Just last week, the newly elected Douglas County school board voted to officially abolish the district’s innovative school voucher program. Consequently, the district will also be rescinding its involvement in the Supreme Court case that will determine the constitutionality of voucher programs here in Colorado. Ross Izard, the senior fellow of the Independence Institute Education Policy Center and a noteworthy supporter of the “choice” defendants of the DougCo case, wrote an affecting op-ed titled A suburban school board just set back educational opportunity for all Americans that was published in The Hill and describes the consequences of removing the groundbreaking voucher program from Douglas County.

Douglas County’s voucher program has long been in the spotlight– the constitutionality of Blaine Amendments was originally questioned and brought to court in 2011. Since then it has been a divisive debate, especially so in this year’s school board election. Other events, such as the role Betsy DeVos in school choice, have additionally stoked the fire of the school voucher debate, putting the DougCo decision on a national stage.

Following the results of the election, the union backed, anti-school choice board members have dictated the end of a unique program that had the potential to bring improved opportunity to thousands, and to serve as a revolutionary education model for the nation. It’s a shame to see such opportunity immolated by the desires of an elite few members of the union sect, the true omnipotent force in education.

As Ross Izard states in his op-ed, “it is about compassion, justice, and a fair shot at earned success for children living in unimaginable situations. Yet these things were never mentioned as the Douglas County school board coldly executed its political agenda to a standing ovation last week.”

Adults seem to forget that education is about the development of competency and brilliance in youth–placing partisanship and self-interested funding above the needs of Colorado’s students is therefore a highly condemnable action. Those outside of Douglas County’s bubble will just have to repress their desires for a better education and accept that their educational opportunities are determined by their ZIP code and parental income, rather than their initiative and intellect.