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Karla Esser (i) Democrat
Residence: Lakewood
Profession: Retired educator
Education: Doctorate of Ed. Policy and Leadership
Experience: I have been a classroom teacher in Colorado and Germany. I’ve also been a bldg. and district administrator, and a professor for teachers and principals. I am presently serving on the State Board.
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
Public dollars for public schools, standards written by teachers and experts in subject matter, and providing equity and high quality education for ALL students regardless of zip code.
What role do you see charter and online schools playing as K-12 enrollment declines statewide?
Charter schools are a matter of statute and will continue to play a role in our education system. There are students who benefit greatly from on-line programs. Those options should be available for these students. These options should always be held accountable for quality student outcomes and responsible fiscal management.
Whatap working and not working about the way Colorado measures school performance?
This is more a matter of how measurements are used and communicated. All students do not come to school from comparable backgrounds. In CO we do measure growth and thatap a good measurement. These measurements should always be used to support struggling schools, not to punish or compare apples to oranges.
Steve Barton Republican
Residence: Canon City
Profession: Patent Attorney
Education: BA Biophysics, MS Electrical Engineering, JD Law, MD Medicine, MBA Business
Experience: 20 years engineering of processor chips, 30 years patent attorney, 2 appointed state boards, never elected to an office, not an educator.
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
1. Boost parental involvement by requiring parental involvement in curriculum and textbook selection, early parental notice when kids have difficulty (parents of kids having reading trouble should know well before the end-of-3rd-grade required in Colorado Reads Act rule), and much more. Schools should help parents, not act in loco parentis.
2. Improve privacy by slashing reports (dossiers) on students now required by the state, and reduce bureaucracy to trim administrator/teacher ratios.
3. Bring outside engineers and businesspeople into schools and upgrade teacher training with math-based science & basic business so all teachers understand how the world works. Current science for teachers is mere handwaving like Aristotle without the math basis developed in 15th-18th centuries.
What role do you see charter and online schools playing as K-12 enrollment declines statewide?
Charter schools are crucial and must be retained as they allow innovative instruction methods and are often outside union control, they also often allow for much better parental involvement in selecting curriculum and textbooks. Online schools are useless in grades K-6 as direct contact is required to teach basic reading, but can be very useful in later grades. I did some of my MBA online, although other degrees were fully in-person.
Whatap working and not working about the way Colorado measures school performance?
Testing is often not directed to material in curriculum taught and reporting of individual scores to the state with student numbers can invade privacy; statistical test reports should suffice at the state. Further, testing is sometimes too frequent. In advanced grades I’d suggest reverting to SAT or PSAT as nationally-standardized tests.
Ross Klopf Libertarian Party
Residence: Lakewood
Profession: Civil Engineer
Education: Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering
Experience: I have 30 years of experience in Civil Engineer, I am also aware of the education challenges facing Colorado and the whole United States both related to reading and STEM Education.
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
Adopt proven literacy strategies (modeled on Portugal and/or other exceptional literacy national programs) and pilot them locally.
Strengthen applied STEM with partnerships, internships, and curriculum focused on environmental protection, defense, and tech careers.
Require all schools have safety certification by local law enforcement before opening/reopening.
Replace outdated drills with evidence-based active-threat training coordinated with first responders.
What role do you see charter and online schools playing as K-12 enrollment declines statewide?
Charter schools are great for two main reasons:
Charter schools let children and parents choose a more personalized education based on each child’s needs and abilities. They give families more options when selecting a public school. In Colorado — and in District 7 — charter schools have a strong track record of offering specialized K–12 programs.
According to recent State of Charter Schools reports from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), a higher percentage of charter schools typically earn “Performance” ratings on the state’s School Performance Framework (SPF) compared to non-charter district schools.
Charter schools and specialized learning opportunities need to be expanded in Colorado to keep our education competitive with other states and nations.
Whatap working and not working about the way Colorado measures school performance?
Measuring school performance is not easy. Reading and math are the core measures, but other important skills—like teamwork, public speaking, and problem solving—are hard to capture with standardized tests. Tests alone aren’t enough because many valuable subjects aren’t included.
Expanding tests to cover a broader range of subjects would help. I’d also like to see more ethics education in schools. Ethics is a major national issue, and itap possible to assess ethical understanding—doing so could make a real difference.
