Letter to the Editor: Amendment 80 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing
Letter to the Editor
According to the Colorado 2024 Blue Book, Amendment 80 will create a right to school choice, a right for parents to direct their children’s education, and a right for all children to have an equal opportunity to access a quality education. So why are the Colorado Education Association and the ACLU of Colorado opposed to Amendment 80? Why are the Steamboat Springs School Board and Education Association against this amendment? These organizations oppose Amendment 80 because this measure is less about choice and more about diverting money away from public schools to fund private school
According to Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, “Public schools serve 95 percent of students, and siphoning off scarce resources from public to private schools will hurt schools that already don’t have the funds to serve all students adequately.” As we have seen throughout Routt County, rural school districts cannot compete with Front Range schools in terms of providing competitive teacher salaries, affordable housing, and sufficient funding to operate a five-day school week. Vick further argues that “Amendment 80 is a gateway to make that next leap to forcing or promoting a voucher campaign in future years.”
Proponents of Amendment 80 are advocates of school vouchers, which designate a public subsidy for private school tuition. Colorado voters have rejected education voucher ballot initiatives three times and more than a dozen legislative attempts to introduce vouchers have failed in the past decade. One need only look at the detrimental consequences in states that allow vouchers. In Arizona, 80 percent of voucher recipients were already in private schools, and in New Hampshire, nearly 90 percent of recipients were already in private schools.
Amendment 80 masks its true intent.
Please know that school choice is not in jeopardy in Colorado. Legislative dollars to adequately fund high-impact learning is? I urge you to vote no on Amendment 80.
Cindy Ruzicka, Teacher, Steamboat Springs Middle School
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