Overbeck: Don’t align with teachers’ unions against Amendment 80 for school choice

By Joy Overbeck | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

From the Strange Bedfellows Department: the Christian Homeschool Educators of Colorado (CHEC) have joined with the sworn enemies of school choice, including teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) the Colorado Educators Association (CEA), and the Colorado Democratic Party to work against School Choice (Amendment 80) on the ballot. 

For nearly 35 years, CHEC has championed parents’ school choice, helping families find Christian homeschool resources and comply with the state of Colorado’s homeschool laws. For far longer, the NEA, the CEA, and other groups working tirelessly against Amendment 80, like the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and even the Parent-Teachers Association, have tried to abolish parents’ rights and give government ultimate power over children’s education.

Now comes a ballot measure that would finally lock into the Colorado Constitution the right to school choice for children in kindergarten through grade 12, and the right for parents to direct the education of their children – and the state’s preeminent homeschool supporters say, “no thanks!”

WHAT? Two major fears are driving the homeschoolers’ opposition to Amendment 80: they’re afraid it will allow children to choose the school they want to attend, overruling and even suing their parents; and they fear that Amendment 80 will give government the ability to dictate what constitutes “a quality education.”

Their healthy suspicion of evil government takeover is justified by the state’s persistent control of curriculum and school choice through laws and the State Board of Education (BOE).  But, that’s exactly why the homeschoolers should welcome with gladness and singing this school choice initiative that will actually protect families from that government control. Finally, school choice will be a right safely protected in the lockbox of the Colorado Constitution.

Right now, the government and Colorado’s Democrat-controlled legislature have the authority to seriously restrict or even erase educational options like charter schools and home schooling. Passing Amendment 80 ends that present danger. 

In fact, in the last legislative session, the Democrats floated House Bill 24-1363, a bill that would seriously cripple public charter schools and delight the teachers’ union, whose big donations support the anti-choice Democrats. Among other drastic changes assaulting school choice, the bill would have repealed current law that lets charter schools use available school buildings for free, and also repealed the ability of a district charter school or to apply to use the district building or land. Most alarmingly, the bill would also have allowed school districts to ban new charters if the district’s per-pupil enrollment is projected to decline, and even to revoke or refuse to renew an existing school’s charter if the district experiences declining enrollment. 

As long as Democrats overwhelmingly dominate the legislature (a margin of 46 to 19 in the House and 24 to 12 in the Senate) they will continue to attack school choice.

This new law would have been an extravagant gift from the Democrats to the teachers’ unions, helping them squelch the competition from charter schools whose stellar student performance often outshines neighborhood schools. If passed into law, HB 24-1363 would have devastated school choice in Colorado. Only the hundreds of upset parents who testified against the bill at the House Education Committee hearing halted this bold attempt to annihilate charter schools.  

Make no mistake, the Democrats will try it again in 2025; they always do. 

And it’s just a matter of time until they come after homeschooling. The State Board of Education is already on track to eliminate an enrichment program that helps thousands of homeschool kids with disabilities like autism, dyslexia, ADHD and other learning problems. Homeschool parents need to understand the BOE now has the power over homeschool programs like My Tech High; even more reason to pass Amendment 80. 

The school choicers would do well to focus on the actual assaults on choice currently taking place in the real world, rather than obsessing over what terrible things are extremely unlikely to happen if Amendment 80 passes. One of those unfounded worries is the fear that the amendment will undermine parental rights by allowing children to choose their own schools over the objection of parents, and even sue the parents if the kid wants to join friends at a private school for example.   

Kristi Burton Brown, a Constitutional attorney who homeschools her two children and is a CHEC member, explains: “For the child to have the right to choose his or her school, the court would literally have to order the parents to drive where they don’t want to drive and pay for private school, or quit their job and stay home to homeschool. When you think it through, it’s just not feasible that would happen. With Amendment 80, any right that the child has, such as the right to educational choice, is exercised through the parent because the parent directs the child’s education.” 

The concern that a “quality education” will be defined by the government is also unfounded, according to Burton Brown, who helped write the amendment in her role as executive vice chair of Advance Colorado, the nonprofit that created the ballot measure. She points out that Amendment 80 will not change current homeschool law that recognizes parents as the ones who judge the quality of their child’s education. For public school students, the school district or state standards decide what constitutes quality education. Although public charter schools can apply for waivers to some required standards, without Amendment 80 the legislature or the BOE will still have the power to restrict or even cancel those waivers that let charters escape some state curriculum dictates.  

Advance Colorado spent more than a million of their donor dollars to put Amendment 80 on the ballot, collecting 200,000 signatures from all over the state. Their mission is to “push back on the progressive policies that have put our state on the wrong track,” including proposing ballot issues like Amendment 80; Prop. 128 requiring offenders convicted of serious crimes to serve 85% of their sentence before being paroled; and Prop. 130 which increases funding for law enforcement. The organization also sponsors measures to lower taxes, limit the size and scope of government and foster free enterprise, as well as creating a world-class education system in Colorado.

By contrast, the National Education Association, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and led by the rabidly anti-choice Randy Weingarten, has poured more than $3 million so far into Public Schools Strong, the committee fighting against Amendment 80 in Colorado. Other big donors against 80 include the Colorado Fund for Children, which kicked in $250,000, and gee whiz just happens to have the same Denver address as the Colorado Teachers Association (teachers’ union). Stand for Children gave $250,000; it’s a Portland, Ore., Lefty group that “champions educational equity and racial justice,” with chapters in Colorado and other states.

Absolutely no parents or regular Coloradoans have donated to the committee to stop Amendment 80. Allies against 80 include some of the most Leftist groups in the state and nation, including the Colorado Democratic Party, the ACLU of Colorado, the AFL-CIO, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, AFT Colorado (American Federation of Teachers, Weingarten’s home base) and even the League of Women Voters Colorado.

 This rogue’s gallery of anti-choice baddies alone should assure parents that this amendment is the best possible way to protect and preserve school choice for their children and grandchildren. There’s a reason they don’t want to put your rights and your children’s rights in a Constitutional lockbox where the legislature and the government can’t break in and steal. They want control of your children’s education because they know that gives them control of Colorado’s future. Don’t let them have it. Vote YES on Amendment 80.

Joy Overbeck is a Colorado journalist and Douglas County Republican precinct leader whose work has appeared at Townhall.com, Rocky Mountain Voice, Complete Colorado, American Thinker, The Washington Times, The Federalist and elsewhere. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter/X @joyoverbeck1

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