Colorado’s Education Crisis and Federal Energy Policy Shifts

On Tuesday, August 5, 2025, Kim Monson examines two critical fronts in the battle for Colorado’s future: the federal government’s reassessment of climate policy under Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and the catastrophic decline in educational outcomes that has left only three in ten Denver Public Schools students proficient in math.

DOE Climate Report Challenges Mainstream Narrative

Start listening at 19:04 – Hour 1

Kevin Lundberg, former Colorado state senator and author of the Lundberg Report, breaks down the Department of Energy’s critical review of greenhouse gas impacts on U.S. climate. Lundberg highlights how Secretary Chris Wright, a Colorado native who previously led Liberty Energy, has assembled a team of credible scientists to challenge decades of climate alarmism. The report invites genuine scientific debate rather than accepting the premise that carbon dioxide emissions pose an existential threat.

Lundberg notes that Wright’s approach focuses on human flourishing, arguing that energy poverty represents the true existential threat facing billions worldwide. He shares personal observations spanning 50 years in Colorado, from unchanged frost-free dates to consistent wheat harvest timing, challenging claims of dramatic climate shifts. The former senator points to Colorado’s own energy policies, which mandate closing coal-fired power plants by 2030, as examples of draconian measures that could devastate the state’s industrial base and force businesses to relocate to Texas or overseas.

“Anything but a full-throated focus on providing good quality energy of all of the above is actually doing harm to people. And that’s what the policies that have been put in place here in Colorado are doing.”

Kevin Lundberg, Former State Senator and Author of the Lundberg Report

Colorado Schools Fail Basic Academic Standards

Start listening at 72:03 – Hour 2

Lori Gimelshteyn, co-founder of the Colorado Parents Advocacy Network, delivers a sobering assessment of educational outcomes across the state. At Denver Public Schools, only 30 percent of students demonstrate grade-level proficiency, while Cherry Creek School District, once considered premier, sees nearly half its students falling below standards. At Prairie Middle School in Aurora, the numbers are even more alarming: nearly 90 percent of sixth through eighth graders cannot read, write, or perform math at grade level.

Gimelshteyn traces the crisis to a fundamental shift away from merit-based academics toward ideology-driven curricula. She describes how Cherry Creek eliminated academics from its core mission and abolished the valedictorian designation for the class of 2026. Schools have replaced instruction in cursive writing with laptop-based note-taking, leaving young adults unable to sign their own names. Colleges report having to place incoming freshmen in remedial English and math classes because K-12 schools failed to prepare them. The result, Gimelshteyn argues, is a generation increasingly dependent on government rather than equipped for self-reliance.

“And if you dig down and you look into a middle school like Prairie Middle School, which feeds into Overland High School in Aurora, which is part of the Cherry Creek School District, nearly 90 percent of those middle schoolers, sixth, seventh and eighth grade, cannot read, write and do math at grade level.”

Lori Gimelshteyn, Co-founder of Colorado Parents Advocacy Network