The Colorado Education Association and its president are opposed to Amendment 80 on the November 2024 ballot despite text messages with an edited audio clip that suggest otherwise. Those messages have been received by many voters across the state.
The amendment would enshrine school choice into the Colorado Constitution, protecting it from future legislative action, proponents have said.
The CEA and its local branch, the Poudre Education Association, are opposed to the measure, as is the Poudre School District Board of Education, which unanimously passed a resolution against Amendment 80 this week. The CEA is an employee association representing teachers throughout the state.
The text message, which was shared with the Coloradoan by a parent who received it, contains an audio clip underneath a picture of CEA President Kevin Vick. In the clip, Vick speaks about school choice, noting that it is required by state law, has been in place for 30 years and has bipartisan support.
“And it has worked very well for students for a number of years,” Vick said.
Underneath the picture and audio clip, the text message, reads: “The Colorado Teachers Union recently talked about the benefits of school choice:” along with a shortened version of what Vick said in the clip. It concludes with this: “Amendment 80 would let families keep the school choice we have in Colorado right now,” and encourages voters to vote yes on Amendment 80.
There is no mention or indication of who is responsible for creating and distributing the text message.
Vick, in a statement from the CEA, said the text message is “blatantly misrepresenting the position of myself and thousands of teachers across the state.”
Nicole Alvarado, interim president of the Poudre Education Association, and Poudre School District Board of Education President Kristen Draper also expressed concern that voters would construe the text message as an endorsement of Amendment 80.
“The video has been manipulated,” Draper said Tuesday night, before the school board’s vote for a resolution opposing the amendment. “If you hear the CEA is supporting this, that is patently false.”
Alvarado said several PEA members had reported receiving the text message to her on Oct. 17, and she received it herself on her cellphone the following day.
“It’s really misleading, especially to our organization which sees it as an attack on public education and funding,” she said. “It really just opens that door to a voucher system to funding private schools with taxpayer dollars.”
A CEA news release distributed Oct. 16 in response to the text message reiterated the opposition of Vick and the CEA to Amendment 80 while noting that the “Colorado Association of School Boards, the Colorado Association of School Executives, Stand for Children, The Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition and nearly 40 other organizations oppose Amendment 80 as a disastrous measure that could devastate funding for public schools.”
Colorado’s school-choice law allows students in grades K-12 to attend any public school in the state, including charter schools, for free regardless of where in the state they live, provided there is space available.
Proponents, including Kristi Burton Brown, former chair of the Colorado Republican party and a candidate for the Colorado Board of Education seat representing the 4th Congressional District, argue that choice needs to be in the state constitution to protect it.
Members of the PSD Board of Education who spoke about the amendment before their vote to oppose it were all supportive of school choice, as well. Their opposition was based on the potential implications of putting “a parent’s right to direct their children’s education,” as the ballot language reads, into the state constitution, where that right could be expanded by the interpretation of courts to open the door to school vouchers in Colorado.
Vouchers provide public money that families can use for either public or private education.
“I have family who live in Arizona, and this was step one of a two-step process to a voucher system (there), so I adamantly oppose 80 specifically for that reason,” Draper said. “There is no need for public monies that are intended to go toward our students to go to private schools.”
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com,x.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.