Education Reform A Wedge Issue Among Colo. Democrats

Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Erica Meltzer on May 31, 2018. On the campaign trail, the Democratic candidates for governor of Colorado tend to hit the same themes when it comes to education: more money for schools, better pay for teachers, broader access to preschool and full-day kindergarten, more opportunities for higher education.

But this year’s Democratic primary season has also exposed an intra-party rift on education policy that’s been a long time coming.

For years, more moderate Democrats, often working in unison with like-minded Republicans, have championed education reform efforts ranging from school choice to holding educators accountable for student performance. Now, left-leaning Democrats who see those policies as undercutting public education and devaluing the work of teachers are ascendant within the party. They’re trying to tie Democrats who believe otherwise to President Donald Trump and his education secretary, billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos.

The dynamic was on full display at the state party convention this spring, when delegates booed the head of the Colorado chapter of Democrats for Education Reform and voted to cast out the organization from under the party’s tent. It is playing out more subtly on the campaign trail in a highly competitive gubernatorial primary. As a result, this election season could shift what’s considered mainstream Democratic education policy in Colorado – particularly when it comes to teacher performance and tenure.

This move to sideline Democrats for Education Reform is significant because the group champions positions on school choice and accountability that have enjoyed wide support in Colorado’s Democratic Party. The group’s state advisory board includes former lieutenant governors and speakers of the state House, along with former state Sen. Michael Johnston, now a candidate for governor.

“For some reason, the left of the Democratic Party has decided that choice and ed reform is anathema and has thrown in with anti-reform elements,” said long-time Democratic political consultant Eric Sondermann, who serves on the board of a Denver charter school.

DeVos supports private school vouchers and championed a free-market approach to charter schools in her home state of Michigan. Colorado charter supporters say their approach is far more regulated and creates options within public education. Sondermann said the DeVos/Trump agenda “could not be more far removed from what Colorado Democratic education reformers are talking about, but it damages the brand” of school choice and charter schools.

Johnston, who has attracted millions of dollars in donations from wealthy supporters of charter schools, is best known – infamous in the eyes of some teachers – for authoring Colorado’s teacher effectiveness law, which ties evaluations to student performance on state assessments. It was passed by Democratic lawmakers and signed by Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter. Johnston defends his record, but his education platform doesn’t include policies from the reform playbook.

Another gubernatorial candidate, former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy, has pledged to revisit that law if elected. Kennedy has the endorsement of the state’s teachers unions and has cast herself as the defender of public education in a race that also includes U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a former State Board of Education member who founded two charter schools, and Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne, a former health care executive who is a co-founder of Colorado Succeeds, a bipartisan business-oriented education reform group.

“People talk about divisions among Republicans right now and treat the Democrats as a more or less united party,” said Seth Masket, a professor of political science at the University of Denver. “Education is the issue that really stands to divide the left in a very substantial way.”

An independent political group backing Kennedy tried to emphasize this divide in a recently released ad that both Johnston and Polis have said is unfair. The money for the ad came from teachers unions, Emily’s List, and another organization that supports female candidates. DFER, meanwhile, is sitting out the primary, but another group, Students for Education Reform Action Network, endorsed Johnston and its independent expenditure committee, Reaching the Summit, is campaigning for Johnston.*

Charter schools have enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Colorado, and no Democratic candidate is talking about rolling back school choice. But each year there are legislative efforts to expand or contract school choice in various ways — by making it easier for students to take advantage of open enrollment, by giving districts more authority to turn down charter schools, or by offering tax credits to offset private school costs.

In a divided legislature, many of these measures die in committee, but in 2017, charter schools scored a major victory with a bipartisan law requiring school districts to share revenue from tax increases with charters that they authorize. That legislation led one charter school group to rank Colorado No. 2 in the nation for the friendliness of its laws and regulations. With the left ascendant within the Democratic Party, will such bills still find Democratic support in the next legislature or in the governor’s office?

Read more in the Colorado Independent

Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Erica Meltzer on May 31, 2018.

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Photo by Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado. Colorado teachers rallied for more education funding on April 27, 2018.