Are the Denver School Board elections transparent and democratic?<\/p>\n
Not really.<\/p>\n
Sadly, the Denver School board campaigns are far less democratic than any other Denver elections with two \u201cdark money\u201d groups<\/a> providing more than 70% of the funding. We are talking more than $1 million<\/a> from these two groups in 2023, and expect the number to be even higher this fall.<\/p>\n There is no other Denver or even Colorado election with so much soft or \u201cdark\u201d money pouring into an election. Not only is the funding coming from just two 501(c)(4) organizations \u2014 the teacher union (Denver Classroom Teacher Associations Action) and a charter school advocacy organization (Denver Families Action) \u2014 but neither group is transparent about the sources of their funding or their expectations for candidates.<\/p>\n Denver Families Action doesn\u2019t even list their sources of funding on their website in spite of spending more than $950,000 in 2023. Another dark money group \u2014 Better Leaders Stronger Schools \u2014 spent more than $1 million.<\/p>\n Instead of school board candidates having to focus on making their case to voters and raising money from Denver supporters, school board candidates must first convince one of these organizations<\/a> to back them. School board candidates know that without either of the outside group\u2019s support, they have little or no chance of winning. One hundred percent of the 24 candidates that have won a Denver School Board seat since 2011 had the support of one of the two groups.<\/p>\n To be fair, the independent expenditure committees funded by DCTA or Denver Families Action are not allowed by law to coordinate with the candidates, but the reality is that they don\u2019t need to coordinate to provide strong support as we have seen in the last several rounds of elections.<\/p>\n Independent expenditure committees organize for the candidates, pay for flyers, social media and even TV ads.\u00a0 And if they say something unreasonable, the candidate can honestly say they know nothing about what DCTA or Denver Families Action did on their behalf.<\/p>\n