By Bill Jack | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
Once again, the nanny state is seeking to invade the jurisdiction of parents and the family. This time, however, government overreach is cleverly disguised as a gift to parents.
Initiative 138, appearing on this November’s ballot, allegedly guarantees parents will always have the right to direct the education of their children through school choice. Read the fine print and you will see the threat hidden within the gift. These words will be added to the Colorado Constitution: “Each K-12 child has the right to school choice.” Those words are the Trojan Horse that mask an invasion by a hostile state into parental rights. What appears to be the surrender by the state to parental rights hides within its belly the invasion of state control of the family.
Since children at the tender age of 12 are considered capable in Colorado of making life-changing decisions concerning sex with the support of the state, but without the consent or knowledge of their parents, it is no stretch of the imagination to consider that the state will determine whether a child is receiving a “quality education” and enforce the state’s definition of such on the family.
Alex Newman, an award-winning international journalist with a global reputation for hard-hitting reporting, in his article titled Colorado Push to Create “Right” to “Quality Education” Sparks Alarm, writes, “If a child has a ‘right’ to pursue access to a ‘quality education,’ the question becomes, ‘who will decide what is a quality education’? Imagine, for instance, if lawmakers or even a liberal court determined that, say, a Bible-based curriculum did not constitute ‘quality education’.”
During the 2024 legislative session, Rep. Ron Weinberg introduced a resolution in the House to add to the Colorado Constitution a different version of the ballot measure set before us. Both were initiated by Advance Colorado, where Michael Fields sits at the head of the organization. The resolution contained the following: “All children have the right to equal opportunity to and access to a quality education.” All but four House Republicans signed onto the resolution. Once they were alerted to the problem with the wording, several sought to get their names removed. The sponsor ultimately killed his own bill in committee.
In each of these measures, children are given rights. Rights which the state must guarantee to protect and provide. Let that sink in. While the rights of parents to provide direction requires the state to stay out of education, parental rights to direct education make no claim on the finances or labor of anyone else. However, to guarantee the right of a child to a “quality education” stakes a claim on citizens’ and the state’s resources and labor to provide such an education, and with such a claim comes the control of the state.
The moniker “school choice” is being used to pull at the heart strings of parents who were awakened during the shutdown of the public schools to the harmful indoctrination and mental manipulation of their children by leftist activists within the education system. Don’t be fooled, this measure will not ensure the ability of parents to choose. It is a Trojan Horse that will ensure the government will not just be even more involved in your child’s education, but will ensure that government will be the final arbiter of what “quality education” means for students.
The state will need to define what a “quality education” is and force all forms of education to adhere to their standards, essentially, eliminating any true choice. This supposed gift of “choice” and “parental direction” hides the threat of more state control. Parents should be wary of pulling the Trojan Horse of Initiative 138 inside the walls of the family’s jurisdiction!
House Minority Leader Rep. Rose Pugliese understood these dangers when presented with Rep. Weinberg’s resolution, but has since changed her position, most likely because of her allegiance to Advance Colorado as one of their fellows. Read Rep. Weinberg’s campaign website and you will find it sounds a lot like these measures, except that he leaves out the part where he wants to give children rights, thus forcing the state, in the end, to become the arbiter between the parent and child.
Kristi Burton Brown, who works for Advance Colorado, stated, “polling shows that nearly 70% of Coloradans support” this measure. Perhaps, it’s because they are not telling the full story. Advance Colorado will likely spend millions trying to convince the electorate that this measure offers ‘school choice’ and ‘freedom’, when it really creates a new right for a child leaving the rights of the parents butchered by the state in their own homes.
There are just too many red flags concerning this measure. Act Now. Demand Advance Colorado pull this ballot measure before it’s too late. Before pulling this Trojan Horse into their homes, parents should heed the warning of the poet Virgil in his retelling of the Trojan War and the Greeks deception in the poem, Aeneid. One of Virgil’s characters exclaims, “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes,” literally translated: “I fear the Greeks, even those bearing gifts.”
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.