In another targeted attack against transgender people, the Colorado GOP, represented by Director of Special Initiatives Darcy Schoening, sent an email calling on the state’s school boards to resist enacting recent updates to Title IX that protect transgender students from discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Rep. Stephanie Vigil (D-Colorado Springs) responded yesterday to Colorado GOP Director of Special Initiatives Darcy Schoening’s recent party-wide email urging parents to remove their kids from public schools and claiming Democrats want to “turn more kids trans.” Schoening’s email specifically identified legislation sponsored by Vigil, this year’s House Bill 1039, Non-legal Name Changes in Schools.
In Colorado, where a booming economy belies a chronically underfunded public education system, education advocates filed four ballot initiatives earlier this month to divert millions of dollars in yearly funding to schools without raising taxes.
When Colorado schools reopen in the fall, most of them will have a lot more money to work with — between 10% and 12% more per student for the typical district — and schools that serve large numbers of students who live in poverty and English learners will be the biggest beneficiaries.
State Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik, a Republican from Thornton who’s up for reelection in one of Colorado’s most competitive Senate districts, has been touting herself as a former educator who “supports funding schools to provide our children with great teachers and the quality education that every child deserves,” according to her website.
