Valentina (Val) Flores, a career educator, won a surprising and decisive victory for a seat on the state board of education in Colorado.
Flores won by a margin of 59-41, beating a candidate who was supported by the hedge funders’ Democrats for Education Reform, Stand for Children, and Education Reform Now. Her opponent had two years experience in Teach for America.
Flores has more than 40 years experience in education.
In my post about this electoral contest, I asked “Will big money win again?” The answer in Colorado is a loud and decisive NO!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Best news I’ve heard all day. Congrats to Colorado for having some sense about who is REALLY in it for the kids. Enough of this 2-years-of-teaching-means-expert-in-all-things-education fallacy that DFER et al keep pushing.
Finally. common sense from voters!
Our buttons are bursting here in Denver! The efforts of many had seemed hard fought and slow, but tonight we bask in this glory, knowing people are awakening! No big money here, just authentic grass roots efforts to save real public schools..
Congratulations !
Now I hope some Colorado sense rubs off on GA, as we have an big election coming up.
Woo Hoo! God bless grassroots, democracy-loving, insightful Americans!
Billionaire, astroturf, neoliberal privatizers: Americans are onto you and your days are numbered!
yes, ct, you are right because that is the only thing that stands to save this nation and society at large.
Being a teacher in NYS, yesterday was not a “good news” day. Hearing about the people in CO continues the hope. We have to keep sharing these things and don’t insulate ourselves from each other.
Welcome news! To paraphrase what Lincoln said about Grant, find out what the people of Colorado are drinking and pass it around the rest of the country.
It’s what we’re smoking. 😉
This was a primary, though. Won’t she now face a Republican in the general election?
Yes, you are right. It’s a two step process for genuine progressives today. First they have to beat the candidate supported by their own party, then they have to beat the candidate from the other fractured party.
Yes, but this is a heavily Democratic district, and the Republicans nor any third party don’t have a candidate. I’m pretty sure it’s too late to enter even as an unaffiliated.
Dr. Flores will most likely be the only candidate on the ballot in November.
There will be no Green Party candidate, I can assure you of that.
Yes! We need more of these brave educators who are willing to stand up and challenge the ed deformers!
I’m glad about her primary victory but remain concerned about November’s actual election for the state school board. Big money influenced last November’s school board election, no question about it. The only difference is that it’s the big money from conservative reform groups that influences elections here. That was certainly true in last year’s election and the outcomes in Jeffco and Douglas counties, where reform candidates carried the vote.
The other notable issue is that apparently turnout for this race was low, which may have negatively impacted the DFER candidate. Sure, that’s a good thing now, but it’s a very, very, VERY bad thing if we see that repeated in November. You know who turned out in full-force last November? Those on the extreme right. That’s not good news for our schools at the local or state level.
There will be no candidate from another party to challenge her.
I should clarify that Denver is upwards of 60% Democrat. Most of them are appalled by the action of the far right, so it’s unlikely that anyone will cross party lines and vote for a Republican. We Greens aren’t numerous to make a difference, either; that Libertarians aren’t, either.
This means that we in CO will have to motivate people to vote. I think that the general public is beginning to catch on to the fact that the reform movement is all about making money off the backs of children.
As an educator in Colorado, I am quite pleased that this has happened. We have a long road ahead of us, though. Reformers are strategically taking over school districts by becoming majorities on school boards in the Rocky Mountain State. Reformers are relentless. We have to be more relentless in order to reestablish traditional PUBLIC schools.