Law & Courts

Colorado District Found to Violate Campaign Rules

By Evie Blad — January 07, 2014 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Colorado’s Douglas County school district violated state campaign laws by contracting for and disseminating an American Enterprise Institute white paper that supported the “reform agenda” of the school board, actions intended to aid the so-called “reform slate” of board candidates in the November election, a judge has ruled.

The paper, promoted in a district newsletter distributed to 85,000 recipients, including parents, came to be known as the “Hess Report” for its lead author, Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies for the Washington-based think tank. Mr. Hess, who also writes an opinion blog hosted on Education Week‘s website, has been affiliated with the district as a consultant, the judge noted.

The AEI report at the center of the controversy, which was reviewed by the district before it was published in September, supports the school board’s policy prescriptions, including school vouchers and teacher merit pay, the judge said.

The report includes profiles of four school board candidates who supported the “reform agenda” and cites the importance of maintaining “a unified board with a coherent vision.” Those candidates, two newcomers and two incumbents, all won their races in the fall.

An unsuccessful challenger, Julie A. Keim, brought the complaint that led to the Dec. 24 ruling by state Administrative Law Judge Hollyce Farrell.

The AEI report cost $30,000, with $15,000 paid by the district and $15,000 from a district foundation, whose funds are not considered public, the ruling said. The authors, Mr. Hess and AEI researcher Max Eden, were tasked with “describing some of the advantages” of the district’s model.

The use of public funds on the report, evidence that the district influenced the report’s wording and reviewed its findings, and the district’s dissemination of the document amounted to a violation of the state’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, Judge Farrell ruled.

“It was clear as discussed in the findings of fact, that the Hess Report was not a third-party, unbiased study,” she wrote. “To the contrary, the report was an endorsement of the reform agenda and explained the advantage of having a unified board to fuel that agenda. ... The Hess Report was purchased with public money to influence the outcome of the board election.”

Plans for Appeal

Judge Farrell did not order the district to pay a fine because the complainant had not requested it. Ms. Keim had raised other allegations of campaign-law violations by the district, but the judge ruled against those points.

The district said in a statement that it plans to appeal the decision.

“The judge seems to have concluded that it is a violation of law anytime the district disseminates positive news involving its education policy agenda if there are also candidates for school board who support that agenda,” the statement said.

Ms. Keim said in a statement posted on her campaign Facebook page that she was “shocked and dismayed” that the district would appeal the ruling, and that she intends to challenge the appeal.

“The legislative declaration of the Fair Campaign Practices Act speaks to the importance of the strong enforcement of campaign laws in order to alleviate the disproportionate level of influence over the political process by wealthy contributors and special-interest groups, thereby negatively impacting qualified citizens from running for political office,” Ms. Keim wrote.

Parents’ groups and the Douglas County teachers’ union have questioned the influence of funding from out-of-state groups on district policy, and a local mother has said she filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service alleging that the district foundation uses that funding in violation of its nonprofit status.

Mr. Hess said that he did not discuss elections with the district when it commissioned the report last February, and that he took care to disclose his involvement as a consultant when it was published. He said he allowed members of the teachers’ union—and district representatives—to review the text before publication.

“I think the report’s very clear that we don’t know whether or not what Douglas County is doing is going to deliver the hoped-for results,” Mr. Hess said. The paper notes that it was “supported by Douglas County and made possible by ready access to teachers, administrators, schools, parents, and board members.”

Mr. Hess wrote a Sept. 18 blog post on the report for Education Week. He amended the post to clarify his role as a district consultant.

The district’s foundation also paid former U.S. Secretary of Education William J. Bennett $50,000 to write a report that “was an endorsement for the board’s reform agenda,” Judge Farrell wrote. Because that payment involved no public funds, it was not a campaign-law violation, she held.

A version of this article appeared in the January 08, 2014 edition of Education Week as Judge Censures District’s Use Of ‘Hess Report’

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts Oklahoma Nonbinary Student's Death Shines a Light on Families' Legal Recourse for Bullying
Students facing bullying and harassment from their peers face legal roadblocks in suing districts, but settlements appear to be on the rise
11 min read
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school bathroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
A photograph of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary teenager who died a day after a fight in a high school restroom, is projected during a candlelight service at Point A Gallery, on Feb. 24, 2024, in Oklahoma City. Federal officials will investigate the Oklahoma school district where Benedict died, according to a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education on March 1, 2024.
Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Declines Case on Selective High School Aiming to Boost Racial Diversity
Some advocates saw the K-12 case as the logical next step after last year's decision against affirmative action in college admissions
7 min read
Rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., Aug. 10, 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. A federal appeals court’s ruling in May 2023 about the admissions policy at the elite public high school in Virginia may provide a vehicle for the U.S. Supreme Court to flesh out the intended scope of its ruling Thursday, June 29, 2023, banning affirmative action in college admissions.
A group of rising seniors at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology gather on the campus in Alexandria, Va., in August 2020. From left in front are, Dinan Elsyad, Sean Nguyen, and Tiffany Ji. From left at rear are Jordan Lee and Shibli Nomani. The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 declined to hear a challenge to an admissions plan for the selective high school that was facially race neutral but designed to boost the enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Law & Courts School District Lawsuits Against Social Media Companies Are Piling Up
More than 200 school districts are now suing the major social media companies over the youth mental health crisis.
7 min read
A close up of a statue of the blindfolded lady justice against a light blue background with a ghosted image of a hands holding a cellphone with Facebook "Like" and "Love" icons hovering above it.
iStock/Getty
Law & Courts In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case
The Lau v. Nichols ruling said students have a right to a "meaningful opportunity" to participate in school, but its legacy is complex.
12 min read
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William O. Douglas is shown in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, shown in an undated photo, wrote the opinion in <i>Lau</i> v. <i>Nichols</i>, the 1974 decision holding that the San Francisco school system had denied Chinese-speaking schoolchildren a meaningful opportunity to participate in their education.
AP