Censorship or Commonsensical?

With the United States presidential election of 2012 around the corner citizens can expect that negative campaigning and television ads to increase. Likewise, Higher Education in Colorado has “high stakes” in the political process with ballot initiatives like Proposition 103 in consideration (which failed). The need for more citizens to participate in the political process is evident, but coincides with a perceived sense of complacency amongst voters nation-wide.

According to the Census on U.S. Government employees 96,925 full and part-time employees are employed by the State of Colorado and 61,199 of those employees being in higher education in 2010 (http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/10stco.txt). There could potentially be power, influence, and a collective voice in the political process especially if higher aligned forces with secondary educators. In fact, I believe that as higher education professionals we have a responsibility to advance the education agenda to the public. We must advocate for education at all levels. We also have a responsibility as Colorado citizens to become informed about the issues and vote accordingly within the scope of FCPA.

Initially I questioned whether some of the perceived complacency as it relates to Colorado citizens could be attributed to a lack of understanding amongst some of State of Colorado employees that believe that limitations are imposed by the Federal Hatch Act and the Fair Campaign Practices Act (FCPA) (http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1234499450854&ssbinary=true ) I made this assessment because I have heard my colleagues’ express related concern. However, the FCPA appears to be common sense to me in terms of the limitations, but when trying to publish a similar article to this blog post, I was not allowed to which of course changed my opinion. I believe the FCPA may have an unintended consequence of censorship of State of Colorado employees at particular institutions reaching far beyond the intent of the legislation. Since my experience, I would like to know many others have been discouraged from speaking freely and publishing education related articles because of their positions or titles in higher education.

As you know, becoming informed is a critical part of the process. Listening to television and reading signs on the side of the road leads to over simplification of any issue. Instead we must become “over” informed. I would encourage you to consider that 71 percent of state legislators nationwide have at least a bachelor's degree and 40 percent have an advanced degree (http://ncsl.typepad.com/the_thicket/2010/04/high-education-levels-among-state-legislators-throughout-united-states.html) As a result, legislation may be written in a context that is not easily understandable to all citizens. I encourage you, state employees included, to advocate and inform others about education related initiatives in Colorado so we can continue to sustain our privileged position in the global economy. However, I encourage you to do so with caution in order to stay employed and I will do the same.

Yolanda Espinoza, Colorado Citizen