State Senate Republican leaders were in Colorado Springs to extol a historic bipartisan win for charter schools and other accomplishments. It was a bittersweet celebration, given the highway they drove to get here.

House Bill 1375, signed into law by Gov. John Hickenlooper, guarantees charter schools get at least 95 percent parity in distribution of revenues generated by school district mill levy increases. Senate President Kevin Grantham, Majority Leader Chris Holbert, and Sens. Owen Hill and Bob Gardner met with The Gazette editorial board to discuss the new law and other 2017 victories.

Later Thursday, they revered the new school funding law in a room packed with parents and students at a local campus of Colorado Springs Early Colleges charter school. The school helps students complete college credits while in high school.

Democrats and Republicans have reason to declare victory after moving forward on several key issues mired for years in gridlock.

Hill told The Gazette his party had overcome “the psychology of failure.”

We agree, with an asterisk.

Republicans and Democrats expanded free speech on college campuses. They legalized “ballot selfies,” liberated switchblades from knife control, reformed civil asset forfeiture, and protected cops and other first responders with a “Move Over Law.”

They compromised with a bill that removed Hospital Provider Fee revenues, used to glean federal matching funds, from state revenue limits. They improved the state’s notorious Construction Defects Law, hoping to spur affordable housing.

While the Legislature passed 56 percent of bills introduced in 2016, it passed 62 percent this year. It is progress.

The asterisk.

Most of these victories require a wonkish interest in politics to fully appreciate.

Typical Coloradans, who work hard each day for their children and spouses, care about freeways. They want swift and major improvements to Interstates 25 and 70. They want improved highway safety. They want more time with their families, less in traffic.

In questioning Republicans on Thursday, we detected a defeatist attitude on the big-picture dilemmas that hold us back.

We were told, again, the Legislature cannot order highway improvements. Holbert said legislative bills directing specific road projects are not traditional. The Legislature has not demanded a specific new road since 1893. He suggested local and regional leaders resolve the transportation problem.

State government lacks transportation funds because of Obamacare-inspired Medicaid expansion. Republicans said they can’t do much about it, because rolling back expansion is a “nonstarter.”

Politicians, be assured. A tax increase is a nonstarter. Transportation is a fundamental responsibility of state government, and taxpayers won’t agree to new taxes while enduring a broad-based flaw in leadership.

No one understands why state politicians, given record-breaking revenues, cannot produce major transportation improvements to correct an escalating crisis. The excuses sound like pettifoggery and gobbledygook.

Gov. Hickenlooper is Colorado’s highest symbol of leadership, and our highway mess reflects mostly on him. He gave us Medicaid expansion without a real plan to pay for it. The governor should lead Republicans and Democrats to make hard decisions. Reprioritize spending, beginning with major reforms of our wasteful Medicaid program.

Break with tradition, lead a resolution and fix the damned highways. Only then will state politicians genuinely defeat the psychology of failure.