Coloradans believe in opportunity and justice. Coloradans believe that hard work should be rewarded, that freedom matters, and that every child — regardless of background and circumstance — deserves the chance to rise as far as talent and effort will carry them. And yet, for thousands of low-income children in Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and communities across our state, opportunity is too often constrained not by ability, but by lack of power and agency.
For decades, my efforts on behalf of education reform have been guided by one simple conviction: Education funding should be controlled by parents and serve the interests of their children, not systems. We have made progress in expanding options through charter schools and open enrollment. But we have also witnessed too many schools that, year after year, fail to educate their students. Families condemned to those schools are almost totally and tragically the families with the fewest resources and the least political power.
We can, we must, do better, and we are about to do better because of the passage of the Education Freedom Tax Credit…