February 09, 2010 11:59 PM UTC

Make Schools "Compete" With Prisons, Says Walker Stapleton

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• by: Colorado Pols

From the Cañon City Daily Record, a campaign stop by gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis and treasurer candidate Walker Stapleton.

Gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis made a stop in Cañon City Saturday to speak to Fremont County Republicans about his goals if he is elected as governor in November.

Also speaking at Republican headquarters Saturday was State Treasurer candidate Walker Stapleton.

“Generally, I’m pretty optimistic about the future, but the future is the future,” McInnis said, as he expressed his concerns about the current administration’s handling of the economy. “This is the worst situation we’ve been in since the (Great Depression).”

…Stapleton said he would help open CSP II by advocating repealing Amendment 23, which requires a ratcheting up of education funding each year, thus allowing the Department of Corrections to compete for funding on a more level playing field.

“I think that all state programs are going to have to compete for limited funds,” he said. “It’s time education competes for funds.” [Pols emphasis]

He said the last thing anyone wants is to release offenders.

“We have to stop automatic ratcheting,” he said. “I will allow prisons to compete and ultimately be funded by precious tax money.”

We suppose that saying education should be on a “level playing field” with prisons might not get you run out of town on a rail in the heart of Colorado’s prison industry, Cañon City. It really is about the only place in the state you could get away with saying, in effect, that schools should get less money so prisons can get more. Very few politicians, certainly not the growing number who support sentencing reform for fiscal reasons, will want to touch that–even if they don’t like Amendment 23. We’re curious to hear what McInnis thinks of Stapleton’s choice of words.

And by the time that message, “cut schools, open more prisons,” reaches your average Jefferson County soccer mom? Yeah, we would not want to be Walker Stapleton.