The anti-school choice folks are back at it. This time they’ve recruited a perennial political loser in Democrat Rebecca McClellan to run for the 6th Congressional District seat on the Colorado Board of Education.
McClellan, a current Centennial City Council member, who is seemingly always on the lookout for her next elected perch, sat for an interview with The Villager newspaper recently and proudly declared herself skeptical of school choice.
Writes The Villager:
“As for the sometimes-controversial charter schools, the candidate favors a studious case-by-case approach. She is skeptical of a recent proposal for a for-profit charter in Cherry Creek Schools.”
We’re sure that’s going to go over well with parents in the 6th CD. Just ask the parents and students in failing Aurora Public Schools if they would like to be stuck in the status quo or if they would prefer to have options like charter schools that have transformed the public school system in Denver.
It’s not surprising that McClellan would echo the teachers unions on the school choice debate — she at least knows where her political bread is buttered.
McClellan is ever the liberal political partisan. She’s run for so many offices she makes Andrew Romanoff look lazy. In 2010, she got trounced by Nancy Sharpe when running for Arapahoe County Commissioner. Even Democrats endorsed Sharpe. After losing, McClellan went back to the Centennial City Council, only to resurface earlier this year as a candidate to run against Mike Coffman for Congress.
Reported the Colorado Statesman:
“While a Democratic challenger has yet to officially emerge, The Colorado Statesman has learned that Centennial City Council member Rebecca McClellan is exploring a run against Coffman following the decision by another potential candidate, state Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, to pass on the bid.”
Hell, McClellan herself even admits that the Board of Education is simply where she’ll hang out for the time being, before something bigger and better presents itself. From her Villager interview:
Although McClellan is unsure about any future runs for office, she says the Board of Education would be the most comfortable fit at this time.
Quite a case for her candidacy — a partisan who doesn’t like school choice and who is running simply because the board of education is the most “comfortable fit” at this time.
Compelling stuff here. “Vote McClellan, She Needs Her Next Stepping Stone.” Or something.
Nice hack job. Only thing sure to me is that I'll be voting for Ilana Spiegel or Rebecca Mcllelan, whicever wins the Democratic primary. Having just finished the quarter of my life that I will spend as a student, I understand my learning process intimately, and it was good teachers who cared about me that helped me discover my skills. I care a lot about how excessive testing, child poverty, and loss of funding for schools make it harder for good teachers and good students to thrive. I'm not ok with the charter and testing interests turning our students into profit centers.