Independence Institute’s K-12 policy recommendations. A peek behind the curtain at the black footed ferret release. Finished rules on judicial discipline are available.
Independence Institute’s K-12 policy recommendations
I don’t know where you land relative to Independence Institute’s positions on various issues, but if you tend to line up with them and education is a passion, you might be interested to review their policy recommendations on K-12 education (newly updated).
I link to that below.
The guide is also a handy way to get information on things like how school finance works in Colorado, choice in education, and teachers unions.
One other thing that merits special mention because I think it is one of the most important things for parents, is curriculum transparency.
As a parent, you should be demanding transparency from your schools (many of whom, to their credit, freely offer it but only when asked) regarding what your child is learning and how they’re learning it. You should demand transparency with regard to what kinds of surveys and programs the school may have your child participate in.
Part of the reason why is hinted at in the following quote from the report:
“School districts vary significantly in how their administrative and board policies address the teaching of controversial issues or the use of supplementary resources introduced into the classroom by principals or teachers . Following the Mahmood v . Taylor ruling**, school boards may need to revise one or more policies to ensure compliance . Colorado school districts should be inclusive and respect all parents’ deeply held beliefs regarding sex and gender education, allowing opt-outs beyond those based solely on religious views.”
Not only is that Supreme Court decision important, not only should you be asking your school and/or school board how they intend to comply with it, but, on a more practical level, the key phrase in this quote is “opt-out”.
You need to be demanding transparency and paying attention because much of what goes on inside schools is opt-out as opposed to opt-in. If you get busy, if you aren’t watching, your children may automatically be exposed to things you may not want them to.
I want to make one last point. This relates to what I’ve called citizen journalism in the past. If you hear of something other parents in your area may want to know about, share it. Share it in parents groups, share it on social media. Be a citizen journalist covering your local schools.
**The actual US Supreme Court decision is linked second below, a Wikipedia explainer linked third.
https://i2i.org/2025-handbook-on-k-12-policy-issues-for-colorado/
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24-297_4f14.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_v._Taylor
A peek behind the curtain at the black footed ferret release.
I got the email you see copied in screenshots 1 - 3 attached recently from CPW.
It wasn’t so much remarkable for the subject. I mean, release all the ferrets you want to and follow them with drones or dirt bikes or whatever. I have no concerns there.
What was remarkable to me about it was that bit in the third screenshot. This was remarkable because it put me in mind of how the media and CPW both handled the first release of wolves.
The first link below goes back to a December 2023 newsletter written not too long after that initial release. For their first release, CPW chose to limit who could be in attendance and who would know about it, not only in terms of elected officials but also (germane to this post) the media.
In particular, they limited it to one Colorado Sun reporter and one Colorado Public Radio reporter.
Oh, and similar to the ferret foofaraw above, CPW made sure to provide reporters all the CPW-generated photos they wanted. In fact, CPW insisted on being the sole source of photographs for the wolf release.
CPW’s tight control over coverage didn’t seem to generate much in the way of complaint from the media. As I wrote in my newsletter, there was only one reporter I could find who took offense to CPW providing photos but not letting journalists in to take their own.
It certainly didn’t cause the Sun reporter nor the CPR reporter much concern. Matter of fact when I wrote that Sun reporter and the Sun editor at the time (Ryckman--now publisher), I got rather pissy responses to my questions which you can read in my earlier newsletter.
While CPW didn’t limit ferret coverage to one or two outlets, I was curious to know whether or not they were limiting who could take pictures. I was curious to know if they were going to control the outflow of images for ferrets as they did for wolves.
I wrote to the email attached to the press release to ask. My email and the agency’s response are attached as screenshot 4.
Perhaps CPW changed their policy on who can take pictures. Perhaps without the governor and his husband there, CPW had less reason to control the narrative. Whatever the reason, it seems as though now they’re allowing reporters to bring their own cameras.
One last tidbit. If you look carefully at the photos in the Colorado Sun article on the ferret release linked second below, you’ll note the photo credit goes to CPW and not to anyone from the Sun.
I guess the Sun hasn’t changed their mind on accepting government-provided news coverage.
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/aint-no-power-outage-gonna-hold-me?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
https://coloradosun.com/2025/11/19/drones-black-footed-ferrets-colorado-endangered-species/
Finished rules on judicial discipline (along with the published public comment) are available.
I got an email recently from the Colorado Committee on Judicial Discipline. This last November, they finalized some rules (see screenshot 1 for a list of them which comes from the link at bottom).
Typical for judicial stuff, the progress seems to me to be, well, glacial: by my cursory reading lots of the rules spell out how the commission will do its work and operate. Important indeed, but they’ve also been at this a while.
I will update with more, but should you want to be kept abreast of all the changes, scroll down in the link below and sign up for updates.
https://ccjd.colorado.gov/judicial-discipline-rule-making-committee