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bruce Benson and GOP money bag man Daniel Ritchie. They both support school vouchers and expansion of charter schools.
So the question for Denver voters, especially in my old neighborhood, is whether you want someone running your schools who is going to answer to corporate interests and destroy traditional public school education, or someone who will be answerable to you. My hope is that it’s the latter. I encourage my friends in Denver to support Arturo Jimenez in District 5 and to reject the Koch Brothers attempt to take over local school boards.