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10 08 24 Advance Colorado's Kristi Burton Brown on Right to School Choice Initiative
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Deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Zuma to stream music from iHeart90's radio is easy, or play iHeart Country or hip hop beats. Your choice, all for free. Stream easy with Zuma play. Get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins, no sign-ups, no accounts, no hassle. This November, get cozy and stay in from movie night with Air Force One starting Harrison Ford and Glenn Close, and The Art of War, starring Wesley Snipes, all streaming free on Zuma Play. Go to play.zuma.com now. Life is hard. Zuma was easy. It is Colorado's Morning News. Marty Lenz, Gina Gondak, Good Morning. Colorado voters will have a big say over how K through 12, managing it more managed if passed, Amendment 80 would enshrine school choice into the state's constitution. Those behind the measure suggest that this would pave the way for parents to have more control over their children's schooling. Joining us now on the Kway Common Spirit Health Hotline to talk more about the proponents of Amendment 80 from advanced Colorado executive vice president, Christy Burton Brown. Christy, thank you so much for your time this morning. Absolutely. Thank you. Give us a little bit of background information to start. What is Colorado's current school of choice law? Is this something that is now just going to make sure that it's in our constitution and something that would be permanent? Yeah, absolutely, Gina. That's what it would do. Colorado has celebrated our school choice, right? It's on a bipartisan basis for decades here in Colorado. What Amendment 80 would do is take those rights we all enjoy to pick the best school for our children to meet their unique needs and cement it in the Colorado Constitution though politicians can't interfere with it and we can defend our own rights to make the best choices for our children. Christy, do you have a philosophical issue with public schools in general? Not at all. The majority of our children go to our traditional neighborhood public schools. We need to make those as strong as possible. And help every child get a great education. Amendment 80 would help every child have better access to a good school, a great education and it is about cementing the good system we already have in Colorado in our constitution. What would you say to critics of the amendment? They say that this could be a stepping stone to that state voucher program. Pretty much giving public dollars to parents who enroll their kids in the private schools. So the wording of Amendment 80 is incredibly clear. I'd encourage every voter to read it, to read their blue book. And not a single word about funding is actually Amendment 80. And if the school note is zero dollars. And what it actually would do is focus very simply on our rights. It is the most simple ballot measure among the 14 on our ballot this year. It's completely focused on our right to school choice, your ability to choose the school that fits your child's unique needs and help them reach their full potential. If you like what we have in Colorado, Amendment 80 is very simple and very clear. It puts it in the constitution. So, Christy, just for my clarity, and it's almost like a repeat of genius question. This is not a voucher program. This is just something you're saying you want to try to say, I want to be able to send my kid where I can send him if there's an opening in the like. Absolutely. That's exactly correct. This is not a voucher that's very clear. When you read the language, it's about rights, not about funding. In Colorado, we have open enrollment, which means you can cross district lines and put your kid in a better performing public school. If you like it more, that's something that not all states have. We should cement that right in Colorado. We allow charter schools in Colorado to have the second highest population of charter school students in the nation. So, it's those kind of things people love in Colorado. It's very popular as voters and we like those rights and think we should join together with people and put them in the constitution. Christy, I don't have children myself, but do you have the statistics or the study of how many parents actually do support our current school choice protocols? Yes, multiple studies in polls have shown that over 70% of Colorado's really like our current school choice rights and want to preserve them for generations to come. Maybe a deleterious effect, but are you concerned at all that with the school option and choice that some schools, honestly, that show they're underperforming could be at risk in those neighborhoods of closing? And then you have a greater shift to what we're seeing now in the issues that make these choices come to light because people aren't comfortable with their neighborhood schools. You know, I think we have such a diverse state in Colorado, different types of schools across the state, different levels of performance at neighborhood public schools. But what we've seen across Colorado, whenever parents and families have more choices and more options, performance levels increase and kids do better. And I think that's what we all want is every kid to have the best opportunity to do well in the school of their family chooses. So we want neighborhood public schools to be stronger. We want options for charter schools, homeschooling, open enrollment, and cementing the right to school choice in Colorado's constitution, passing amendment 80. Strengthens our entire system, no matter what kind of school you like best for your child, it becomes stronger under a school choice system. Do we know how many states already have this in their state constitutions and the results we've maybe seen in other areas? Colorado would actually be the first state to take the right to school choice. That ability to choose the best education for your child. And put it in the state constitution. So Colorado actually become a national leader in supporting better access to good schools for more kids. I'm wondering if you're concerned about those that are less affluent. They may have the choice, but may not have the resources to travel or transport their kids to the schools. Do you think that benefit this benefits people that are a little more affluent that have the mobility versus families that don't? You know, I think that's an excellent question and something that we should deal with later. And then when 80 is very simple, it is a rights amendment and says, first of all, before you can decide access questions, like how to get students to schools and transportation, which is an essential question. And our legislature should deal with that. You have the first of all, cement the right. When you say that first, as citizens, let's take the right to school choice, let's put it in our constitution, then it does ask the legislature to answer questions about transportation for economically disadvantaged families. I absolutely believe that's something they should deal with, but it's not something that's involved in amendment 80 at all. Very simple people should read the blue book. It puts our rights that we already enjoy in the constitution. Christie, if you don't mind, I'm going to go off the board since I knew we were going to have you today. And I'm just curious to get your thoughts of people aren't familiar with you. You're very well ensconced and conservative politics here in Colorado. We know that Donald Trump is coming to her. What do you think he's going to see? And admittedly, he's going to roar, but he's going to the Gaylord. But what do you think the president is going to see? And do you like the idea that he's coming to town? You know, I think what didn't be important about how he's coming to town is that he's going to talk about one of voters' major concerns, which is immigration. Immigration polls in the top two issues here in Colorado and across the nation. So I think hearing one of the major presidential candidates talk about that issue and let people know what he would do to solve it for our nation, which, you know, involves stopping the drug flow across our border and combating human trafficking issues that are key across the aisle to voters. You know, I think that the people will be listening for and what will be very key in his talk on Friday. With the latest on the school choice, Amendment 80 from Advanced Colorado, its executive vice president, Christy Burton Brown. Christy, thank you so much for your time this morning. Thank you so much. And coming up at 749 this morning, we'll hear the opposition from the school choice coming up with the president of the DCTA, Rob Gould. If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end? A few cups of coffee, maybe a candle or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long. Washington Post.com/bf24. It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays. The Roku Channel, your home for free and premium TV, is giving you access to holiday music and genre-based stations from iHeart all for free. Find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeart Christmas and North Pole Radio. The Roku Channel is available on all Roku devices, web, Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Samsung TVs and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices. So stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeart Radio on the Roku Channel. Happy streaming. Deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Zoomo to stream music from iHeart 90s radio is easy or play iHeart Country or hip-hop beats. Your choice, all for free. Stream easy with Zoomo Play. Get live and on-demand entertainment with no logins, no sign-ups, no accounts, no hassle. This November, get cozy and stay in from movie night with Air Force One starring Harrison Ford and Glenn Close and The Art of War starring Wesley Snipes. All streaming free on Zoomo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard. Zuma was easy.