This guy loves him some unions.

Denver Post writer Jeremy Meyer took a victory lap in a gloating piece about the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to shut down a scholarship program that would have allowed 500 Douglas County families to use per pupil funding to send their children to a school of their choice.  The program ultimately ran afoul of the Blaine Amendment, a blatantly racist and bigoted law that liberals wrap themselves in when denouncing voucher programs. Meyer’s piece only solidifies his pro-union, anti-reform bias for the masses.

Even worse, Meyer reveals that his partisanship occurred when he was the Denver Post‘s reporter covering education issues in Douglas County in 2011, when the District first launched its school choice and competition strategic plan that included 15 choice initiatives. One of those initiatives was this voucher program that Meyer clearly despises.

In his recent piece, Meyer claimed that “years ago when the district took its first steps toward creating the voucher program, school board members and administrators were cautious and secretive.”

We asked a source close to Douglas County whether this was accurate and were told it was not. In fact, Meyer seems to be latching on to union rhetoric of “secrecy”.  Instead, here’s what we were told about this so-called secrecy. The DougCo School Choice Task Force repeatedly met publicly in shaping the voucher program, but no one remembers Meyer ever bothering to make the trip to Castle Rock for those meetings.  Later, after the Board’s pubic vote in March 2011 (which Meyer attended), many District officials chose not to avail themselves to Meyer for now-obvious reasons – his reporting was biased, inaccurate, unprofessional, and driven by a pro-union agenda, which he fully revealed in this opinion piece.

It’s noteworthy that district officials have been interviewed by Meyer’s Denver Post successors on the education beat, whose reporting has been more balanced.  Meyer’s July 4th piece makes clear that DougCo’s lack of confidence in Meyer’s objectivity, fairness, and journalistic professionalism was well-placed.

As for calling the voucher program a ruse? Tell that to the parents who are trying to find the best education for their children. Meyer can flap about DougCo seeing through his own pro-union “ruse” and knocking his ego down a few pegs all he wants, the fundamentals are this: Douglas County created a program that would have allowed parents to choose a school that best fits their kids. The Supreme Court said it violated the racist and bigoted Blaine Amendment. The supporters of this program are planning to appeal the decision to once and for all kill Blaine.

Meyer can claim victory here if he wants to side with those (read: unions and Blaine Amendment supporters) who would deny families educational choice. He has every right to pick a side, just as we have every right to mock him for it.