Mount Virtus

"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"

Ben on Social Media

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About Ben
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Writer / Editor For Hire
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
  • Archives
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
  • The Westfield Gardener
Home clean government Colorado K-12 Election Roundup: Fiscal Restraint Beats Prop 103, Most Local Taxes; Reformers Win Key Races

11/1/2011 By Ben 5 Comments

Colorado K-12 Election Roundup: Fiscal Restraint Beats Prop 103, Most Local Taxes; Reformers Win Key Races

Update, 11/2: One quick correction, as Englewood voters appear to have approved the construction bond / BEST grant, but turned down the mill levy override. Also, a great roundup of school board election results in El Paso County from the Gazette.

From school board races to mill levy and bond measures, there are a number of issues pertaining to education in Colorado being decided this evening. Well known is the fate of the Proposition 103 “For the Children” tax hike — which not only crashed and burned but also disintegrated in a ball of blue-hot flame (64% No vote at last count). Two out of three Denver Public Schools board seats went to the reform ticket, with a third between challenger Jennifer Draper-Carson and incumbent Arturo Jimenez literally too close to call at this hour.

Disappointing news in my own backyard of Jefferson County, where the reform, Republican-backed “Dads” ticket of Jim Powers and Preston Branaugh were defeated. In my mind, though, the story of the night has to be in Douglas County — where a unanimous majority in favor of the nation’s first school board-initiated voucher-like program appears headed for complete electoral vindication. Other lesser-touted school board results of note:

  • In Adams 12, the state’s fifth-largest district, conservative Mark Clark won re-election and was joined by challenger Norm Jennings, who won a convincing victory (Republican-backed Richard Ezo lost his race)
  • In Colorado Springs 11, the largest district in the Pikes Peak region, conservative Bob Null was re-elected and joined by former district communications director Elaine Naleski (sadly, reform-minded Lisanne McNew was defeated)
  • In Greeley, two strong reform candidates prevailed to take three seats in a pair of races that featured 14 candidates: Scott Rankin and Logan Richardson (fellow conservative Geoff Broughton did not prevail, however)
  • In both Poudre (Fort Collins) and Lewis-Palmer 38 (El Paso County), reform-minded slates all sadly went down to defeat
  • Conservative Ann Tisue beat out her liberal opponent in Mesa County 51 and Jeff Leany cruises through unopposed, marking a likely shift in the reform direction for what is by far the largest district on the Western Slope
  • Conservative Bob Kerrigan, who boldly came out against the local mill levy in Thompson School District, has an unofficial narrow lead of 228 votes — though even if he wins, he might be a lone voice of dissent on the board (where have I seen that before?)
  • Falcon 49 incumbent treasurer Andy Holloman finished third in a four-way race for two seats — I’m not entirely clear what the results mean for the district’s bold innovation plans, but I will be digging for answers
  • Conservative Karen Hoopes — wife of 2010 Republican state legislative candidate Kaarl Hoopes — looks very much like she has won a spot on the Mapleton Board of Education

A mixed bag, but all in all a positive signal for the conservative reform team against the always well-organized forces of the status quo. Meanwhile, a host of local mill levy, bond and BEST facility matching grant elections were held tonight. I haven’t been able to do a full roundup, but the results by-and-large appear to have been carried down with Senator Rollie Heath’s Proposition 103. These include the following tax and debt elections, which according to unofficial results all appear headed for defeat:

  • Douglas County Schools
  • Mesa County 51
  • Pueblo County 70
  • Thompson R-2J (Loveland)
  • Brighton 27J
  • Englewood Public Schools
  • Sheridan 2
  • Bennett 29J
  • Falcon 49
  • Peyton 23 JT
  • Eagle County Schools
  • Garfield County Re-2
  • Garfield County 16
  • Weld County Re-1

A handful of districts (mostly small- or medium-sized) I’ve been able to find defied the odds and achieved victory, including:

  • Mill levy overrides in Cheyenne Mountain 12, Roaring Fork (Glenwood Springs) and Byers 32J
  • BEST matching funds grant elections, primarily to construct new schools, in Ellicott 22, Big Sandy 100J, and Prairie Re-11

Not all results were easily available, but the large sample indicates a clear majority of the school district tax and debt elections (and especially in the larger districts) failed. Seeing some success in the matching funds grant elections is not so surprising, since the local tax dollar’s power is effectively doubled in the voter’s mind. I’m sure some will want to know what the three successful MLO districts did to persuade their local voters.

In the final estimation, taking what you can from an off-year election, tonight’s results are a resounding vote for fiscal restraint and an encouraging (if not perfect) result for local reform. Given the hand they’ve been dealt, what will the new reform (and status quo) board members do next? Stay tuned….

Filed Under: clean government, Colorado Politics, Education, Fiscal Policy, liberty, PPC

Trackbacks

  1. Ed is Watching » Reveling in Election Results? New NAEP Scores Mixed Bag for Colorado & Nation says:
    11/2/2011 at 11:16 am

    […] all the important results related to education in last night’s election here in Colorado — hooray, the only dominoes that toppled were the ones supporting the Prop 103 tax increase […]

  2. Time now for innovation to forge ahead | EdNewsColorado says:
    11/2/2011 at 4:30 pm

    […] Conservative-leaning reform candidates in other races yielded a mixed — but largely positive — result, given the odds against them. Too soon to tell how these results will end up affecting the move to promote effective, forward-thinking innovations. […]

  3. Ed is Watching » New I.I. Report Shows Colo. Local K-12 Agencies Have Lots of Room to Follow the Law and Improve Financial Transparency says:
    11/8/2011 at 11:37 am

    […] got a lot of big people’s attention. Prop 103’s “for the kids” tax hike went down in a ball of flames. A record number of local school tax and debt elections ran headlong into defeat. In at least one […]

  4. Jeffco schools has tough case to win over skeptical taxpayers « Watchdog News says:
    6/10/2012 at 4:03 pm

    […] hike went down in a ball of blue flame (64-36, including 62-38 in Jeffco) — not to mention an unusually large failure rate of local school tax elections — leaders perhaps should have given pause. But somehow asking […]

  5. Time now for innovation to forge ahead | Chalkbeat says:
    9/27/2017 at 8:59 am

    […] Conservative-leaning reform candidates in other races yielded a mixed — but largely positive — result, given the odds against them. Too soon to tell how these results will end up affecting the move to promote effective, forward-thinking innovations. […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Inside

  • About Ben
  • Archives
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
    • Colorado Ballot 2014
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • The Westfield Gardener
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Writer / Editor For Hire

About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

Recent Posts

  • AI-Enhanced Cyberbullying: The Dark Side of Teen Innovation
  • My Baker’s Dozen of Top 2023 Reads
  • Common Learning Disabilities in Children
  • Tips to Teach Kids to Set and Achieve Goals
  • The Christmas Music Countdown You’ve Been Looking For: 2022 Edition

Colorado News

  • Colorado Senate News
  • Complete Colorado
  • Independence Institute
  • Loveland Politics
  • The Colorado Observer

National News and Politics

  • Drudge Report
  • Hot Air
  • National Review
  • Politico
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Reason
  • The Washington Times
  • TownHall
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Weekly Standard
  • World Magazine

Blogs Extraordinaire

  • American Thinker
  • David Harsanyi’s Blog
  • E!! The True Conservative Story
  • EIA Intercepts
  • Evangelical Outpost
  • Hugh Hewitt
  • Instapundit
  • LaShawn Barber
  • Lileks
  • Little Green Footballs
  • Michelle Malkin
  • NRO's The Corner
  • Power Line
  • Red State

Completing the Blogroll

  • Alarming News
  • Black Five
  • Blogs of War
  • Eduwonk
  • Flypaper
  • Fraters Libertas
  • Historical Conversations
  • IMAO
  • Jay P. Greene
  • Mike Anderson
  • Mullings
  • Professor Bainbridge
  • Right Thinking
  • Right Wing News
  • Right Wing Nuthouse
  • Shot in the Dark
  • Talking Points Memo
  • Virginia Postrel
  • Volokh Conspiracy

Christian Commentary et al.

  • Kevin Pierpont
  • Sharper Iron

Conservative and GOP Sites

  • Backbone America
  • Cal Thomas
  • Colorado Republican Party
  • Colorado Republican Study Committee
  • Dennis Prager
  • Denver Metro Young Republicans
  • Free Republic
  • Heritage Foundation
  • Jefferson County Republican Party
  • Mackinac Center for Public Policy
  • Mark Steyn
  • Michael Medved
  • Rush Limbaugh

Colorado Blogs

  • American Kestrel
  • Bob Agard
  • Colorado Charter Schools
  • Colorado Peak Politics
  • Colorado Pols
  • Colorado Right
  • Conservative Libertarian Outpost
  • Coyote Gulch
  • Ed Is Watching
  • Free Colorado
  • Jeff Crank Show
  • Mark Hillman
  • Patient Power
  • PirateBallerina
  • Protein Wisdom
  • Reagan Girl
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 1.0 (Archive)
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0 (Archive)
  • Rossputin
  • Stop the ACLU Blog
  • The Spot (Denver Post)
  • We Stand Firm

Other Sites

  • Technorati
  • Word Press

Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0

  • Reclaim the Blue
  • The Business Word
  • The Daily Blogster
  • View from a Height

To Contact Me:
bendegrow-at-gmail.com

Copyright © 2025 RSS Feed · WordPress · Log in