editor’s note: Each week during the legislative session, Denver Post political reporters will sit down with Capitol newsmakers. This Q&A was edited for length.
Much of Sue Schafer’s career involved education. She taught French and social studies at Denver Public Schools in the 1960s. She got her doctorate in education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1980. And she worked for two decades at the Colorado Department of Education before retiring in 2003.
Schafer has two grown daughters, Mary and Ann, and one granddaughter.
Q: You sponsored a bill that allows the Colorado School Safety Resource Center to set up a cash fund, in part so it could charge for conferences because its budget was cut by 20 percent. Then comes the Deer Creek Middle School shooting. I’m surprised that you didn’t hold a news conference trumpeting your bill. I know some of your colleagues would have.
A: I’ve been in education so long I just didn’t want to disrupt the school or anyone’s privacy. I chose to let those teachers and parents and kids get back to normal.
It was sobering to have the bill come up the same week as the shooting. Deer Creek was definitely on everybody’s minds in committee Friday. The bill passed unanimously. The resource center just does a phenomenal job. They conduct drills, provide training and do a lot of research.
Q: You interned at the legislature in 2006. Did that prepare you for being a legislator?
A: I interned for Rep. Cheri Jahn, whose seat I filled. I learned about the pace and complexity and demands of the job. . . .
But I was not prepared for the physical endurance the job requires. You have long days at the Capitol, and then your nights are with constituents, and every weekend you’re with constituents or advocacy groups or holding town-hall meetings. Being a legislator is a marathon and a sprint.
Tennis helps. You have to stay in shape. I have a real passion for tennis because it taught me things about life: physical endurance, strategic thinking, mental acumen and competition.
