According to the 2024 Colorado Measures of Academic Standards (CMAS) results, an alarming seven in 10 students in Denver Public Schools (DPS) are not meeting grade-level expectations in math and nearly 60% of students are not proficient in English. That is not a small gap; it is a catastrophic failure. But instead of taking responsibility, DPS and progressive politicians are pointing fingers at the federal government, pretending they had no warning of federal funding requirements, all while defending classrooms increasingly focused on ideology instead of academics.

On July 2, CBS Colorado reported the Trump administration froze nearly $7 billion in federal education funding nationwide, including $70 million earmarked for Colorado schools, with DPS among those directly affected. In response, Gov. Jared Polis claimed this was a sudden and unfair political attack. But that narrative is simply not true. Executive Order 14190, signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 29, requires public schools to certify compliance with federal civil rights laws, including a prohibition on race- and sex-based discrimination embedded in many of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) lessons in our schools. Gov. Polis, DPS Chief Financial Officer Chuck Carpenter and Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova were fully aware of the requirements and the risks. They weren’t caught off guard; they were warned. And they chose defiance over accountability.

Let’s be honest: The problem is not President Trump, it’s Colorado. More specifically, it’s Gov. Jared Polis, who last year signed HB24-1039 into law, making it legal for schools to withhold information from parents when assisting a child with a gender identity transition. That’s right, under this law, a child can begin transitioning at school — changing names, pronouns, even appearance — without parents ever being notified. I’ve spoken with families across the state who discovered, only after the fact, these changes were made behind their backs. Gov. Polis didn’t just allow it; he codified it!

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Parents across Colorado report classroom lessons that encourage gender and sexuality transitions, while school counselors introduce children to complex identity concepts without parental knowledge or consent. In the most heartbreaking cases, at least four Colorado parents have lost custodial rights after choosing to say, “wait” and declining to instantly affirm a gender identity their child adopted following school-based instruction. These are not isolated or fringe accounts, they are documented incidents, and the pattern is growing. What’s breaking down isn’t just communication between schools and families; it’s trust, authority and the fundamental right of parents to be fully informed about decisions that shape their children’s lives.

Inside Colorado public schools, students are asked to share pronouns in class, told that their gender is fluid, and taught race-based narratives that divide children into categories of oppressors and oppressed. Students are exposed to one-sided ideology in place of balanced, critical education and it’s all happening while the vast majority of Colorado students cannot read or do math at grade level.

Gov. Polis and DPS’s chief financial officer now act surprised by the loss of federal funding, but they knew the requirements. They knew the risks. And still, they chose to prioritize ideology over instruction, activism over academics and secrecy over parental rights. This was not an accident. It was the predictable result of policies championed by Colorado’s progressive legislature, the powerful teachers’ unions that support them and school boards more interested in politics than performance.

If they want the funding back, they should stop pointing fingers and start restoring common sense in our schools. End the secrecy. Focus on core subjects. Respect parents. Federal funding comes with conditions, and choosing defiance over compliance is not leadership — it’s negligence.

Our children deserve safe, rigorous, apolitical classrooms. The crisis in Colorado Public Schools is not President Trump’s doing. It’s the result of failed leadership at the state and local levels and parents across Colorado are waking up.

Lori A. Gimelshteyn of Aurora is executive director of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, a leading grassroots organization dedicated to protecting parental rights and restoring academic excellence in Colorado’s schools.