In this week's newsletter, we release our 2024 Voter Guide. We break down each of the 14 statewide ballot questions and a few local measures. Kathleen Chandler, Director of the Citizen Involvement Project, updates readers on her latest speaking engagement. Pam Benigno, Director of the Education Policy Center, continues her K-12 Policy Roundtable. David Kopel, Research Director and Director of the Second Amendment Project, shares his most recent Reason magazine article. Lastly, Rob Natelson, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, will speak with Parker Conservatives about six common left-wing myths about the Constitution.
Our 2024 voter guide is officially here!
Ballots will start hitting mailboxes in just a couple of weeks, and Coloradans will soon be able to cast their votes on more than a dozen citizen-initiated and legislatively referred measures.
Independence Institute is here to help you navigate these complex and consequential issues. Our 2024 voter guide breaks down each of the 14 statewide questions on this year's ballot, plus a few select local measures, and issues recommendations informed by our free-market principles.
Consider it your go-to resource for understanding the key issues that will shape Colorado's future and making an informed decision at the polls. You can access the voter guide online here or in PDF format.
And for voters in Denver, stay tuned for the release of our special Denver voter guide!
Wind Crest Senior Living Community hosted me for a 2024 ballot discussion. It was a packed house with over 100 people attending. I enjoyed talking with the residents about everything from Amendment G, the modification of property taxes for veterans with disabilities, to Proposition 131 and Ranked Choice Voting.
Did you know 46% of the voters in Colorado are unaffiliated? Have you ever wondered why? Hear from the experts at Independence Institute talk about the issues important to Colorado and how to bring some sanity to this increasingly leftist state.
Devil's Advocate with Jon Caldara is a current events show not to be missed. Each week it features lively - and sometimes heated - debates between elected officials, journalists, activists, concerned citizens, subject-matter experts, and hard-pressing host Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute. Jon is not afraid to express his "free-market" views, and his guests are not afraid to take on those opinions. It all makes for an informative, lively public affairs program.
PowerGab focuses on unique energy issues facing Colorado. Hosted by Amy Cook, Independence Institute's Energy and Environmental Policy Center Director, and Jake Fogleman, Director of Policy. PowerGab tackles the complexities of energy policy and solutions for a broad audience to educate and illuminate all while having a few laughs along the way.
This podcast includes several series of commentaries about the Constitution. Each series will cover a different aspect of the document. This series thumbnails the lives of 14 American Founders and their specific contributions to the Constitution. It covers both well-known Founders, such as James Madison, and those who are lesser known, but who exercised an out-sized influence.
Our K-12 Policy Roundtable, in partnership with Colorado Christian University (CCU), is in full swing. I aim to help students learn how public policy influences what and how they teach in the classroom. For instance, in a recent class, the topic was culturally responsive pedagogy. We discussed federal policy, four state legislative bills, directives from the State Board of Education, and a school district policy. Along the way, we tackled arguments for and against the topic. Most of the explanations of culturally responsive teaching are too long and complex to include here. A 2022 Education Week article defines it as a pedagogy that uses students’ customs, characteristics, experiences, and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction. It involves contextualizing issues within race, class, ethnicity, and gender and helping students develop critical consciousness, where they are empowered to critique and analyze societal inequities. Culturally responsive education is a concept embedded throughout Colorado’s public education system. It’s prevalent in the state’s social studies academic standards and teacher quality standards, which are used to evaluate teachers.
Teachers should not marginalize any students. If it takes using students’ culture and experiences to teach them reading, writing, and math successfully, then I am all for it. However, I am growing weary of hearing about white supremacy and institutional racism in our schools. According to Colorado’s model teacher evaluation system, teachers are expected to train their students to become social justice advocates—if they want high marks on their evaluations. In 2022, Chalkbeat Colorado published an article about how Denver Public Schools modified its new reading program to be more culturally responsive. I promise it’s worth your time to read. Let’s hope the students learn to read.
Ava Flanell is a firearms enthusiast, a firearms trainer, and now a firearms podcast and videocast star. She believes gun owners do a lousy job presenting their side to people who don't own guns.
What is a Demand Side Management Program and why does it mean that XCel's customers need to subsidize energy for pot growers in Colorado? PowerGab Hosts Jake Fogleman and Amy Cooke discuss how this system works and what the implications are.
Former Washington Post writer Malcolm Gladwell used to be a serious journalist. Now, he makes his living with a “Revisionist History” podcast in which he just makes up facts. For example, as part of a gun control series last year, he interviewed me regarding the 1686 English case about Sir John Knight, who was prosecuted for carrying a gun to church. For the podcast, he invented a story about me researching the library of Founding Father George Wythe at William and Mary University. There are just a couple problems with that story: First, I have never been to William and Mary. Second, Wythe gave his personal library to his former student Thomas Jefferson, who donated it to the Library of Congress, which the British burned during the War of 1812.
For the full story of my encounter with serial prevaricator Malcolm Gladwell, see my recent article for Reason magazine, Malcolm Gladwell's Invented Facts Make Good Stories: His "Revisionist History" podcast can amount to historical fiction.
On September 16, I was the kickoff speaker for Constitution Week in Grand Lake, Colorado. I spoke about the power reserved to the states by the U.S. Constitution to control immigration and fight defensive war against invasion. My talk was based on my article published last year in the British Journal of American Legal Studies.
I’ve been receiving an unusual number of requests for assistance from our sister state of Montana. For example, on September 27, a legislative committee investigating ways of reforming their state’s supreme court peppered me with questions for nearly two hours. One point I mentioned is that while at least some Colorado media are willing to report on our judicial scandals, the Montana media —which are far more submissive—refuse to do so.
On October 2, I addressed Parker Conservatives on the topic, “What Your Liberal Teachers Never Told You About the Constitution.” The speech focused on six common left-wing myths about the Constitution (such as “It was all about preserving slavery) and rebuts them in detail.
I'm generally available to address civic groups about the Constitution and constitutional topics. And for engagements within Colorado, there is no charge.
