On April 6, Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (CPAN) will hold a Denver rally for conservatives supporting “parents' rights” at the state Capitol. The related legislation in the US House pushed by MAGAs is no coincidence.

CPAN's practical problem is clear … informed people here in DougCo won't be sidetracked by the current right-wing triggers — “parents' rights” and “woke.” We haven't gotten over the damaging divisiveness of last year's fake triggers — “critical race theory,” “Marxist teachers unions,” “teaching homosexuality and transgender in public schools” and more. Triggers concocted by the central planning process coming out of the dark-monied “libertarian in name only” think-tanks on the East Coast, with a helping of Bannonista rhetoric.

Our own DCSD has been besieged by the local Reformers mix since 2007 and before. Back then, there was a direct line from Reformers politics to the Koch-funded Tea Party and think-tanks Americans for Prosperity, American Enterprise Institute and the Independence Institute, among others.

CPAN is the latest of many dark-monied Reformer committees established to hornswoggle voters in the runup to DCSD and other school board elections in November. During CPAN's November 2022 evening kickoff, multi-layered connections between the current DCSD Board majority and the host of Trumpist/anti-minority organizations were in plain sight. The proof is in the bitter pudding of the same cast of roving anti-minority activists who continue to show-up for false-fronted nonprofits like CPAN.

“Stripping back the layers of the onion” shows the same worn-out ideological players: current “CPAN award winning” DCSD Superintendent Kane and her four board members; CO and DougCo GOP; old-timey Reformers/Tea Partiers; billionaire funded local think tanks (Independence Institute et al.), Clarity (Anschutz) Media and radio KNUS, Foundation Against Intolerance and Fascism, some churches and grifting election deniers. Among others.

The DCSD community has already seen how quickly the current DCSD Board majority (aka Reformers Redux) stripped away the institution's standing, energizing a new era of mistrust and disappointment. It behooves each of us to stay informed about school board politics and demand good faith candidates we can comfortably support in November. And it is time to pass the MLO and bond measures despite heavy reservations.

So, the question for DCSD taxpayers — isn't it time we demand good choices among local school board candidates, people who have the intellectual and decision-making independence to solve issues with local thinking rather than falling back to outsiders and interference that failed our schools before? After all, shouldn't we be electing local officials who have the leadership moxie to bring all kinds of people together?

Lloyd Guthrie

Roxborough Park