When union forces tried to shut down the online charter school Hope Academy, it was conservative reformers in Douglas County who stood alongside the school choice supporters. And the leaders at Hope Academy haven’t forgotten.

In a new ad by Americans for Prosperity Colorado, the Dean of Hope Online Academy, Gigi Hill, talks about how Douglas County conservatives stood up for Hope Academy when union hacks like former State Senator Sue Windels tried to shut down them down.

As The Denver Post‘s (much-missed) David Harsanyi wrote at the time of Windels’ crusade against online charters:

The manufactured distress surrounding Hope will crescendo, as planned, with a state audit that was requested by state Sen. Sue Windels – a wholly owned subsidiary of the teachers union – in early December.

Windels, for the past two sessions, has sponsored failed legislation that would have, in effect, dismantled online charter programs.

In the aftermath of the legislative blood feud, Douglas County became the school district that used its charter school authority to keep Hope alive, allowing the innovative online school to keep its program open for the nearly 3,000 disproportionately at-risk students who call Hope home.