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By Jessica Peck Corry, Independence Institute

It's been a tough month for state Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada.

First, her conspiracy to dismantle Colorado's Charter School Institute comes to light. Second, she angers minority leaders when she calls charter students "lazy." And finally, when a Fort Collins education leader expresses outrage at the situation, Windels identifies such concerns as "unnecessary hysteria."

Sen. Windels, for the sake of Colorado's public school children, please stop the name-calling and start taking responsibility. You have lost your ability to effectively govern the Senate Education Committee. The time has come for you to resign your chairmanship.

Windels' troubles began late last month when an e-mail conversation she had with state Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, came to light. After the exchange was posted on the Internet, it spread like wildfire, ultimately forcing Merrifield to resign his House Education Committee chairmanship for saying "There must be a special place in hell for these Privatizers, Char\[t\]erizers and Voucherizers. They deserve it!"

Windels' comments, while less offensive on their face, revealed that she wanted a "full repeal" of the institute - which was created in 2004 as an alternative to local school boards for parents seeking to establish public charter programs for their children. The institute is essential for public school parents and teachers being bullied by local school districts.

In the e-mail exchange, the duo strategized on Windels' legislative effort to dismantle the institute. In the aftermath of Merrifield's resignation, vocal outrage flew from fellow Democratic legislators and Windels was forced to concede that her bill was dead. She did not, however, apologize. At minimum, if Windels disagreed with Merrifield's comments, she should have said so. Her complacency can only be read as an endorsement of Merrifield's extremist views.

Windels next went on the attack. In an e-mail to Kim Miller, co-founder and board president of the high performing chartered Ridgeview Classical Schools in Fort Collins, Windels called the public outrage to the e-mail exchange "unnecessary hysteria." Miller is now calling on Windels to resign. Windels continues to attack public charter schools, most recently calling some online charter school students "lazy" and saying they see such schools as a "quick, easy" way to earn a high school diploma.

These latest comments, reported in the Rocky Mountain News, came late last week in an e-mail Windels sent to Mark Lopez, director of a Hope Online Learning Academy Co-op in Denver. While she had some good things to say about the school, calling it "truly innovative," she did attack such programs for attracting "kids who are struggling or lazy \[and\] see online as a 'quick, easy' way to get a diploma without having to put in all the seat-time and effort." Lopez saw the remark as an attack on the school's large minority student population.

As reported in the Rocky, co-chairmen of the Community Coalition to Access and Equality in Education, Butch Montoya and the Rev. Reginald Holmes, are echoing Miller's calls for resignation.

This is a development the Democrats can no longer afford to ignore. In the interests of full disclosure, I ran against Windels for the Colorado Senate in 2004. She is passionate in her belief that charter schools are a threat to traditional public schools. Passionate, but wrong. Districts allowing public charter schools to flourish have seen public schools improve. Milwaukee and California's Bay Area prove this well.

In the real world, there comes a time when leaders must accept accountability and, in some situations, step aside. Democrats should insist on Windels' resignation. As the party's point person on education, she is compromising their legislative efforts. As a result of her actions, she has now had at least two bills killed by bipartisan coalitions, including one earlier this week that would have instituted changes to public online-charter-school oversight. The time has come for new leadership. For the sake of her party, our public schools, and for all of Colorado's children, including my own daughter, she should resign her chairmanship.

Jessica Peck Corry (Jessica@i2i.org) is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute. She is a resident of Denver.

READER COMMENTS

Hurting students? Your husband knows a thing or two about that. Maybe you should be protecting your daughter from him, instead of Sen. Windels?

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