Federico Peña is a south Texas boy, born and bred. He’s a white hat kind of guy, riding high on a steed like the bright-blue mustang with blazing red eyes at Denver International Airport. Let’s just say he’s on his high horse, reared up to take on… Denver Public School’s Board of Education in November’s school board election.

According to the former mayor and his many friends in Denver’s ruling elite, including another former mayor Wellington Webb, the current Denver Public Schools board is dysfunctional, among many other derogatory terms. Some might label the former mayor’s assertions sour grapes. His candidates lost the previous election and Peña and pals have not recovered from the board flip. They have done their best to undermine the current board at every opportunity.

Peña is the leader of Educate Denver, a self-appointed group, many of whom are baby boomers, former DPS board members, and other elected officials of the previous century and the first years of the 21st century. They are known as education “reformers,” but after almost 20 years and at least three superintendents as managers of Denver’s schools, reform is not a useful term anymore.

These men and women of Educate Denver support Denver’s charter school platform as the “choice” savior for children. It’s not too late to give their claims for superiority a once over.

Claim: This DPS Board did not exercise a sound process when it closed two neighborhood schools to the chagrin of parents and children in the schools.

Facts: DPS’s neighborhood schools might not have to be closed if more control and management had occurred under previous boards that allowed just about any charter school to invade neighborhoods. The charters were authorized first under the guise they would produce outstanding achievement outcomes and then under the guise every parent needs “choice” for their children. Outstanding, sustainable outcomes did not occur, and un-managed charter authorizations have now undermined neighborhood schools in a time of falling enrollments.

Fourteen charter schools closed during the last five years, with crickets from Peña and the media. These schools didn’t have enough students to cover costs. That’s a lot of unnecessary market disruption for children, especially the middle schoolers most affected who thrive on stability and continuity, not market forces. Did the media and Peña question the impact of those school failures on students? Did they ask what effect these failed schools had on the overall management of DPS?

The DPS board closed two small neighborhood schools this year. Those neighborhoods will suffer. Additional small school closures are under consideration. Have Peña and his colleagues at Educate Denver asked themselves whether the unmanaged charter expansion authorized by previous boards led to this result? No, these elites have loudly criticized the current board for their necessary debates about how to steady the declining enrollment ship.

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Facts: Kimberlee Sia, running for District 1, was chief executive of the Kipp charter school network in Denver. She’s a candidate endorsed by Educate Denver. The Kipp schools work in some of the poorer areas of the city. Their student recruiting has resulted in re-segregation of students. Kipp students attend schools with 90%-plus minority children. The schools’ free-and-reduced lunch populations are in the 80%-plus category. They work with a high number of English-language learners. Their premise is they will have more success with these students than traditional DPS schools, but that hasn’t worked out. Their overall achievement scores in 2022 and 2023 are low: plus-or-minus 10% of kids meeting math standards and plus-or-minus 20% of students meeting reading and language-arts standards.

Sia should explain her plans for school closures beyond “listening to the community.” Will she put low-performing charters on the closure block if their closure will enable neighborhood elementary and middle schools to stay open?

She should explain how she would respond to the disorder related to the merger of Strive Prep charters with the Rocky Mountain Prep network when both programs are underwater on achievement scores. Will she be willing to intervene in how Rocky Mountain Prep distributes its tax dollars with its CEO paid about $80,000 more per year than the superintendent of Denver’s schools?

Claim: The current DPS board is a “public embarrassment.”

Facts: The current board debates publicly, sometimes emotionally, on issues of vital concern to parents, students and the community. Controversies regarding school closures and security protocols are important and necessary. Maybe if previous boards had debated the value of education reforms more robustly, this board wouldn’t have to close schools right now.

Educate Denver’s members have had almost two decades to prove their contention they will move students to a “meets” achievement space. The reality is schools in the district bump slightly up and down within a narrow statistical zone. The programs offered by charters and innovation schools have results similar to district-run schools with the same demographic characteristics. Schools with a large majority of minority students, a high percent of free-and-reduced lunch (FRL) children, and a high percent of English-language learners (ELL) have a very heavy challenge. Charters and innovation schools do not budge that reality over a sustainable period.

Educators understand there are no miracles in education, just steady progress. There are practical actions to improve the conditions under which children can thrive. These include adding resources for consistently funded health services, mental health care, housing options, nutritious food, clear safety protocols, and educator income that meets the market pay of other professionals.

Former Mayor Peña and his elite friends are all white hat and no cattle in their education policy. They can assert that ain’t so, but it is.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.