DENVER - The Douglas County School Board voted Monday night to end the district’s controversial “Choice Scholarship” Program, which the Colorado Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in June 2015. The ACLU of Colorado with other partners, including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Taxpayers for Public Education, a Douglas County education advocacy group, challenged the voucher program in 2011, highlighting the Colorado Constitution’s “specific prohibition” on government funds going to schools that are controlled by churches or religious organizations.  The Colorado Supreme Court agreed with the plaintiffs and struck down the program.

ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein issued the following statement:

“We applaud the Douglas County School Board for responding to the clear message that voters sent in the recent election and conclusively ending the unconstitutional and divisive private school voucher program.  The School District will no longer pursue a path that would weaken public schools by funneling taxpayer dollars to private, religious schools, in violation of our state constitution.

As the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in 2015, parents are free to send their children to private, religious schools if they wish, but our constitution guarantees that taxpayers are not forced to pay for it.

The so-called Choice Scholarship program, if allowed to stand, would have eviscerated core provisions of the religion and education clauses of the Colorado Constitution and given school districts around the state carte blanche to implement similar programs, with potentially devastating consequences for our state’s public school system.

The School District can now move on from this costly chapter and focus on outcomes that will benefit all kids, not just the ones who can afford expensive private schools. 

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On today’s episode, we hear from three individuals on why the ACLU is important to them. We begin with John’s interview with Gwen Young, a former board member of the ACLU of Colorado and a long-time supporter. Alejandra sits down with Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, Executive Director of the ACLU of Colorado, and we hear from Emma, one of our youngest volunteers.

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DENVER -The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF), which administers the state’s Medicaid program, announced today that it will remove the restriction on providing Hepatitis C medications that has been at the center of an ACLU of Colorado class action lawsuit against the agency. This change means that thousands of Colorado Medicaid recipients infected with the HCV virus will soon be eligible to receive the newer direct-acting antiviral (DAA) medications that have a greater than 90% rate of curing the disease.
ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein issued the following statement:

“Federal law requires that Medicaid provide all medically necessary treatment. Throughout the litigation, we have maintained that Medicaid is obligated to provide the new curative medications to all Medicaid recipients who are living with the HCV virus. With this new change in policy, Colorado Medicaid will no longer restrict treatment to persons who have already sustained serious damage to their livers.
This is a major step toward resolving the litigation and providing necessary medical care to thousands of Medicaid recipients who need it. It is also a much more fiscally sound path for the state, because early treatment saves costs that come from continuing to force patients to wait for treatment until they have suffered serious liver damage.
With Medicare, the Veterans Administration, all major private health insurers, and now Medicaid all agreeing to provide curative treatment for Hepatitis C at all stages of the disease, the only Coloradans who continue to be denied access to treatment are people who are incarcerated in Colorado prisons, where a massive Hepatitis C crisis persists. At least one in every nine prisoners suffers from Hepatitis C, and complications from the disease kill nearly as many Coloradans in custody every year as drug and alcohol abuse, homicide, and suicide combined.
Our class action lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Corrections is in litigation, and similar to Medicaid patients, we are seeking a swift and just result for our clients, who cannot afford to wait for access to treatment while their health continues to deteriorate.”
Resources:

New HCPF policy: https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/PDL%20effective%2001-01-2018.pdf

ACLU Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Colorado Medicaid over Unlawful Hepatitis C Treatment Restrictions

ACLU Lawsuit Seeks Life-Saving Treatment for Thousands of Colorado Prisoners Suffering from Hepatitis C