July 7, 2025 • 29 mins
Are you aware of just how much is happening at your state Capitol—and how it could impact your freedom as a homeschool parent? In this episode of The Colorado Homeschool Podcast, “Defending Homeschool Freedom: Insights from Colleen Enos,” we sit down with Colleen Enos, CHEC’s new Director of Government Relations, to uncover why vigilant advocacy matters more than ever for Colorado homeschoolers.
Colleen brings three decades of homeschool wisdom, having begun her own journey in 1994 and recently graduated her youngest twins in 2024. As a mother of eight, grandmother of four (so far!), and seasoned coach of Christian homeschool speech and debate for 17 years, Colleen is dedicated to equipping the next generation to influence culture for Christ. Now serving at the Colorado Capitol, she’s on the front lines, representing CHEC and defending homeschool freedom and parental rights.
Tune in as Colleen shares:
- Eye-opening stories about the powerful impact homeschool families have made at the Capitol.
- Practical strategies for connecting with your legislators—without feeling overwhelmed.
- Encouragement for parents hesitant to engage in political issues, and why our voice matters on moral bills.
- Inspiring ways you can empower your children to be salt and light in today’s world.
Whether you’re a seasoned homeschooler or just starting out, you’ll come away with actionable steps and renewed confidence in your role as a parent and advocate.
Don’t miss this vital episode! Subscribe to The Colorado Homeschool Podcast to stay informed, encouraged, and equipped to defend your family’s freedom. Share with a fellow homeschool parent—together, we can make a difference!
The Colorado Homeschool podcast is a ministry of Christian Home Educators of Colorado. We have been motivating parents to disciple the next generation by embracing home discipleship that is Christ centered, parent directed, and free from government control. We invite you to join us in this mission. If you’re looking for support, resources, and inspiration on your homeschooling journey, visit CHEC.org. Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast and share it with anyone who might benefit from the wisdom shared in this episode!
If you want to support homeschooling in Colorado go to CHEC.org/donate. Thank you! Brought to you by ThePodcastUpload.com Empowering Faith Driven Voices.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The song just echoed throughout the
Capitol of the anthem. And the legislators were
debating a bill. They heard it and they all stopped. They put
their hands on their hearts and they listened. Even though we weren't
physically present in the legislative chamber, they heard
us loud and clear. There were families all over the
(00:22):
Capitol and that made a huge impact on the legislators.
Welcome. It's the Colorado Homeschool Podcast,
interviewing experts, parents, graduates,
all here to help you navigate this incredible journey called
(00:43):
homeschooling. And if you're looking for resources, tips and help,
go to CHEC.org you'll find what you need. In the meantime,
subscribe, follow along. Well, hello and
welcome. We are so glad to have you. I am your host, Keasia
Davis, and we are going to meet Colleen
Enos, our brand new director of government relations.
(01:05):
We are super excited. Colleen jumped right into the deep end. She's been with us
for just over five months when we recorded this.
So, Colleen, welcome. I'm so glad you're here with us.
Can you introduce yourself to the audience and just tell us a little bit about
your homeschool history and what brought you to this
role? I can. So
(01:29):
I have been homeschooling for 30
years. That's a really big number. I have
eight children and I started homeschooling when
my oldest son was like four
and a half, so he's now 35. So
I've been homeschooling a really long time.
(01:51):
In the midst of of that homeschooling journey
with my eight children, I started to coach
speech and debate. Christian homeschool speech and debate. And
I did that for 17 years. And so
that got me into the news, into
politics, into
(02:15):
policy from current administrations,
teaching kids how to communicate, all of those things. And
so when I graduated my twins
last May, the number seven and eight,
I graduated them in May of 2024.
Then I was getting them ready for college,
(02:38):
shipping them off. I had some extra time
on my hands. That's how I got started with CHEC. And everything started
on January 1 and the legislative
session started on the 8th, seven days
later. So you really did go right into the frying pan.
(02:58):
I love it. Well, let's talk about that.
Gosh, I'll tell you, the truth is, as
I've been working with Chuck, I have always been politically engaged.
I feel like we should know what's happening in our community. And
anybody who's ever heard me hears me say this. I think we are here for
such a time as this. Like the Lord placed me in Colorado in this
(03:19):
crazy liberal climate and I want to be faithful, to do
whatever he's called me to do. Right. So. But my role
at CHEC has really pushed me more into understanding what's
happening with the political world and the
environment that's facing our family. So let's start there.
Like, we have had. I don't know when CHEC started having a
(03:41):
Director of Government relations, Obviously, Carolyn Martin was the one who did
it for years before you. And Carolyn still is around. She's
just working in a different capacity at the Capitol. So
tell me about why you think this is important for us to
have a Director of Government relations and really what that role looks like.
Yeah, that is a great question. I think as
(04:03):
homeschooling created Christians, it's so important for us to know
what's going on in our state. And really, if someone
isn't at the Capitol tracking what's happening
with policy and with the legislature, we actually don't know
what's happening. We just don't know. We're uninformed and we're
not able to speak to legislators. We're not able to
(04:26):
influence policy, and we're just in the dark.
And. And believe me, there's a lot going on there,
and it's very important to just protect our freedoms, to
homeschool our freedoms as parents, our
religious liberty. There's just all kinds of things that
are under attack in this state at the Capitol.
(04:48):
And I'm sure it's like that in every state.
You need to have eyes on what your state government is doing,
because, as you know, we don't have one federal
homeschool law. We have 50. We have 50
states, and we have 50 different homeschool laws. So every
state's going to look different, and you have to be monitoring what's happening
(05:11):
in your state. So was there anything that surprised you? Because, like
me, we both already started with a bent towards paying
attention, But, I mean, it's like a fire hose. The difference.
Was there anything that surprised you when you got into the role? Because you said
eight days after you were welcomed into CHEC, you were literally
thrown into the sessions at the Capitol. Yeah.
(05:33):
Thankfully, in the state of Colorado, the session
starts out with kind of reports from different
agencies in the state government. So it's
called the Smart Act. But they start the session by kind of coming before
all the committees and saying, this is what's been happening in education.
This is what's been happening in the Department of Health. They give
(05:55):
an overview that's helpful to
understand at least where they're coming from. But then when they
start introducing bills, which several of them are
introduced on the first day. I guess I didn't
realize just how many there are.
In the state of Colorado, there are 100 legislators. So there
(06:17):
are 65 representatives in the House of
Representatives in Colorado and there are 35
senators in the state senate. So that's a total of 100
legislators. I believe they're each allowed to
introduce five bills and then some
have some extra leeway depending on the party that they're
(06:40):
with and just their position
in the legislature, if they're the speaker or the president or if they have a
special position. So yeah, so you're, you're
talking a base of 500 bills
going up to, you know, between six to 700 bills.
So it's a huge quantity of bills. They start out at the beginning,
(07:02):
introduce a whole bunch, and then a few weeks later
they'll do it again and again and again. And so it kind of
goes on like that until you get to,
until you get to April when they're starting to run out
of time because the session ends the
first week in May. So just the quantity
(07:25):
surprised me. So many bills and then
knowing where to find things. I like. I remember Carolyn telling
us last year that there was a senator who normally would
oppose. It was a, the non legal name change last year and
he didn't even know about it. So. Because of that
volume. That's why I always say that in a
(07:47):
lot of ways you are like the watchman in Ezekiel. Like you
get to pay attention and sound the alarm
because it is, it's overwhelming. How does one person
follow it? God, you really can't. Right?
Yeah, that's true. Praise the Lord. He's sovereign. Yes,
Jesus. Jesus to, you know, let us do
(08:10):
what we need to do. But it is, it's,
it's overwhelming. There's so many. And it makes
sense to me that the legislators don't know every single thing.
They're assigned to committees, so they're getting information on the specific
committee that they're assigned to, but they may not know what's going on
in other committees. So. Yeah, so it's just challenging.
(08:33):
And it was challenging to
try to meet everyone. And I could only
meet a certain number who I was interacting with
on the Education committee, but also in both. And those
are different committees. There's one committee in the House and there's one committee in the
Senate, so there's multiple people. But
(08:54):
as the session wore on, I realized that a lot of
the bills that happened this session were in the health and Human Services committee. They
were focused on gender affirming, care and rights, and
also abortion. And so they were more concentrated there.
So, yeah, it's just baptism by fire. But,
you know, I love a good challenge, so it was fun to
(09:17):
learn. I think you're amazing, Colleen. I really appreciate that
you jumped in with both feet and immediately started running.
And I think it's vital. I think that that is why, you know,
our tagline for tech is defending your family's freedom, helping your homeschool with
confidence since 1990. Well, we lead with defending your family's
freedom because it's so important. And you said it from
(09:39):
the beginning. We don't know. I mean, try to follow what's
happening with the bills in the media. Impossible. And
I feel like even the people downtown don't know. The people at the
Capitol don't all know, as I just demonstrated. Right.
So. Well, I want to be positive, because I do, really, like I said, I
feel like we're here for such a time as this, and I'm so happy to
(10:00):
be working with you. And we're going to be doing whistle stop tours where we
go through the state of Colorado, and you'll be giving more
specific report about some of the things that we're seeing and the
flavor and the tone of some of the attacks. So I'm really
looking forward to that. But for now, can we talk about where you
saw the hand of the Lord, like some sovereign, really cool things
(10:22):
that happened from the session? Because it has a tenor, or
at least from my perspective, it seems so negative.
Yeah, it can seem that way because we're
on the front lines. Right. So just if you think of it
as we're in a spiritual battle, the people on the
front lines are the ones seeing the attack. Right.
(10:45):
So that's what. That's what I'm doing. That's what CHEC is doing,
is we're looking at that. So we're seeing the direct attack. So I. I would
say, though, we had some big bills come up
where we really had to pull together. And specifically
in regards to HB 1312,
the legal protections for transgenders, Bill,
(11:09):
we saw a lot of groups come together. We saw pastors
stand up and let's see. Colorado
Parents Advocacy Network stood up. There were
several groups that kind of banded together, Focus on the
Family Heritage that came together to stand
against some of these attacks. Some of these attacks. That was
(11:32):
so encouraging to see people standing up together
and finally feeling like, yeah, we have a voice
and we can. We can be united on this issue
and talk about the truth of God's creation and his
biological reality that there are two sexes. He created them,
male and female, he says in Genesis 1. So.
(11:55):
So that was really encouraging. And I feel like the Lord brought that all
together. So, yes, everybody pray for us.
We covet your prayers, but God is big and he can do big
things, and he can do big things in Colorado. And he loves
Colorado, and he loves Colorado family. And he is standing
there ready to help. I love that I have a good
(12:17):
friend. Every single time we talk and we're talking about some terrible
situation or something bad, she ends with, but God. And that says,
enough. He is so good and he is sovereign. So.
And we talked about this because a part of your job is
you send out the legislative updates, you send out prayer
requests and blog emails and try to keep
(12:40):
people informed. So talking to the regular
homeschool mom that maybe feels a little confused by
this whole process or intimidated by this process, how do you
exhort them to. I mean, you already said one thing, so obviously
pray. But what is a little thing that we can do that is significant
that makes a difference? Okay, I can give you a few things.
(13:03):
So first of all, with CHEC, we have meet
your legislator day, which is earlier
in the year, so usually in February,
just so that you can come and meet your legislators. Who are they?
So they can see your family, so you can just chat with them.
So that's a good way to meet them. In addition
(13:26):
to that, we have the Day at the Capitol. The day at the Capitol, the
homeschool day at the Capitol is huge. It's huge. It makes such
an impact on the legislators. And let me just tell
you a little story about day at the Capitol. So at the beginning
of the rally, at the Day at the Capitol this year,
we had someone sing the national anthem,
(13:49):
and the session was still going on. So there were people in. In the House
of Representatives that were meeting during that time.
And the song just echoed
throughout the Capitol of the anthem. And the legislators
were debating a bill. They heard it and they stopped.
They stopped everything they were doing. And they said, we
(14:12):
need to stop and listen to this. And they all stopped. They put their
hands on their hearts and they listened. So even though we
were on the Capitol steps outside, they heard
the anthem being lifted up and they stopped
and listened and gave respect to that. And so
even though we weren't physically present in the legislative
(14:36):
chamber, they heard us loud and clear. There were
families all over the Capitol, and that made a huge impact
on the legislators. But I would say right now, if you're
a homeschooling mom, it's the summer, right?
So this is a great time for you to find out who is my state
representative, who is my state senator.
(14:58):
You know that our governor is Governor Polis. So this
is the time to find out who that person is, because they're going to be
the same person until we have another election. So
look up what district you're in in the House, what district
you're in in the Senate, find out who that person is. And they have town
hall meetings during the summer that you can attend or you could
(15:21):
listen to. And so this is the time to maybe go to
that, or if they have a video option, listen to that
and just tell them what's important to you. So the
more connections they have with you personally, then when we
have issues come up during the session, you can call them, you can
email them, and. And you can say, I met you here.
(15:44):
And this is what I'm concerned about. Relationships
matter. As all you homeschool moms know with your kids,
relationships matter. So if you have a relationship
or some semblance of a relationship with a legislator
that matters, you have more influence, you have more impact,
and you can do that today. You don't have to know anything. Just you can
(16:05):
Google it. That is so good. I'm
actually. I don't know if you could see me. I'm taking notes because we like
to link some show notes, some resources that we talked about. Gonna see
if we can link that anthem because there's a video of it, like, in. On
the Floor. It was pretty cool. It's really sentence. It was like,
stop. And you can kind of hear it in the background, even on the video.
(16:26):
That's amazing. Very, very cool. That is the Lord. That is
God doing something. And so let's not, you know,
let's give the praise where it's due. And that's to God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. And so,
Colleen, we were talking before we started recording about
sometimes in Christian circles, there's this hesitancy to get
(16:48):
involved or to speak out against it. And I was so encouraged by
the fight 1312, because that, that.
That was in reference to that bill that you. The Kelly Loving
Act. But that brought together pastors from in the. Across
the state, and we don't see that. And so having
that unity where we're fighting evil and speaking up, oh,
(17:11):
it was so encouraging. But what would you say to the people who are like,
yeah, well, I just need to let whatever happens happen.
What. What is your. What is Your sorry. And that was so
condescending almost. I don't mean to sound condescending, but how, how do you talk
to those people? So I think there are many Christians who believe
that if you're involved with politics or things that are political,
(17:33):
that it's dirty and it's that Christians shouldn't be involved
in that. And let me just say the
kinds of bills that we saw coming down the pike were
moral issues, not political issues. They were
moral issues. And so if you believe that God created
them male and female, and that what he created was perfect,
(17:55):
that is a moral issue. So we're talking about blurring
those lines with our kids and saying, no, no,
there's something wrong with you. God made a mistake.
You're not what you're supposed to be. And that is not true.
That is not what God said. He made every person
perfectly in his image, in the imago dei, the image of
(18:18):
God. So these questions that we're seeing
at the Capitol and even as parents, that we have the right
to raise our children, we have the right to educate our children,
these are things that came from God. Those are God given
rights. They supersede any
federal constitution or state constitution because they are God given.
(18:42):
And that's the point here. What we're talking about
is against God. And so I
think that people believe that we have to be more
tolerant or we have to be more forgiving. We can be all of those
things and speak the truth. And so what he says
right in Ephesians is to speak the truth
(19:05):
in love. But he doesn't say be silent. He doesn't say run the other
way. He says speak the truth. If we don't speak the
truth, who's going to like we have access
to the truth? Because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth
and the life. If we don't speak it, who's going to speak it? We are
called to speak the truth in love and yes, to
(19:28):
influence our government for good. We're supposed to be
the salt and the light of the earth. What's the point
if we're not trying to purify the culture because of
our presence? Because God gives us that charge. So I would just
call on every Christian to think about
that, to pray about that, and to ask God what you
(19:50):
can do. And it doesn't have to be go read all 500,
600, 700 bills. It is. Find a trusted
resource. It is. That's why I love that we have you,
Colleen, because you really are seeking out these things that
you draw attention to you shining the spotlight on it, even to the legislators who
don't necessarily know. And like you said, these things were hidden
(20:11):
in other. I mean, I think last year, one of the bills was hidden in,
like, a foster care thing. And again,
it's these moral issues. But have you ever heard of Ali
Basaki? She's. She does political podcast, but she says
all the time, policy matters. I'm sorry, politics matter, because
policy matters. And that is what we're talking about, is speaking up. And
(20:33):
I mentioned the Ezekiel verse of the Watchmen. There
is a strong accountability, even harsh
accountability, to watchmen who don't sound the alarm.
And that's what we're called to do, is to go, danger, danger, danger.
Like, that's our job. Right. And so it's my job to look through the
bills, but you need to know that they can change. So
(20:55):
when they're introduced originally, you know, I'll look through the bills, and
I'm like, I think. I don't think that's an issue. I don't think that's an
issue. And then halfway through the session, once they
go through a committee, they can be amended and change.
So something that wasn't an issue can become an issue. And something that
is an issue maybe ends up not being as much of an issue. So things
(21:17):
are not static. Right. They're very
fluid, and they change. And that's why it's just so important to
stay involved. You should be a member of the homeschool Freedom Team. You
should sign up for the prayer updates and the legislative
updates just to be informed. Because, remember,
policies in the state of Colorado govern your
(21:40):
life. That's how you have to live your life, because those are the
laws that are enforced in this state. So it's very important for you
to know and understand at least what's going on here. Yeah, so
important. And I've heard that said before, too. Well, it doesn't impact
me. I'm homeschooling. My kids are not in public school, so I don't
exactly. So particularly, we heard that a lot when we were Talking about the
(22:04):
HB 2513 12, when I was talking to people who
were homeschooling, they're going, well, why does this impact me? What would you say to
that? Why does that impact them? Yeah, I would love to tell you why that
impacts you. Because the bill, in the law as it's passed
now, it was changed, but it was passed, and Governor
Polis signed it into law on May 16th. In the bill,
(22:25):
it defines what a chosen name is.
So a person's chosen name, let's say they want to be called something
different than something that reflects their God given sex.
So their chosen name is required to be used
in places of public accommodation. You might say, well, what
(22:46):
does that mean? What's a public accommodation? It's any place but your home
and your church. Any place, any place of business, any
grocery store, any public place is a place
of public accommodation. That includes
private schools. Right. It includes private school.
It includes any, it includes
(23:08):
Christian schools. So you can't say, well, we do this or
we do this and so we're excluded from that. I think your children are going
to be out in public. I think they're going to be at a restaurant, I
think you're going to be at these places. These are public accommodation places,
hotels, camps, the ymca.
So right now we have lawsuits happening because
(23:31):
it is so wide reaching. So it's going to affect every part of your
life. It's not just for kids in public
school. This is our entire society. The
culture, the culture war is real and it's
here and it's in Colorado. Right. And we need to fight it.
Yeah. Last year at our Rocky Mountain homeschool conference, George Barna
(23:53):
was one of the keynote speakers and he shared a statistic that was just a
little heartbreaking, that basically only 4%
of our nation are Bible believing
disciples of Christ. I guess he kind of refined it because I think it was
60 some percent, 62% down to 4% when you consider they believe
the Bible and you made some basic theological
(24:15):
things that you need. And I was discouraged by that. But he closed
by saying, you know, God is in the business of using the remnant.
And that is how I feel about being in Colorado, being
wherever, even in our little, small, maybe
large homeschool family of eight kids, me or
mine, I just have two. But our remnant can be
(24:38):
used by God because it's him. And that is. I always
try to lead people with that. Like, don't be discouraged. There is no pit so
deep, God isn't there? Right. I would just love to encourage
you that the young people today are becoming
more and more aligned with
Christian values, more and more conservative. The younger,
(25:00):
the younger generation. So your kids, your kids
generation. Right. And also take your kids
to the Capitol, take them. What a great way to teach
them about how government works and how
important it is for them to be involved. They can learn about it and
it might encourage them in the future to
(25:23):
be more influential, maybe to run for office. But your kids
are the future and they need to know what's going on. So
especially as your kids get middle school through high school, you need
to teach them about this stuff, because if you don't,
the state of Colorado will see. You want them to
learn from a biblical worldview, a biblical perspective, what's going
(25:45):
on and why they should stand against it and what God
says about it and how. How they're made perfectly in his image,
and it's a lie that you were not made correctly.
That is a lie. That is not true. And they can minister
to those other young people, but they can't minister if they don't know about it.
So you need to teach them and bring them with
(26:08):
you, because they are the future. They are
the future. Salt and light, the Christian generation being raised up
today. Yeah. I love it. And I really appreciate you, Colleen, because
again, you give us the people who don't have the time to read these
bills and sift through them and try to figure out what the garbage is. You
give us the language so that when we contact our legislators,
(26:30):
we can say, hey, I'm concerned about XYZ because you
told us about it. We would never have known. So thank you for standing in
the gap there. It's so vital. And thanks for being a beacon of
hope. I mean, we are again, we're not
forsaken. God is still on the throne, right? He's a big God.
He is. Amen. I love it. So, well,
(26:52):
thanks for being with us today. I know you were at homeschooling.
30 years experience. We just glazed over that. I cannot believe it. Because
of that span of your children. That's crazy. Crazy awesome. That's like you
retired from a career and it was a career, right?
It was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
It was me, too. Cool. So fun. Yeah. I
(27:15):
love it. Well, we're closing every interview by asking our homeschool
guests what is one tip that you would put in the top. Like,
maybe the best, maybe not the best, but a really good homeschool
tip that you would share for anybody who's just starting. What a
great question. A good homeschool tip, I would say
there's always tomorrow.
(27:36):
Persevere. You don't have to be perfect.
You don't have to hit every page, every problem,
every piece of curriculum that you don't need to feel like a
failure. The fact that you are pouring into your children
biblical truth, that you're pouring. Pouring in historical truth,
that you're teaching them, that you're so involved that you're taking that time to do
(28:00):
it. That relationship is going to be
like that for the rest of your life. So don't give up,
Keep on, persevere, and just know
that God has new mercies every morning for
you as a homeschooling mom with your kids.
That is so good. That's a great way to end, Colleen. Thank you. And
(28:23):
for those of you who are in more remote areas outside of the
Front Range, we're going to be doing whistle stop tours so you can meet both
Colleen and I as we go out to the Western
Slope and to the mountain regions and all those fun things.
So thank you for being with us today, Colleen. You bet.
Thank you so much for joining us today. The Colorado Homeschool
(28:45):
Podcast is a ministry of Christian Home Educators of Colorado.
We have been motivating parents to to disciple the next generation
by embracing home discipleship that is Christ centered, parent
directed and free from government control. We invite you to join us in
this mission. If you want to support homeschooling in Colorado, go to
CHEC.org donate in the meantime, share this
(29:06):
with your friends and make sure you subscribe. That really helps us. Thank
you.
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Faith Driven Voices.
The song just echoed throughout the
Capitol of the anthem. And the legislators were
debating a bill. They heard it and they all stopped. They put
their hands on their hearts and they listened. Even though we weren't
physically present in the legislative chamber, they heard
us loud and clear. There were families all over the
(00:22):
Capitol and that made a huge impact on the legislators.
Welcome. It's the Colorado Homeschool Podcast,
interviewing experts, parents, graduates,
all here to help you navigate this incredible journey called
(00:43):
homeschooling. And if you're looking for resources, tips and help,
go to CHEC.org you'll find what you need. In the meantime,
subscribe, follow along. Well, hello and
welcome. We are so glad to have you. I am your host, Keasia
Davis, and we are going to meet Colleen
Enos, our brand new director of government relations.
(01:05):
We are super excited. Colleen jumped right into the deep end. She's been with us
for just over five months when we recorded this.
So, Colleen, welcome. I'm so glad you're here with us.
Can you introduce yourself to the audience and just tell us a little bit about
your homeschool history and what brought you to this
role? I can. So
(01:29):
I have been homeschooling for 30
years. That's a really big number. I have
eight children and I started homeschooling when
my oldest son was like four
and a half, so he's now 35. So
I've been homeschooling a really long time.
(01:51):
In the midst of of that homeschooling journey
with my eight children, I started to coach
speech and debate. Christian homeschool speech and debate. And
I did that for 17 years. And so
that got me into the news, into
politics, into
(02:15):
policy from current administrations,
teaching kids how to communicate, all of those things. And
so when I graduated my twins
last May, the number seven and eight,
I graduated them in May of 2024.
Then I was getting them ready for college,
(02:38):
shipping them off. I had some extra time
on my hands. That's how I got started with CHEC. And everything started
on January 1 and the legislative
session started on the 8th, seven days
later. So you really did go right into the frying pan.
(02:58):
I love it. Well, let's talk about that.
Gosh, I'll tell you, the truth is, as
I've been working with Chuck, I have always been politically engaged.
I feel like we should know what's happening in our community. And
anybody who's ever heard me hears me say this. I think we are here for
such a time as this. Like the Lord placed me in Colorado in this
(03:19):
crazy liberal climate and I want to be faithful, to do
whatever he's called me to do. Right. So. But my role
at CHEC has really pushed me more into understanding what's
happening with the political world and the
environment that's facing our family. So let's start there.
Like, we have had. I don't know when CHEC started having a
(03:41):
Director of Government relations, Obviously, Carolyn Martin was the one who did
it for years before you. And Carolyn still is around. She's
just working in a different capacity at the Capitol. So
tell me about why you think this is important for us to
have a Director of Government relations and really what that role looks like.
Yeah, that is a great question. I think as
(04:03):
homeschooling created Christians, it's so important for us to know
what's going on in our state. And really, if someone
isn't at the Capitol tracking what's happening
with policy and with the legislature, we actually don't know
what's happening. We just don't know. We're uninformed and we're
not able to speak to legislators. We're not able to
(04:26):
influence policy, and we're just in the dark.
And. And believe me, there's a lot going on there,
and it's very important to just protect our freedoms, to
homeschool our freedoms as parents, our
religious liberty. There's just all kinds of things that
are under attack in this state at the Capitol.
(04:48):
And I'm sure it's like that in every state.
You need to have eyes on what your state government is doing,
because, as you know, we don't have one federal
homeschool law. We have 50. We have 50
states, and we have 50 different homeschool laws. So every
state's going to look different, and you have to be monitoring what's happening
(05:11):
in your state. So was there anything that surprised you? Because, like
me, we both already started with a bent towards paying
attention, But, I mean, it's like a fire hose. The difference.
Was there anything that surprised you when you got into the role? Because you said
eight days after you were welcomed into CHEC, you were literally
thrown into the sessions at the Capitol. Yeah.
(05:33):
Thankfully, in the state of Colorado, the session
starts out with kind of reports from different
agencies in the state government. So it's
called the Smart Act. But they start the session by kind of coming before
all the committees and saying, this is what's been happening in education.
This is what's been happening in the Department of Health. They give
(05:55):
an overview that's helpful to
understand at least where they're coming from. But then when they
start introducing bills, which several of them are
introduced on the first day. I guess I didn't
realize just how many there are.
In the state of Colorado, there are 100 legislators. So there
(06:17):
are 65 representatives in the House of
Representatives in Colorado and there are 35
senators in the state senate. So that's a total of 100
legislators. I believe they're each allowed to
introduce five bills and then some
have some extra leeway depending on the party that they're
(06:40):
with and just their position
in the legislature, if they're the speaker or the president or if they have a
special position. So yeah, so you're, you're
talking a base of 500 bills
going up to, you know, between six to 700 bills.
So it's a huge quantity of bills. They start out at the beginning,
(07:02):
introduce a whole bunch, and then a few weeks later
they'll do it again and again and again. And so it kind of
goes on like that until you get to,
until you get to April when they're starting to run out
of time because the session ends the
first week in May. So just the quantity
(07:25):
surprised me. So many bills and then
knowing where to find things. I like. I remember Carolyn telling
us last year that there was a senator who normally would
oppose. It was a, the non legal name change last year and
he didn't even know about it. So. Because of that
volume. That's why I always say that in a
(07:47):
lot of ways you are like the watchman in Ezekiel. Like you
get to pay attention and sound the alarm
because it is, it's overwhelming. How does one person
follow it? God, you really can't. Right?
Yeah, that's true. Praise the Lord. He's sovereign. Yes,
Jesus. Jesus to, you know, let us do
(08:10):
what we need to do. But it is, it's,
it's overwhelming. There's so many. And it makes
sense to me that the legislators don't know every single thing.
They're assigned to committees, so they're getting information on the specific
committee that they're assigned to, but they may not know what's going on
in other committees. So. Yeah, so it's just challenging.
(08:33):
And it was challenging to
try to meet everyone. And I could only
meet a certain number who I was interacting with
on the Education committee, but also in both. And those
are different committees. There's one committee in the House and there's one committee in the
Senate, so there's multiple people. But
(08:54):
as the session wore on, I realized that a lot of
the bills that happened this session were in the health and Human Services committee. They
were focused on gender affirming, care and rights, and
also abortion. And so they were more concentrated there.
So, yeah, it's just baptism by fire. But,
you know, I love a good challenge, so it was fun to
(09:17):
learn. I think you're amazing, Colleen. I really appreciate that
you jumped in with both feet and immediately started running.
And I think it's vital. I think that that is why, you know,
our tagline for tech is defending your family's freedom, helping your homeschool with
confidence since 1990. Well, we lead with defending your family's
freedom because it's so important. And you said it from
(09:39):
the beginning. We don't know. I mean, try to follow what's
happening with the bills in the media. Impossible. And
I feel like even the people downtown don't know. The people at the
Capitol don't all know, as I just demonstrated. Right.
So. Well, I want to be positive, because I do, really, like I said, I
feel like we're here for such a time as this, and I'm so happy to
(10:00):
be working with you. And we're going to be doing whistle stop tours where we
go through the state of Colorado, and you'll be giving more
specific report about some of the things that we're seeing and the
flavor and the tone of some of the attacks. So I'm really
looking forward to that. But for now, can we talk about where you
saw the hand of the Lord, like some sovereign, really cool things
(10:22):
that happened from the session? Because it has a tenor, or
at least from my perspective, it seems so negative.
Yeah, it can seem that way because we're
on the front lines. Right. So just if you think of it
as we're in a spiritual battle, the people on the
front lines are the ones seeing the attack. Right.
(10:45):
So that's what. That's what I'm doing. That's what CHEC is doing,
is we're looking at that. So we're seeing the direct attack. So I. I would
say, though, we had some big bills come up
where we really had to pull together. And specifically
in regards to HB 1312,
the legal protections for transgenders, Bill,
(11:09):
we saw a lot of groups come together. We saw pastors
stand up and let's see. Colorado
Parents Advocacy Network stood up. There were
several groups that kind of banded together, Focus on the
Family Heritage that came together to stand
against some of these attacks. Some of these attacks. That was
(11:32):
so encouraging to see people standing up together
and finally feeling like, yeah, we have a voice
and we can. We can be united on this issue
and talk about the truth of God's creation and his
biological reality that there are two sexes. He created them,
male and female, he says in Genesis 1. So.
(11:55):
So that was really encouraging. And I feel like the Lord brought that all
together. So, yes, everybody pray for us.
We covet your prayers, but God is big and he can do big
things, and he can do big things in Colorado. And he loves
Colorado, and he loves Colorado family. And he is standing
there ready to help. I love that I have a good
(12:17):
friend. Every single time we talk and we're talking about some terrible
situation or something bad, she ends with, but God. And that says,
enough. He is so good and he is sovereign. So.
And we talked about this because a part of your job is
you send out the legislative updates, you send out prayer
requests and blog emails and try to keep
(12:40):
people informed. So talking to the regular
homeschool mom that maybe feels a little confused by
this whole process or intimidated by this process, how do you
exhort them to. I mean, you already said one thing, so obviously
pray. But what is a little thing that we can do that is significant
that makes a difference? Okay, I can give you a few things.
(13:03):
So first of all, with CHEC, we have meet
your legislator day, which is earlier
in the year, so usually in February,
just so that you can come and meet your legislators. Who are they?
So they can see your family, so you can just chat with them.
So that's a good way to meet them. In addition
(13:26):
to that, we have the Day at the Capitol. The day at the Capitol, the
homeschool day at the Capitol is huge. It's huge. It makes such
an impact on the legislators. And let me just tell
you a little story about day at the Capitol. So at the beginning
of the rally, at the Day at the Capitol this year,
we had someone sing the national anthem,
(13:49):
and the session was still going on. So there were people in. In the House
of Representatives that were meeting during that time.
And the song just echoed
throughout the Capitol of the anthem. And the legislators
were debating a bill. They heard it and they stopped.
They stopped everything they were doing. And they said, we
(14:12):
need to stop and listen to this. And they all stopped. They put their
hands on their hearts and they listened. So even though we
were on the Capitol steps outside, they heard
the anthem being lifted up and they stopped
and listened and gave respect to that. And so
even though we weren't physically present in the legislative
(14:36):
chamber, they heard us loud and clear. There were
families all over the Capitol, and that made a huge impact
on the legislators. But I would say right now, if you're
a homeschooling mom, it's the summer, right?
So this is a great time for you to find out who is my state
representative, who is my state senator.
(14:58):
You know that our governor is Governor Polis. So this
is the time to find out who that person is, because they're going to be
the same person until we have another election. So
look up what district you're in in the House, what district
you're in in the Senate, find out who that person is. And they have town
hall meetings during the summer that you can attend or you could
(15:21):
listen to. And so this is the time to maybe go to
that, or if they have a video option, listen to that
and just tell them what's important to you. So the
more connections they have with you personally, then when we
have issues come up during the session, you can call them, you can
email them, and. And you can say, I met you here.
(15:44):
And this is what I'm concerned about. Relationships
matter. As all you homeschool moms know with your kids,
relationships matter. So if you have a relationship
or some semblance of a relationship with a legislator
that matters, you have more influence, you have more impact,
and you can do that today. You don't have to know anything. Just you can
(16:05):
Google it. That is so good. I'm
actually. I don't know if you could see me. I'm taking notes because we like
to link some show notes, some resources that we talked about. Gonna see
if we can link that anthem because there's a video of it, like, in. On
the Floor. It was pretty cool. It's really sentence. It was like,
stop. And you can kind of hear it in the background, even on the video.
(16:26):
That's amazing. Very, very cool. That is the Lord. That is
God doing something. And so let's not, you know,
let's give the praise where it's due. And that's to God.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. And so,
Colleen, we were talking before we started recording about
sometimes in Christian circles, there's this hesitancy to get
(16:48):
involved or to speak out against it. And I was so encouraged by
the fight 1312, because that, that.
That was in reference to that bill that you. The Kelly Loving
Act. But that brought together pastors from in the. Across
the state, and we don't see that. And so having
that unity where we're fighting evil and speaking up, oh,
(17:11):
it was so encouraging. But what would you say to the people who are like,
yeah, well, I just need to let whatever happens happen.
What. What is your. What is Your sorry. And that was so
condescending almost. I don't mean to sound condescending, but how, how do you talk
to those people? So I think there are many Christians who believe
that if you're involved with politics or things that are political,
(17:33):
that it's dirty and it's that Christians shouldn't be involved
in that. And let me just say the
kinds of bills that we saw coming down the pike were
moral issues, not political issues. They were
moral issues. And so if you believe that God created
them male and female, and that what he created was perfect,
(17:55):
that is a moral issue. So we're talking about blurring
those lines with our kids and saying, no, no,
there's something wrong with you. God made a mistake.
You're not what you're supposed to be. And that is not true.
That is not what God said. He made every person
perfectly in his image, in the imago dei, the image of
(18:18):
God. So these questions that we're seeing
at the Capitol and even as parents, that we have the right
to raise our children, we have the right to educate our children,
these are things that came from God. Those are God given
rights. They supersede any
federal constitution or state constitution because they are God given.
(18:42):
And that's the point here. What we're talking about
is against God. And so I
think that people believe that we have to be more
tolerant or we have to be more forgiving. We can be all of those
things and speak the truth. And so what he says
right in Ephesians is to speak the truth
(19:05):
in love. But he doesn't say be silent. He doesn't say run the other
way. He says speak the truth. If we don't speak the
truth, who's going to like we have access
to the truth? Because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth
and the life. If we don't speak it, who's going to speak it? We are
called to speak the truth in love and yes, to
(19:28):
influence our government for good. We're supposed to be
the salt and the light of the earth. What's the point
if we're not trying to purify the culture because of
our presence? Because God gives us that charge. So I would just
call on every Christian to think about
that, to pray about that, and to ask God what you
(19:50):
can do. And it doesn't have to be go read all 500,
600, 700 bills. It is. Find a trusted
resource. It is. That's why I love that we have you,
Colleen, because you really are seeking out these things that
you draw attention to you shining the spotlight on it, even to the legislators who
don't necessarily know. And like you said, these things were hidden
(20:11):
in other. I mean, I think last year, one of the bills was hidden in,
like, a foster care thing. And again,
it's these moral issues. But have you ever heard of Ali
Basaki? She's. She does political podcast, but she says
all the time, policy matters. I'm sorry, politics matter, because
policy matters. And that is what we're talking about, is speaking up. And
(20:33):
I mentioned the Ezekiel verse of the Watchmen. There
is a strong accountability, even harsh
accountability, to watchmen who don't sound the alarm.
And that's what we're called to do, is to go, danger, danger, danger.
Like, that's our job. Right. And so it's my job to look through the
bills, but you need to know that they can change. So
(20:55):
when they're introduced originally, you know, I'll look through the bills, and
I'm like, I think. I don't think that's an issue. I don't think that's an
issue. And then halfway through the session, once they
go through a committee, they can be amended and change.
So something that wasn't an issue can become an issue. And something that
is an issue maybe ends up not being as much of an issue. So things
(21:17):
are not static. Right. They're very
fluid, and they change. And that's why it's just so important to
stay involved. You should be a member of the homeschool Freedom Team. You
should sign up for the prayer updates and the legislative
updates just to be informed. Because, remember,
policies in the state of Colorado govern your
(21:40):
life. That's how you have to live your life, because those are the
laws that are enforced in this state. So it's very important for you
to know and understand at least what's going on here. Yeah, so
important. And I've heard that said before, too. Well, it doesn't impact
me. I'm homeschooling. My kids are not in public school, so I don't
exactly. So particularly, we heard that a lot when we were Talking about the
(22:04):
HB 2513 12, when I was talking to people who
were homeschooling, they're going, well, why does this impact me? What would you say to
that? Why does that impact them? Yeah, I would love to tell you why that
impacts you. Because the bill, in the law as it's passed
now, it was changed, but it was passed, and Governor
Polis signed it into law on May 16th. In the bill,
(22:25):
it defines what a chosen name is.
So a person's chosen name, let's say they want to be called something
different than something that reflects their God given sex.
So their chosen name is required to be used
in places of public accommodation. You might say, well, what
(22:46):
does that mean? What's a public accommodation? It's any place but your home
and your church. Any place, any place of business, any
grocery store, any public place is a place
of public accommodation. That includes
private schools. Right. It includes private school.
It includes any, it includes
(23:08):
Christian schools. So you can't say, well, we do this or
we do this and so we're excluded from that. I think your children are going
to be out in public. I think they're going to be at a restaurant, I
think you're going to be at these places. These are public accommodation places,
hotels, camps, the ymca.
So right now we have lawsuits happening because
(23:31):
it is so wide reaching. So it's going to affect every part of your
life. It's not just for kids in public
school. This is our entire society. The
culture, the culture war is real and it's
here and it's in Colorado. Right. And we need to fight it.
Yeah. Last year at our Rocky Mountain homeschool conference, George Barna
(23:53):
was one of the keynote speakers and he shared a statistic that was just a
little heartbreaking, that basically only 4%
of our nation are Bible believing
disciples of Christ. I guess he kind of refined it because I think it was
60 some percent, 62% down to 4% when you consider they believe
the Bible and you made some basic theological
(24:15):
things that you need. And I was discouraged by that. But he closed
by saying, you know, God is in the business of using the remnant.
And that is how I feel about being in Colorado, being
wherever, even in our little, small, maybe
large homeschool family of eight kids, me or
mine, I just have two. But our remnant can be
(24:38):
used by God because it's him. And that is. I always
try to lead people with that. Like, don't be discouraged. There is no pit so
deep, God isn't there? Right. I would just love to encourage
you that the young people today are becoming
more and more aligned with
Christian values, more and more conservative. The younger,
(25:00):
the younger generation. So your kids, your kids
generation. Right. And also take your kids
to the Capitol, take them. What a great way to teach
them about how government works and how
important it is for them to be involved. They can learn about it and
it might encourage them in the future to
(25:23):
be more influential, maybe to run for office. But your kids
are the future and they need to know what's going on. So
especially as your kids get middle school through high school, you need
to teach them about this stuff, because if you don't,
the state of Colorado will see. You want them to
learn from a biblical worldview, a biblical perspective, what's going
(25:45):
on and why they should stand against it and what God
says about it and how. How they're made perfectly in his image,
and it's a lie that you were not made correctly.
That is a lie. That is not true. And they can minister
to those other young people, but they can't minister if they don't know about it.
So you need to teach them and bring them with
(26:08):
you, because they are the future. They are
the future. Salt and light, the Christian generation being raised up
today. Yeah. I love it. And I really appreciate you, Colleen, because
again, you give us the people who don't have the time to read these
bills and sift through them and try to figure out what the garbage is. You
give us the language so that when we contact our legislators,
(26:30):
we can say, hey, I'm concerned about XYZ because you
told us about it. We would never have known. So thank you for standing in
the gap there. It's so vital. And thanks for being a beacon of
hope. I mean, we are again, we're not
forsaken. God is still on the throne, right? He's a big God.
He is. Amen. I love it. So, well,
(26:52):
thanks for being with us today. I know you were at homeschooling.
30 years experience. We just glazed over that. I cannot believe it. Because
of that span of your children. That's crazy. Crazy awesome. That's like you
retired from a career and it was a career, right?
It was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
It was me, too. Cool. So fun. Yeah. I
(27:15):
love it. Well, we're closing every interview by asking our homeschool
guests what is one tip that you would put in the top. Like,
maybe the best, maybe not the best, but a really good homeschool
tip that you would share for anybody who's just starting. What a
great question. A good homeschool tip, I would say
there's always tomorrow.
(27:36):
Persevere. You don't have to be perfect.
You don't have to hit every page, every problem,
every piece of curriculum that you don't need to feel like a
failure. The fact that you are pouring into your children
biblical truth, that you're pouring. Pouring in historical truth,
that you're teaching them, that you're so involved that you're taking that time to do
(28:00):
it. That relationship is going to be
like that for the rest of your life. So don't give up,
Keep on, persevere, and just know
that God has new mercies every morning for
you as a homeschooling mom with your kids.
That is so good. That's a great way to end, Colleen. Thank you. And
(28:23):
for those of you who are in more remote areas outside of the
Front Range, we're going to be doing whistle stop tours so you can meet both
Colleen and I as we go out to the Western
Slope and to the mountain regions and all those fun things.
So thank you for being with us today, Colleen. You bet.
Thank you so much for joining us today. The Colorado Homeschool
(28:45):
Podcast is a ministry of Christian Home Educators of Colorado.
We have been motivating parents to to disciple the next generation
by embracing home discipleship that is Christ centered, parent
directed and free from government control. We invite you to join us in
this mission. If you want to support homeschooling in Colorado, go to
CHEC.org donate in the meantime, share this
(29:06):
with your friends and make sure you subscribe. That really helps us. Thank
you.
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