Mount Virtus

For a highly knowledgeable insights, in-depth reporting, and the latest scoop on charter schools in Colorado, check out Denise’s new blog: Colorado Charter Schools. Anyone interested in educational freedom and parental options in our state should bookmark this site.

While I work on investigating more carefully a couple of issues in the world of Colorado politics, I decided to take the easy road this morning and link to an article that will challenge the defeatists in this country to keep an open mind about events in Iraq. To add a little dose of perspective to your mainstream news intake, I recommend you read Notes from Baghdad, from yesterday’s Opinion Journal. (HT: Conservative Grapevine)

Now is not the time to pull the rug out from under our military operations - a la the Democrat leadership in Congress. Let’s not be afraid to give success a chance.

More substantive blogging later, but it’s always instructive to open up the Denver Post and read that the Democrats’ idea of cleaning up elections is giving paroled felons the right to vote. Of course, the Post article omits mention of a basic fact in the Senate Bill 83 debate. You have to read the Rocky Mountain News to learn that Democrats defeated an amendment requiring proof of citizenship to vote.

Not that any of us should be surprised by these revelations.

On the point of paroled felons, the Rocky reports:

But Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, had a different view. Groff, who amended the bill to allow parolees to vote, argued that state law bans anyone confined behind bars from voting.

“When you look at moving people from prison to society, the more things you can make them responsible for, the less likely they’ll go back in prison,” he said.

With all due respect, our public elections should not be part of a rehabilitation program. I think Senator Josh Penry (R - Fruita) put it best in this Colorado Senate News article:

After the debate, Penry added, “Voting is a cherished right, not therapy for convicts. If we want them to be given more responsibility, buy them a dog.”

It is clear that the two major parties representing us in Denver have distinctly different views about the sanctity of voting rights and the integrity of elections. Thankfully, the Republicans are there to remind us that the warmest and kindest of intentions do not always make good public policy.

As for the Democrats, the voting rights scorecard is pretty clear. Paroled felons? Yes. Proof of citizenship? No. After last November’s election day debacles in Denver and Douglas County, the citizens of the state are looking for a reasonable solution. Instead the Democrats are working to give us Senate Bill 83, a poison pill dressed up as honest election reform.

Three Republican state legislators made a statement by walking out of yesterday’s House Education Committee meeting yesterday, and the least this blog can do is shine the light on it. Here’s the thumbnail of the ongoing story.

Senate Bill 61, devised by Senator Sue Windels (D - Arvada), was written to empower the education bureaucracy at the expense of parents who want to exercise the option to start a charter school. That’s right: empower educrats, distrust parents. Yes, ignore the fact that there are thousands of kids in this state on waiting lists to get into charter schools. Ignore consumer demand. The all-wise educrats need to keep a tighter thumb on charters, according to the logic of Windels’ bill.

Well, after weeks of political jockeying, Windels was caught by surprise when a coalition of Republicans and inner-city Democrat Senators voted to completely overhaul her bill and make it choice-friendly.

Like their counterparts on the Senate Education Committee, the majority Democrats on the House Education Committee tend to reflect those most closely aligned with the institutional status quo - mainly, the teachers union (CEA), school board association, and others who are far more concerned with preserving institutional authority and taxpayer perks than providing more choices to parents.

So yesterday, when Representative Michael Merrifield (D - Manitou Springs) and his colleagues on the House Education Committee voted to do the educrats’ bidding and change back Senate Bill 61 to its original harmful form, 3 Republican legislators led by Representative Cory Gardner (R - Yuma) took a stand.

Why? Because Merrifield didn’t want to hear opposing testimony from the Charter School Institute’s Alex Medler (a Democrat, incidentally), says the Rocky. The message is not so subtle: “Don’t get in the way of the establishment agenda on education. We know what’s best for you.”

Kudos to the Republicans - and for a handful of praiseworthy Democrats - for being willing to innovate the schools in a way that empowers parents and families, not that limits their choices.

It seems likely that the House and Senate may approve two vastly different versions of Senate Bill 61, leading to a very interesting conference committee. This battle is far from over. Keep checking in for the view from Mount Virtus.

A new professional-looking, self-styled Colorado Republican blog has emerged today to encourage its cohorts to engage in more clear, direct, factual, and systematic attacks on the state’s ruling Democratic majority: Colorado Index. The site’s proprietor also seems keen on keeping a tight and selective focus on bloggers who consistently focus on state issues. So what does (s)he say about Mount Virtus?

“Works for one of my favorite organizations. Good Guy. Needs to blog more to be included.” Okay, okay. I admit I’ve slacked off lately. Consider the fire lit.

Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased to see the new site, even if it’s sure to reinforce the opinions on the Left that we are connected cogs in Colorado’s Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. So be it.

My time to write is limited now, but expect more on the Democrats’ attempt to fight back and put the clamps down on charter schools with today’s episode of the ongoing saga of Senate Bill 61, by Senator Sue Windels (D - Arvada) and Representative Mike Merrifield (D - Manitou Springs).

An official welcome from Mount Virtus to the new chairman of the Colorado Republican Party: Dick Wadhams. You know the state Republican Party may finally be getting its act together when the Left goes unhinged with slanderous attacks. Putting up a tough front can often be a way to cope with fear. Let the mud fly!

You can almost hear the Left in Colorado hearkening back to their great hero of 2004 … “Bring it on!” I may actually start looking forward to the 2008 election cycle. It could be fun.