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Notarfrancesco: TRAILS goes beyond SEL—it’s activism wrapped in therapy language

Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories / May 15, 2025 / D70 Schools, DEI in Education, Education Oversight, Parental Rights, Social Emotional Learning, Student Data Privacy, TRAILS Program, Unlicensed Therapy

Should teachers in Colorado K-12 classrooms be performing daily assessments on the thoughts and feelings of your children?

At the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, Pueblo D70 School District controversially implemented a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum which Superintendent Ronda Rein described in an email from September 24, 2024 as a “daily assessment of thoughts and feelings.”

SEL is promoted to parents and school administrators as the panacea for kids’ mental health concerns, and SEL advocates believe the concepts benefit students by providing important emotional training which leads to academic success, healthy relationships, and proper civic engagement.

Notarfrancesco: TRAILS goes beyond SEL—it’s activism wrapped in therapy language Read More »

The COvid Chronicles May 1–7, 2020: Seven days that set the stage for open rebellion

Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories / May 15, 2025 / Colorado media, Constitutional rights, Covid-19, Government overreach, Governor Jared Polis, Public health, The COvid Chronicles

May began just like April ended – edicts from above, fear from the press and politicians telling Coloradans to stay home, shut up and stay six feet apart. But by the first week of the month, cracks were showing.

From Castle Rock to Colorado Springs, citizens, sheriffs and small-business owners weren’t waiting for permission. They had bills to pay, kids to raise and a Constitution they weren’t willing to quarantine.

The COvid Chronicles May 1–7, 2020: Seven days that set the stage for open rebellion Read More »

Sencenbaugh: DEI and CRT may sound noble, but they’re driving academic mediocrity in schools

Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Top Stories / May 15, 2025 / Academic achievement, Critical Race Theory, Diversity Equity Inclusion, Education policy, Parental Rights, School Reform, Teacher Workload

If you are on the left or the right, Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in the average classroom does not look like one tends to believe. Both are far more subtle. Thus, any debate on these issues devolves into both sides yelling at one another with neither actually listening.

During a House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) declared, “We can stop with the nonsense because K-12 was not teaching critical race theory…in our country K-12 is not learning critical race theory. Just for those who are unfamiliar.”

Having taught in both Texas and Colorado, I can tell you that she is not being completely honest. While she is correct that “CRT” is not directly taught in any K-12 school or part of any state standards, it would be dishonest to believe that the ideas behind CRT are not taught in our schools. I have observed classrooms and read over lessons that assume CRT to be accurate.

Sencenbaugh: DEI and CRT may sound noble, but they’re driving academic mediocrity in schools Read More »

Denver approves executive pay hikes while facing budget shortfall and reserve drop

Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories / May 14, 2025 / Budget deficit, City budget, City workers, Denver City Council, Denver Mayor, Executive pay, Fiscal Responsibility, Homelessness funding, Migrant spending, Public Spending, Public Trust

A set of salary increases for top Denver officials is drawing criticism, as the city faces continued financial strain and modest pay growth for most employees. The raises are included in the 2025 budget—totaling $1.76 billion—which the Denver City Council approved on November 12, 2024.

On May 6, the City Council’s Finance & Governance Committee approved nearly $500,000 in pay increases for 12 charter-appointed department heads.

These changes are expected to add over $216,000 to general fund expenditures this year, with individual increases ranging from 4% up to an eye-catching 43%. The new salaries are scheduled to take effect on July 1.

Denver approves executive pay hikes while facing budget shortfall and reserve drop Read More »

McWilliams: Social-emotional learning teaches empathy—but through whose lens?

Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, National, Top Stories / May 14, 2025

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is championed as a way to instill empathy, emotional strength, and relationship building skills in students. Sounds perfect for K-12, doesn’t it?

Think again. SEL is designed to push a leftist agenda on students and transform their attitudes, values, beliefs and worldview towards “leftist radical ideology.” It promotes specific emotional behaviors that force kids into lockstep conformity, crushing their individuality and critical thinking, all while hiding behind the facade of “mental health.”

An ongoing challenge to stopping this is that parents are deceived into thinking SEL is teaching their children life skills in a way they approve. They hear “Social Emotional Learning’s flowery language” and immediately interpret it through how they would teach their own children at home.

One effective way to shield yourself from this manipulation is to start by asking one key question: THROUGH WHO’S LENS?

McWilliams: Social-emotional learning teaches empathy—but through whose lens? Read More »

Hancock: The future of Colorado hangs between boom and blackout

Substack, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories / May 14, 2025 / 75th Colorado Legislature, Colorado Policy, Democrat Lawmakers, Economic development, Energy Crisis, Free Market Solutions, Governor Jared Polis, Housing affordability, Nuclear Innovation, Progressive politics, Regulatory Overreach, State Governance

There’s a difference between dreaming big and hallucinating. Colorado’s progressive legislators have yet to figure that out.

Once a beacon of frontier grit and entrepreneurial promise, Colorado is drifting into a twilight of self-imposed stagnation. This isn’t the result of some unforeseeable external shock. No. The decline is being engineered — brick by legislative brick — by a political class more interested in social signaling than in fostering economic vitality.

The question isn’t whether Colorado faces a reckoning. The question is whether we will admit the cause before we hit the wall.

Hancock: The future of Colorado hangs between boom and blackout Read More »

Wolves roam, pups are born, riders deployed—but land-use plans still stuck in 2023

Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, State, Top Stories / May 13, 2025 / Colorado Ranchers, CPW, General Management Plan, Land and Resource Management Plan, NEPA, Range Riders, Resource Management Plan, Wolf Depredation, Wolf reintroduction, Wolves

Wolves are roaming, ranchers are riding – but the rulebook hasn’t changed. Wolves are traveling farther, forming dens and producing pups. Many have turned up dead—especially in Wyoming, where wolves that prey on livestock can be killed on sight under state law.

Yet not one federal or state land-use plan in Colorado has been updated since gray wolf reintroduction began in December 2023.

That’s the backdrop for Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s May 13 press release announcing that its Range Rider Program is fully operational and patrolling western Colorado.

Eleven contracted riders hired by CPW have joined two staff from the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) to monitor livestock, haze predators and report signs of wolf-livestock conflict across nine counties.

Wolves roam, pups are born, riders deployed—but land-use plans still stuck in 2023 Read More »

LPEA special election: Mail ballots due by May 20 as member frustrations grow

Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Local, Top Stories / May 12, 2025 / La Plata Electric Association, Member-Owned Utility, Mercuria, Rural Energy Policy, Special Election, Tri-State

It’s crunch time for mail-in ballots in the La Plata Electric Association (LPEA) board election – and with contested seats and rising costs in the mix, turnout matters.

Ballots have to be in LPEA’s hands by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, May 20 – postmarks don’t count. With slow mail times a known issue, LPEA voters who haven’t yet mailed their ballot should drop it off in person or vote online through SmartHub.

LPEA special election: Mail ballots due by May 20 as member frustrations grow Read More »

Notarfrancesco: Pueblo D70 Schools handed kids’ emotional data to political NGOs without parental consent

Commentary, Approved, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories / May 12, 2025 / Curriculum Transparency, Parental Rights, Social Emotional Learning, Student Data Privacy, Tides Foundation, TRAILS Program

It is said there is no such thing as a free lunch. One small school district in Pueblo, Colorado, recently learned that a free lunch can be served with a side of community outrage.

When the Pueblo D70 Board of Education unanimously voted in March of 2024 to “accept” a significant in-kind gift of $700,000 from the organization TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students), did they realize what they were implementing in district classrooms?

D70 accepted a “gift” of controversial psychosocial educational content, financed and promoted by multi-million-dollar non-governmental organizations dedicated to transforming the world through social change.

Notarfrancesco: Pueblo D70 Schools handed kids’ emotional data to political NGOs without parental consent Read More »

The Good, the Bad, and the Alarming: What You Need to Know from Colorado’s 2025 Legislative Session

The 2025 legislative session officially adjourned Wednesday evening after 120 days, leaving behind a flood of new laws, deep partisan divides, and a public increasingly skeptical of the pace and priorities of progressive lawmakers. From sweeping gender identity mandates to gun control and TABOR attacks, the Democrat supermajority pushed through one of the most ideologically driven sessions in recent memory.

The Good, the Bad, and the Alarming: What You Need to Know from Colorado’s 2025 Legislative Session Read More »