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Panel boss urged to quit over e-mail

Dem says she's not budging

April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 3, 2007 at midnight

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Some Republicans are calling for the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee to step down after an e-mail she defended as private correspondence between friends.

The push for Arvada Democrat Sen. Sue Windels to resign her position comes just days after Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, stepped aside as chairman of the House Education Committee, citing his health and controversy over the e-mail.

He came under fire last week from members of both parties for sending an e-mail to Windels at her office that said "there must be a special place in Hell" for supporters of charter schools, vouchers and privatization.

Critics say the e-mail shows the two have conspired to gut charter schools, but Windels and the Senate majority leader said she has no reason to resign.

"What for?" Windels said.

Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, said Windels "has definitely shown her stripes."

"I think the e-mail shows there is no denying the chairman of education committee in both the House and the Senate wanted to deny children the opportunity to become everything God has destined them to be," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, said talk of punishing an e-mail recipient is ridiculous.

"You can't punish someone for something they didn't do," he said. "It shows some lack of clear thinking . . . and it shows a lack of a sense of justice."

It's not unusual for committee chairs to hold positions on bills that come before their panels, legislative observers said. "It would be weird if they didn't," said Alex Medler, of the Colorado Children's Campaign, who attends Education Committee hearings in the House and Senate. "You'd expect them to be knowledgeable on the topics and to care about those issues and to have beliefs about what should be done."

Medler said Windels and Merrifield have made no secret of their concern that school-choice programs strip resources from public schools.

A conservative political blog, facethestate.com, touched off the political storm last week when it posted an e-mail Merrifield wrote to Windels written in December. "There must be a special place in Hell for Privatizers, Charterizers (sic) and Voucherizers. They deserve it!" he wrote.

Windels said the e-mail to her was intended to be a private exchange between friends.

Sen. Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, said while Republicans have not formally asked for Windels' removal, "I think for her to step down would be a show of good faith to the tremendous number of people in Colorado who support school choice."

The Senate was set to reconsider Senate Bill 61 to restore public school districts' authority over most charter schools, but Windels told lawmakers Monday she has decided to let the bill sit on the calendar and die a quiet death, said Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial.

At least six Senate Democrats signaled that they would not support the measure, dooming it.

Staff writers Lynn Bartels and Berny Morson contributed to this report.