2026 Primary Election: State Board of Education

Yes. Any school that takes public money should be accountable to all applicable discrimination laws, finance laws, and education state statues.

ALL schools that receive Colorado state funds should follow the same laws, rules, and requirements. This would include, among other things, teacher licensure, student services such as 504 and IEPs, CDE approved curricula, inclusiveness and acceptance of all students.

The balance between local control and state oversight is difficult at best. That balance will be very much at play in the current educational landscape and will color each of the circumstances you ask about here. I am of the opinion that CDE has been quite lax in its enforcement and oversight of many situations, including HSE (Home School Enrichment), and I will be a proponent of urging the Board and Commissioner to close that gap and re-align those biases.

Absolutely. It is untenable for any education institution receiving public tax dollars to circumvent legislation and CDE rules. What we lack is an enforcement mechanism. The legislature can pass statutes, but if the mechanism to hold schools accountable is not part of the statute, some bad actors will just ignore the statute. This is happening right now.

The state board does not have authority in this area. I have subscribed to speaking with individual school board members. My advice to them at this time is to recognize that there are experts in athletics and law that can provide the guidance they need so that all students maintain access.John Hickenlooper's Response

All students are supported and protected under Colorado law. Policies that cover all students have been acceptable to the current Federal OCR office.

Helping district board members recognize the folly of 'gender checks' would be a great start. I think many proponents do not recognize what 'gender checks' would entail, how they would apply to ALL students, and how traumatizing it would be for most cis-gendered students

Every student wanting to participate in sports and extracurricular activities should be welcomed. In the state, we have seen little to no abuse caused by transgender students participating on the team they most identify with. Every student should be encouraged to participate in sports and activities. There should never be a proof of gender requirement.

There are many layers to this question. To start, the state itself does not collect much information from schools on individual students health care (unless they have a health plan) - nothing on immigration status, no social security numbers, etc. School districts have a wide variety of information on students depending on the individual student. Our best defense has been and will continue to be the AG's office. If any district were to to turn over information that is protected under FERPA and HIPPA to anyone it should not, we (state board) would approach the AG and ask them to find any and all legal remedy.

I am not certain of current Colorado statute, but step one would be to ensure that statute absolutely protects student data from the federal government and others, using every means available. The Board should give clear direction to the Commissioner regarding this, and the Commissioner should have conversations with the Governor expressing this. CASB should be contacted to provide local districts with sample policy for the local districts to secure student data.

Our data at CDE is secure and I would be surprised if individual gender data could be accessed by the federal government. We do not report on individual student’s gender, only as a number in the school population. However, I’ve seen parents and a particular board member write to the Secretary of Education and request a transgender student be blocked from sports. The federal government cannot block a particular student, but they can threaten to pull funding from a particular institution. So far there have been threats of pulling funding, but it hasn’t happened. Title IX is the lever the feds want to use.

In general, on any actions that state board may take, I ask how this impacts students. I go from ALL students, and then down an internalized list of student groups. I do this because I want to ensure all students have equal access to safe facilities, nutritious meals, and healthcare and mental health resources. Advocating for laws and rules that support development and access in these areas is what I do.

I would explore the possibility of these options:

~ well-formed policy guidance for local districts, including work with CASB;

~ state department rules and regulations should be on point;

~ professional development should be available and required for all educators;

~ collaborate with CEA on PD for all;

~ anti-harassment PD is required annually in higher ed; short, to-the-point training could be implemented for K12;

~ availability to districts of continuing anti-bullying programs.

Bullying is and has been a huge detriment to many students with differences. Putting our other LGBTQ+ students into our academic Social Studies is a great first step to helping kids understand acceptance of all students. It was hugely difficult, but we did get it done. I believe strong teachers who know how to teach community and tolerance of all people are our best tool against bullying. Local boards also need policies clearly addressing bullying.

Kids can be very cruel and only through great education and vigilance can we hope to eradicate bullying.

10% of the state's education funds come from the federal level. At this time, we are not at risk of losing those dollars. The 2026-27 allocations have been approved by congress and signed into law. With or without the federal funds, Colorado underfunds it's schools and I support both the graduation income tax and lifting the tabor cap for education initiatives currently working their way onto the ballot. Our more significant concern is with the reduction of civil rights enforcement within the department of education. There are two bills working their way through the legislature that are intended to give the state more authority and enforcement powers for all groups of students. Whether they get through this year or not, I will not give up on their necessity continue my advocacy work in this area.

If federal funding is removed, the State Board and CDE will need to know and be able to provide guidance to local districts, including and especially, maintaining quality education for ALL students. Additionally, lobbying efforts with the legislature must be stepped up, relationships built, and communication with constituents across the state must inform everyone of the new budgeting circumstance. Both the Board and the legislature MUST study and analyze the way state money is used, close every loophole available to bad actors, and institute proper guardrails and rules. Things like the current exploitation of loopholes and vague rules, like ER BOCES, must be exposed and stopped.

We need to guarantee that we are teaching the same standards and providing the same services to all students, especially our marginalized students. In Colorado this year we will try to decouple TABOR from Education Funding. That would give us some flexibility in increasing per pupil funding. This will never be enough to replace all federal funding. We need to increase the state share and hold all institutes of public education to the same rules. Right now we are seeing bad actors take money while discriminating against certain populations. This needs to be audited and stopped, providing more funds for institutions that serve all students equally, with standards based instruction.

The short answer here is to keep the state board a progressive democrat majority. You all are more than aware of our collective involvement and what it took to get the 2022 social studies standards passed. The approach from here can be like what we did with the health standards (also some of the most progressive in the county). With health standards, we did our stakeholder outreach and a national standards review. That information told us our standards were up to date and we did not need to change them significantly. Our social studies standards review in 2028 should be similar and we can just update them rather than significantly change them. One of the things I plan on focusing on my next term is standards ENFORCEMENT. You will hear me asking about enforcement of all policy and rules we pass. The CDE has no real enforcement mechanism around standards in current law so I'd be happy to work with you all and others on how to get some enforcement in place.

I absolutely support our inclusive standards. I would like to explore the capacity of the State Board, within the confines of local control, to publicize or call to account, those districts that implement curricula like American Birthright Standards which do not meet existing standards. CDE should at the least counsel these Boards and communities to ensure they are aware of the deficiencies students will find when they are asked to test on real information which they have not been taught or exposed to. I will vote to support and maintain new and existing inclusive standards, and to support educators who work to teach inclusivity.

Being on the SBoE when the Social Studies Standards were written, I know just how hard that fight is. We need to assure we are doing everything we can to keep board members who support inclusivity. Social Studies Standards will be back in 2028, so this election is crucial. We also need to keep our eyes on the Sex Ed Standards to keep them unbiased and reality based. This is another area that is hard fought. Experts should be writing standards, not board members with an agenda. We should then approve these reality based, unbiased standards.

I have gone through this personally as the Chief Accountability Officer in APS during 2008 when we had to make dramatic cuts. Based on that experience, what I tell school board members is to look hard at your superintendent and their cabinet. :) Do they share your values of high quality, safe, inclusive learning environments for all students? If they do, then they will do the work of identifying areas that are 'nice to have' that can be eliminated without students losing essential instructional access, legal protections, and inclusive environments.

In this kind of situation, local districts and boards will have to re-evaluate their needs, their priorities, and their strategies. This could be supported by CDE workshops and facilitation, along with state board members. as mentioned earlier, rules and statute which ensure inclusive environments must be supported and enforced.

I want to make sure we all understand that in Colorado we have per pupil funding and categoricals. If a district loses students through attrition and lower birth rates, funding declines. That is where we are now. Because we have local control, the individual budget lies with the local board. These boards need to assure that inclusive, standards-based instruction is not on the cutting block. We all need to make sure there are no cuts to instructional programming and that our voting citizens understand how important it is to increase school funding to the level of better funded systems.