Right-wing extremists in Colorado would love to see public education fully defunded so they could force families to send their money to private corporations instead. Are they truly concerned about the state of education? Of course not. Like every other policy issue, they’re much more interested in tranferring the middle class’ wealth (what remains of it) toward amoral, unaccountable entities that have more rights than people.
Heading up this year’s public-vs-private entity battle will be Proposition 101, one of three potential ballot initiatives that will show up this November 2nd. In a nutshell, Prop 101 would cut income taxes 0.1 percent a year until the rate was 3.5 percent – down from the current 4.63 percent – and reduce ownership taxes on used vehicles to $1 and to $2 for new vehicles. It would also repeal FASTER, enacted last year to begin work on billions of dollars worth of failing roads and bridges. How does that relate to education? Every school district in the state gets a share of those taxes.
The Bell Policy Center is analyzing the effects of Prop 101 on a county-by-county basis. More on that below.
