Since our founding, DFER-CO has grown into a powerful stakeholder within the Democratic Party, with a track record of recruiting and supporting excellent candidates, winning campaigns, and providing expert policy guidance to policymakers.
In 2018, DFER candidates won four out of five primaries and 24 out of 24 general election races, helping Democrats secure all three branches of state government. This was in addition to the significant electoral victories in 2016, where DFER candidates won 9 of 9 legislative primary races and 13 of 13 in legislative general races. Moreover, we also supported Rebecca McClellan’s election to the State Board of Education in 2016, flipping the Board blue for the first time in 50 years.
DFER Colorado leveraged these impressive election victories for substantial legislative action, which include the passage of the Great Teachers and Leaders Act, Breakfast after the Bell, equitable funding and access to mill levy overrides for all students, funding for full day kindergarten, automatic enrollment grant program, elimination of districts’ ability to withhold transcripts, grades, or diplomas due to unpaid fees or fines, increase FAFSA completion rates, 9th Grade Success grant program, expansion of early childhood opportunities, and increased funding for multilingual students. We were also leaders in the legislative attempt to systemically overhaul our antiquated K-12 school finance formula.
DFER Colorado is a strong education community partner. Our coalition work includes partnerships with civil rights organizations and groups working directly with parents, students and families. Together, we worked together to ensure equity was at the forefront of the Colorado plan for the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), made sure student achievement data was disaggregated by race and ethnicity, and that districts were held to standards that prepared students for both college and career.
