Dark money is once again pouring into Denver’s school board elections. As of the September 29 filing deadline, the independent expenditure (IE) committee Better Leaders, Stronger Schools reported over half a million dollars in contributions. The same IE spent a near-record $1.4 million in the 2023 race to help secure victories for three Denver Families Action (DFA) endorsed candidates. DFA contributed $950,000 to the same IE in 2023, and it’s on pace to match or exceed that level this year after donating $400,000 last month.
According to Chalkbeat, “In Denver Public Schools politics, pro-charter organizations like Denver Families Action are on one side and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) union is on the other.” While both sides may use political action committees, the union’s resources cannot compete with the scale of dark money flowing from charter-aligned networks.
In most elections, money determines the outcome — unless voters are deeply informed and motivated by issues, rather than ads.
The Players Behind the Scenes
Tax filings show that Denver Families Action is the political arm of Denver Families for Public Schools, a “pro-charter” group created in 2021 “with the backing of the DSST, STRIVE Prep, Rocky Mountain Prep, and University Prep” charter school networks. Executive Director Ray Rivera said at the time that the group aimed to “elevate the voices of families who attend these charter schools.”
After merging with RootED, DFA gained access to over $8 million from City Fund, a national organization founded by billionaires John Arnold and Reed Hastings to “push cities to expand charter schools and district schools with charter-like autonomy.”
Arnold, a former Enron executive, donated millions to the KIPP charter network and more than $1 million to Republican candidates in 2024. Hastings, the Netflix co-founder, has argued that local school boards should be abolished and his policies have been heavily opposed by many teacher unions.
Denver Families for Public Schools and DFA are led by Pat Donovan, who also sits on the boards of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, Colorado Succeeds, KIPP Colorado, and Rocky Mountain Prep. In CharterFolk, Donovan and DFA CEO Clarence Burton claimed that “charter schools serve all students better.”
Donovan and Burton are also involved in Educate Denver, launched in 2022 by a coalition of former DPS board members, civic leaders, and politicians who have criticized the district’s direction since a teacher union-endorsed board majority took office in 2021.
It’s a familiar strategy — create a crisis narrative, then propose charter expansion as the solution.
State Senator James Coleman and former DPS board member Rosemary Rodríguez announced the formation of Educate Denver in an op-ed, expressing their fears that the new school board was cutting back on “school choice options” and reform-era policies. Coleman, Colorado’s state Senate President, has pushed to expand charter schools statewide. Rodríguez, who once directed former DPS Superintendent and now Senator Michael Bennet’s Denver office, sits on the board of the Colorado League of Charter Schools and is a co-chair of Educate Denver.
The Money Trail: Who’s Funding Whom?
The Better Leaders, Stronger Schools IE is using its ample war chest to boost DFA-endorsed candidates: Timiya Jackson, Caron Blanke, Mariana del Hierro, and Alex Magaña. Burton stated these candidates “expressed support for all types of DPS schools,” including charters. Over $244,000 has already gone toward digital and TV ads promoting Magaña’s campaign.
While DFA supplied 80% of the IE’s funds, several wealthy donors also wrote large checks either directly to the IE or to individual DFA-endorsed campaigns:
- Philip Anschutz, billionaire owner of AEG and Colorado’s richest man, donated $40,000. His foundation also supports conservative think tanks, the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute, and has long backed charter schools.
- Bruce and Marcy Benson, longtime Republican donors, gave $20,000.
- David Youngren, founding director of Gary Community Ventures (a funder of DSST and University Prep charter networks), contributed $15,000.
- David Scanavino, founding board member of University Prep charter schools, donated $5,000.
Together, Anschutz, Benson, Youngren, and Scanavino have previously contributed more than $75,000 to pro-charter candidates in past DPS elections.
Other notable donors include Steve Talley (KIPP charter schools board director) $7,000; Laura Barton (Barton Institute) $5,000; Susan Farrugia (Cuvee) $5,000; Jim Kelly (Colorado Impact Fund) $5,000; Neal Groff (Madison Group Insurance) $4,000; David Carlson (Colorado Polling Institute) $5,000; and Jill Anschutz (Charter School Institute board member) $4,000.
Several Educate Denver members, including Theresa Peña, Anne Rowe, Nate Easley, Tom Gougeon, Bruce Hoyt, Noel Ginsburg, Landon Mascareñaz, Alexis Harrigan, Federico Peña, Rosemary Rodriguez, and along with Bruce Benson, collectively contributed over $25,000 to DFA-endorsed candidates.
Union-Backed Candidates and the Stakes
The Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) endorsed Amy Klein (At-Large), Xochitl Gaytan (District 2), DJ Torres (District 3), and Monica Hunter (District 4) based on their knowledge, experiences, commitment to students and educators’ working conditions, pay, and professional respect.
The union withheld support from incumbents Michelle Quattlebaum and Scott Esserman, citing disagreements over teacher protections in innovation schools and contract votes. The incumbents’ connections to School Board Partners, a group linked to RootED, may have also played a role in this decision.
DCTA’s endorsement of incumbent Xochitl Gaytan follows her consistent opposition to charter renewals. During the 2024 school closure vote, she described how “oligarchs created the conditions to expand charter schools in Black and Latino communities,” where one-fourth of DPS students now attend 52 charters.
Campaign finance reports for all candidates from September 29 show:
- At-Large: Alex Magaña (DFA) $45K; Amy Klein (DCTA) $47K.
- District 2: Mariana del Hierro (DFA) $14K; Xochitl Gaytan (DCTA) $6K.
- District 3: Scott Esserman $16K; DJ Torres (DCTA) $33K; Caron Blanke (DFA) $50K.
- District 4: Timiya Jackson (DFA) $24K; Monica Hunter (DCTA) $6K; Michelle Quattlebaum $7K; Jeremy Harris $22K.
These numbers don’t include the IE spending, which surged late in the 2023 race, meaning much more money could flow in before Election Day.
A New Front: Expanding Charters Statewide
Two major DFA-candidate backers, Rosemary Rodríguez and Jill Anschutz, also sit on the board of the Colorado Schools Fund (CSF), a $50 million initiative launched in 2024 to open 25 new charter or microschools statewide. CSF funds two-year leadership fellowships to train new charter school founders.
Board member Hanna Skandera is the CEO of the conservative Daniels Fund, which pledged to help create 100,000 new seats in Colorado private, charter, and religious schools, asserting that “charter schools provide a more customized opportunity for students to excel.” The Daniels Fund’s priority to fund private and religious schools is similar to the recent federal voucher bill passed by Congress, which is up for consideration by Governors across the country.
At the 2025 New Schools Summit, sponsored by the NewSchools Venture Fund, CSF CEO Lydia Hoffman echoed Educate Denver’s rhetoric, asserting that “too many Colorado schools are failing” and that new models are needed to fill the gap, a message similar to DFA’s campaign narrative.
The Pro-Charter Playbook
In 2024, DFA claimed that debates about charters versus neighborhood schools were outdated and that its focus was purely on student achievement and safety. But its coordinated messaging, shared by Educate Denver, Transform Education Now, and Boardhawk, continues to depict DPS as failing, using data and fear tactics to justify new “school options.”
Last year, they centered their campaign on safety issues at East High. This year’s refrain: “schools are failing.” It’s a familiar strategy — create a crisis narrative, then propose charter expansion as the solution. This framing has been used by “choice supporters” across the country to justify redirecting taxpayer funds away from traditional neighborhood schools and toward privately managed alternatives.
Yet, recent Colorado Department of Education data show strong improvement across DPS: student learning growth is rising, graduation rates are at record highs, and DPS earned an “accredited” rating for the first time since 2019. Three professors from the University of Colorado, Metro State, and the University of Denver wrote in El Semanario that these gains reflect community collaboration and, while test score proficiency is significant, it never communicates the entire picture of a student’s full development.
The Charter School Challenge
Despite pro-charter media rhetoric, their expansion has grown more difficult amid national and statewide enrollment declines. To maintain numbers, some charter schools use aggressive marketing campaigns comparing themselves to district schools.
Oversight remains a concern. Charter teachers are typically non-union and not required to hold licenses. Students with disabilities are often underserved.
While some charter schools may outperform some district schools on standardized tests, proponents of greater transparency documented many concerns regarding how the schools are managed, funded, and governed. In 2024, Denver’s Rocky Mountain Prep charter schools eliminated all middle school science courses to focus on more reading and math after students showed scores below grade level, a move critics say narrowed learning opportunities.
Extensive research from the National Education Policy Center concludes that, overall, charter schools undermine good education policy which requires “establishing a coherent system of schools, attending to child poverty and disadvantage, limiting racial segregation and isolation, and ensuring that public funds are spent wisely.” Additionally, in their story on the Daniels Fund’s plans to expand charters, Chalkbeat cited research affirming that “expanding charter schools puts financial stress on school districts and may require them to shut down some of their own schools.”
What’s at Stake
The campaign is in full swing with TV ads, flyers, yard signs, phone banks, neighborhood meetings, and forums. The 2025 DPS election will determine whether Denver continues investing in neighborhood public schools or accelerates toward privatized, donor-driven reform.
While DFA candidates rarely state their pro-charter agenda outright, their funders’ intentions are clear. The question for voters is whether they want Denver’s school system shaped by outside money and billionaire networks, or by educators and families rooted in their communities.
