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Vote? Why bother?
by Groff Schroeder
| Perhaps the most important principle in a democratic republic is the idea that the People speak through their votes on Election Day, and that the People's representatives must comply with the People's vote -- even when they do not like the decision the People have made. Nothing is more important to the reality of a free and democratic society than this simple ideal, which gives the People the power to control the government and prevents the government from seizing the power to control the People. |
The ability of the government to pass a law that negates an election is a defining characteristic of totalitarian regimes and the antithesis of the Rule of Law in the American Democratic Republic. As hostile to democracy as this idea is, this is exactly what happened on April 16, 2003, when Colorado Governor Bill Owens signed HB 1160 into law. |
The "Colorado Opportunity Contract Pilot Program," now Article 56 of Section 1, Title 22 of the Colorado Revised Statues, creates Colorado's first public school voucher program. The Bill was sponsored by Representative Nancy Spence (R - Centennial) and Senator Norma Anderson (R - Lakewood), and a party line vote allowed it to pass the Colorado Senate by only one vote. |
The People of Colorado have twice rejected taxpayer support of private and parochial school tuition in statewide referenda. In 1992, voters defeated a school voucher program with only 33.2% of votes in favor. A 1998 referenda on taxpayer funding of private school tuition through tax credits gathered just 39.7% of the vote. |
Despite these large and repeated electoral defeats, Colorado now has a school voucher program. |
What changed? Probably not the People's support for vouchers. When asked in states nationwide, they have defeated referenda to fund private schools with tax dollars 21 of the 22 times they have been allowed to vote. The outcomes of the 1992 and 1998 elections in Colorado certainly did not change. What changed was the Colorado General Assembly, which has apparently decided that it no longer represents all of the People of Colorado, but only those citizens who lost the school voucher elections in 1992 and 1998. Chances are that the private and religious schools that stand to reap great financial benefit from this law also made substantial monetary "donations" to the governor and supportive members of the Colorado Assembly in support of HB 1160. |
No matter how voters feel about the separation of church and state, diverting funds from the cash-strapped public schools, or taxpayer funding of private or religious school tuition, most Americans would agree that when our representatives vote to overrule elections, we are facing much more serious problems in government than disagreements over the funding of education. |
Our "representatives" have spoken, and We the People of Colorado are now forced to follow, even though we twice told them in no uncertain terms at the ballot box that we do not wish to go in this direction. |
Instead of squandering a fortune on the massive Constitutional and legal battle that will surely erupt in the wake of this new law, perhaps it would be cheaper for Colorado to have another referenda. At least then we could pretend that elections were more important to our representatives than private school vouchers. |
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