John Hickenlooper on Education Democratic Presidential Challenger (withdrew, Aug. 2019); CO Governor

Opposes vouchers for private or religious schools

John Hickenlooper: No. Supports parents selecting the best schools, but "would not support the use of publicly funded vouchers for private or religious school education."

Corey Gardner: Yes. Filed a Supreme Court brief supporting the use of public funds to pay for educating children in private religious schools.

Expanded student loan repayment and forgiveness programs

Hickenlooper: Reduce federal student loan interest to 2.5% or less, with "expanded loan repayment and forgiveness programs, tuition-free community college"; minority scholarships.

Corey Gardner: No general stand found. Did introduce bill allowing employers to contribute tax free to employees' student loans. Discharge federal student loans for the permanently disabled.

Free skills training & free community college

We often forget about the 70% of kids in this country who are never going to get a four-year degree. We have backed away from all our vocational training at the very time when automation and artificial intelligence are going to turn our workplace upside-down. Now is the time to look at how do we make sure those kids get a chance to acquire the skills so that they can be successful in this rapidly evolving economy. In Colorado, we started with apprenticeship programs. Here's my vision. I think we should have the largest expansion of free skills and free community colleges in the history of this country.

Increase investment in education by additional $100M

Schools should focus on skills for future jobs

Reinvent bipartisan apprenticeships & workforce training

Gov. John KASICH (R-OH): Gov. Hickenlooper and I have talked about the issue of entitlements, to get this problem of rising debt under control. This could be a good start.

HICKENLOOPER: [Our bipartisan model could apply to] almost anything. Look at the need to reinvent the way we do work force training: 2/3 of our kids are never going to get a 4-year college degree, and we really haven't been able to prepare them for an economy where the new generation of jobs require some technical capability. We need to look at apprenticeships. We need to look at all kinds of internships. That's the kind of thing that Republicans and Democrats could work on together. And go down the list, all the economic development work. Those are issues where we should be able to roll up our sleeves say, "we may disagree about this, but we all agree that we want to make sure that everybody has a chance to earn their own future."

Earn-and-learn programs to reduce attainment gap

Some standardized testing is necessary

Federal funds will ensure excellence in Education in CO

Support great teachers in a 21st Century education system

Anti-transgender bathrooms, according to CC survey.

The Christian Coalition inferred whether candidates agree or disagree with the statement, 'Prohibiting Public Schools from Allowing Boys to Use Girls' Bathrooms; and Vice Versa?' Self-description by Christian Coalition of America: "These guides help give voters a clear understanding of where candidates stand on important pro-family issues" for all Senate and Presidential candidates.