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Colorado lawmakers debated dozens of bills touching faith, family and parental rights
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado lawmakers debated dozens of bills touching faith, family and parental rights

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado More than 700 bills were introduced in the 2026 Colorado General Assembly, but by God’s grace, none of Colorado’s homeschool freedoms were lost. CHEC was there to stand watch over bills that could affect homeschool freedoms, religious liberty, and parental rights, and sound the alarm when action was needed to engage legislators directly. The 2026 Homeschool Freedom End-of-the-Session Report is published and linked in this post, as well as the Voting Grid chronicling legislators’ votes on 24 of the bills included. Please use these as tools to equip you to take action with your legislators. Still, there were consistent groups and areas that were targeted throughout the 2026 legislative session. F...
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Xcel Customers Face Largest Electric Rate Hike In Colorado History
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The Colorado Sun, Approved, State

Xcel Customers Face Largest Electric Rate Hike In Colorado History

By Mark Jaffe | The Colorado Sun The $225 million increase would raise the average residential bill by $6.13, but the proposed rate needs PUC approval and consumer advocates oppose it. Xcel Energy, its corporate customers and unions are at odds with consumer advocates over a proposed settlement that would grant the utility the largest electric rate increase ever — $225 million. The proposed agreement between Xcel Energy and parties including the Colorado Public Utilities Commission staff, the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers, Walmart and Climax Molybdenum would raise the average household bill by $6.13 to $110.81 a month — a nearly 6% increase. Colorado Energy Consumers, which represents large industrial and commercial customers, also signed on to...
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The parent-child bond is not the government’s to break
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The parent-child bond is not the government’s to break

By Colleen Enos | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Each morning you kiss your 12-year-old daughter goodbye while sending her off to school. You trust that her teachers care about her and are nurturing her mind, not hiding things from you. Weeks later, you discover your once-bright child is now anxious, isolated, and medically altered, because her trusted teachers have secretly counselled her to take life-altering hormones while keeping you in the dark—the mother who loved her, sacrificed for her and would lay down your life to protect her.  This scenario isn’t rare; it’s unfolding in schools nationwide. When the state severs the sacred parent-child bond, it doesn’t just break families; it assaults the natural rights that shield every American’s liberty and the rule of ...
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Colorado saw red flags in autism therapy billing and approved higher rates anyway
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado saw red flags in autism therapy billing and approved higher rates anyway

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Federal auditors documented convicted staff working with autistic children. Colorado had no system to catch it. Every week, parents of autistic children in Colorado dropped their kids off with behavior therapists they trusted. What they didn't know—what the state never required anyone to verify—was whether those therapists had passed a background check. Many hadn't. Not because anyone failed a background check. Because Colorado never required one. HHS Office of Inspector General audit highlights—February 2026. Source: https://oig.hhs.gov/documents/audit/11494/A-09-24-02004-highlights.pdf The findings from federal auditors came out in February. At least $77.8 million in improper Medicaid payments for autism therapy in 20...
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Beyond the baby bust: Parents quietly exit Colorado public schools
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Red State, Top Stories

Beyond the baby bust: Parents quietly exit Colorado public schools

By Christian Horstmann | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Our public schools lost 10,000 students this year. Is there another reason beyond the baby bust and a population pinch? Colorado’s public schools just posted their steepest enrollment slide since the pandemic: down more than 10,000 students this year, affecting each of our top ten largest districts and many others statewide.1 Denver Public Schools alone lost about 1,200 students2 and the district is already projecting another 6,000 by 20293 – almost certain to trigger even more school closures on top of the ten that have already been shuttered over the last few years.  Interestingly, overcrowded classrooms were presented during recent school board campaigns as an issue to address, but the opposite sce...
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Inside the story Colorado rarely hears: Trauma, transition and the path back to truth
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Inside the story Colorado rarely hears: Trauma, transition and the path back to truth

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “It took me almost two decades to realize the error,” Antoinette De La Cruz told a Fort Collins audience on November 20. “Transitioning didn’t fix anything. It delayed the inevitable. Healing.” It was the first time many Coloradans had heard a detransitioner describe her path into transition, what it cost her and what brought her back. Read RMV’s reporting on the event here. Here she shared the fuller account of her story. Where it began De La Cruz said her transition began long before hormones or surgery. “I learned very young as a little girl that I was not valued as a woman, and I definitely was not safe as one,” she said. When she was seventeen she met someone who told her she could become a man. “I had no idea you could even do ...
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Fort Collins event connects youth gender care concerns to upcoming Colorado ballot measures
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Fort Collins event connects youth gender care concerns to upcoming Colorado ballot measures

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice “Is it really true that when a confused hurting kid goes to the doctor the doctor turns the knife around and puts it on them and profits from it,” Colorado physician Dr. Travis Morrell asked a Fort Collins audience on November 20. “It is true.” His remarks were part of From Heartbreak to Hope, an event hosted by Protect Kids Colorado at Dayspring Christian Church that brought together parents, detransitioners, attorneys and policy experts to examine what speakers called a growing collision between gender medicine and parental rights in Colorado. Speakers at the From Heartbreak to Hope event on November 20. Top row left to right: Dr. Travis Morrell and Dr. James Lindsay. Bottom row left to right: Antoinette De La Cruz, Erin Friday and ...
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Thanksgiving prices fall in Colorado but families still pay more than most Americans
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Thanksgiving prices fall in Colorado but families still pay more than most Americans

By Shaina Cole | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice This Thanksgiving, the cost of celebrating for Colorado families is at its lowest since the peak in 2022. The American Farm Bureau Federation reports that a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for ten now costs $55.18 - a five percent decline from last year. Colorado continues to sit above the national average. According to KKTV, the same meal costs $61.63 in the state, which is about $6.45 more than what the typical American pays but still roughly $13 cheaper than the year before.  The West once again tops the chart as the most expensive region for Thanksgiving, with a $61.75 average that closely matches Colorado’s $61.63 estimate. That’s not a fluke; analyses of grocery spending show Western states, including Colorado, consisten...
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Stop Financing the Second Job
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Stop Financing the Second Job

By Christian Horstmann | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice When child care rivals your mortgage payment and eats the “extra” paycheck, having a stay-at-home parent is the wiser investment.  We’ve been told for years that homeschooling is impossible because “you can’t make it on one income.” But when families pencil out the math, a different picture appears: the second paycheck often pays for the costs created by the second job: child care first, then commuting, meals out, and the “time savers” that keep the overbooked household afloat. On paper, it looks like gain. In reality, it’s a trade.  Consider just one budget line that eats the pay raise: full-time child care. Across Colorado, the average monthly price is over $1,000; but in nine of our ten most populous count...
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Child-care costs surge under Biden-era rule and state law, forcing counties to freeze CCCAP
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Child-care costs surge under Biden-era rule and state law, forcing counties to freeze CCCAP

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado’s child-care system is staring down a financial hit driven by new federal mandates from the Biden administration. The rules were pitched as a way to make child care more affordable nationwide, but they shift the cost burden onto states—leaving Colorado to absorb millions in unfunded requirements at a time when access is already tight. A new analysis from the Common Sense Institute shows what this means for families: fewer available slots, county-level enrollment freezes, and real consequences for Colorado’s workforce. The change came from the Federal 2024 CCDF Final Rule that rewrites how states run child-care assistance programs. Under the new rule, families can’t be asked to pay more than 7 percent of their income,...
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