If your house is being burglarized, or you are being mugged, elite liberals have some advice for you: call a math teacher. 

As crime in Colorado has soared — we are, after all, ranked the third most-dangerous state — hardcore progressives in the legislature have largely refused to take direct, aggressive steps to make the state safer. Putting more cops on the street and keeping violent criminals in jail longer are two ideas they recoil from like vampires from garlic. 

That’s why on the ballot hitting your mailbox in a few days is a measure that directs $350 million in existing funds to help local communities hire and retain officers, expand training and provide additional needed equipment.

Who could possibly oppose that?

A sliver of out-of-touch progressive ideologues who live in a utopian parallel universe where evil can be magically erased through just the right admixture of social programs.

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Enter the Colorado Fiscal Institute, a far-left advocacy outfit whose laughable and thin arguments against Proposition 130 strive to persuade voters that putting more cops on the street is a waste. 

Where would they spend the money? On “steps that really increase safety and deter crime.” For example, hiring 5,700 teachers. 

It’s a lovely idea. But here’s a news flash: cops and teachers aren’t interchangeable.

I may be old-fashioned, but if my home is being burgled or my car is being stolen, and I call 911, I don’t need my son’s math teacher to turn up. I need well-trained officers with guns.  

And in Douglas County, our sheriff parks marked vehicles outside schools to deter shooters and other criminals.

A brightly colored Mathnasium car is unlikely to cause criminals to quiver. 

It is not an “either-or” proposition. 

Instead of disdaining the meaningful role law enforcement has in maintaining civil society, liberals claiming to be researchers should talk to men and women who have served on the “thin blue line.”

Like former Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen who authored a landmark study for Common Sense Institute (CSI) on why Colorado must invest more effectively in public safety. Pazen points out how, despite liberals screeching that we are spending too much, Colorado continues to lag in the number of police officers per capita. 

He makes a key point: “state policy and funding has focused more on regulating policing strategies and prioritizing civilian roles within police departments, resulting in a declining share of law enforcement comprised of police officers with the power to make arrests.”

All the while, according to CSI, Colorado’s crime rate has soared more than 25% in the past dozen years. 

Rejecting reality is never a prescription for sound public policy. 

Response times for police in urban centers such as Denver have increased, because the “thin blue line” is being stretched way too thin. And cops will tell you crooks know it and respond accordingly. 

But the hug-a-thug approach loved by the Colorado Fiscal Institute and the ACLU is cruel rather than compassionate. They care not a whit for victims, or potential victims. To them, rejecting proper police funding is the price of turning society away from a punishment mentality. 

That’s why they claim prisons are counterproductive. Violent criminals in Colorado are serving just 46% of their sentences — and the state has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the country. They oppose a second initiative (Initiative 128) to require these felons to serve 85% of their sentences — with the percentage rising to 100% on a second violent offense. 

Instead, they argue every dollar spent on incarceration generates an additional $10 in social costs.

What are the costs to the victims of these criminals re-traumatized when Ralph the Rapist is suddenly back in town? Or the costs to the people who are newly victimized, or businesses robbed, or cars stolen by these misunderstood people who just needed a break and were released early?  

If you want to fight crime, vote to put more cops on the street and keep more violent criminals off the street. 

You don’t even need to call a math teacher to know that’s the right equation for Colorado. 

Sean Duffy, a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.