Join Priscilla Rahn in a riveting discussion with Ken Witt as they tackle the complexities of educational choice and its critical role in shaping America’s future. As a veteran education innovator and faith-driven leader, Witt shares his insights into how school choice empowers parents to make the best decisions for their children’s education. Discover the challenges and triumphs of implementing change in educational policies and how faith plays a pivotal role in this transformative journey.
Welcome to Restoring Education in America with Priscilla Rahn. She’s a master educator and author leading the conversation to restore the American mind through wisdom, virtue, and truth.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, hello, everybody. Welcome to Restoring Education in America. I’m your host, Priscilla Rahn. I’m thrilled that you’ve decided to join the conversation today. I am really pleased with how 2026 is shaping up. I’m seeing this amazing movement of parents engaging their free will and their choice. And something really cool that’s happening this fall is a new private classical school is opening, and it’s called Excalibur Classical Academy. And their mission and vision is restoring America’s heritage by developing servant leaders who are keepers and defenders of the principles of freedom for which our founding fathers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. And I can’t think of a better year to start a new school than America’s 250th birthday. So we’re really going to celebrate this new school. If you’re interested in learning more and you have a child that will be starting kindergarten through third grade this fall, please go to their website. It’s ExcaliburClassicalAcademy.org and find out more. But to stay in line with this theme of school choice, I have an amazing guest that I am going to bring to the floor here, my friend, Mr. Ken Witt. Hi, Ken.
SPEAKER 03 :
Priscilla, it’s good to see you today.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s so great to see you. You are a mover and a shaker in this arena of school choice. But before we get into the conversation, I’m going to share your bio with the listeners so they can learn a little bit more about you. Ken Witt is a Colorado native leading education innovation in the state. He came to education over a decade ago with a background in technology development, business management, and policy. Ken has started and run successful businesses and worked for Fortune 500 Enterprises. He has set policy and governed as information security and compliance officer of two of Denver’s multi-billion dollar businesses. Focusing on education, Ken served as president of the Board of Education of one of the largest school districts in the state, where he gained statewide recognition for championing school choice and parental rights. Ken recently led the Woodland Park School District through nationally recognized education reform with outstanding academic results. Ken Witt continues, as he has for the past seven years, to head Education Re-envisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, a statewide powerhouse for innovative, exceptional school choices and programs with enrollment of over 13,000 students. His goal is to ensure all students have access to a great education through a focus on measurable academic achievement, improvement goals, and expanding school choice in partnerships with districts and private education. Ken is actively involved in a number of other efforts to improve public education in the state of Colorado. And wow, thank you for all that you’re doing. Thank you. So, Ken, you have been a strong voice around school choice. And why do you believe educational freedom matters so much right now?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, the right now part is the second part that I’ll answer. Let me start with why educational choice matters, period. And that is No, 2 students are alike and any system that believes every child should be instructed and treated the same way that every school fits every kid that could possibly go to it is badly misgiven. Parents need to work with their children to find the best educational fit the model that works for them. The school that works for them, the program that works for them. And as a father of four children, I can tell you three of my kids went to different schools during the same periods because that was the right answer for each child. And I hope that every parent pays enough attention to find the right answer for every child. Well, the now part is a different piece. We’re seeing a number of terrible trends in education. Usurpation of parental authority by school districts and by schools. Intervention of a situation where schools are putting themselves between parents and their children. We’re seeing a situation where all kinds of ideology is being pressed on children. In fact, a concerted effort is evident in some educational environments to actually undermine the moral framework The belief framework, the religious framework of the home, and that obviously cannot be allowed to continue. So the now part of why does school choice matter? The now is because it’s worse than it’s ever been and it’s getting worse in the public education systems and we need to find great alternatives.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, Ken, a lot of critics would say that all of this school choice is damaging to public education. You sort of responded to that, but can you go a little bit deeper into how do you respond to critics when they say school choice hurts public schools?
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Nobody’s hurting any school. If I want to purchase an item that I care about, I find the best copy of it that I can. And because I chose to buy it at Target, I didn’t hurt Walmart. What I did was I got the best value for what I needed. We buy education. And if you don’t think you buy education, check your tax receipts. We buy education too. And every parent should be making the best choice. It’s not a matter of damaging someone who didn’t get your money. It’s a matter of making certain that the best programs, the best schools, the ones that are right for your child are the ones that are getting your child’s money, the money for that child. Because let’s face it, the worst programs shouldn’t be the ones that are best funded. The best programs should be the ones that are best.
SPEAKER 01 :
That makes a lot of sense. In fact, that’s common sense. Something that we keep trying to teach our students about, like making good choices. Tell us a little bit more about re-envisioned. You’re the executive director of education re-envisioned. What problem in education were you trying to solve when you decided to launch this organization?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it does center around that concept of school choice. We want to make certain that parents can find the program or the school that they believe is best for their child and that they have access to it. Many times a parent was looking for a school model that they just can’t find in their area. And if that’s the case, our mission is to ensure that when there are founding groups with parent communities that want a particular type of school with a solid curriculum, we do our best to ensure that those educational models exist, that there’s a pathway to create them so that the parents in those communities can get their kids in the program they believe is right for their kids. You’ll find that if you look around the state, there are areas where there are great choices. There are areas where there are very few choices. And there are, quite frankly, areas that have animus for school choice. That’s what Education Re-Envisioned is about. It’s about making certain that there is a broad path for school choice in Colorado and ensuring that parents can find the schools and programs that they really wish their children could be in We’ll do everything we can to make sure they can find those.
SPEAKER 01 :
Ken, you have been very open about your faith. How has your faith influenced your leadership, and how does it shape the way you approach education policy?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I hope that faith for believers informs everything they do. It certainly does in my life. I was raised as a pastor’s kid, in fact. Every aspect of my life is informed by my belief in God and my conviction that he absolutely has a say, has the say, the only say that matters in what we do. With that conviction, we carefully work towards what we believe is the best for people, is the best for education, is the best for communities, while absolutely respecting at every turn parents’ rights and In fact, something I harp on all the time is we will not put ourselves between parents and their children. There’s always, of course, an exception for abuse cases, but that should be very rare. What should be the norm is. The faith of the home, the framework of the home, the belief system of the of that family is respected and never undermined in school.
SPEAKER 01 :
So in the day and age where we keep hearing this term separation of church and state, and I don’t want to get into how it’s been misused, right, and misquoted. But you have teachers in the public education system who are Christians. And, you know, if you’re a professing Christian, it’s not very popular. Right. But we are also called to be salt and light and also to, like you said, respect parents and not damage that home relationship. I think that’s really big for me, not keeping secrets from parents when it comes to the things that their child is learning or experiencing at school. In your opinion, how can educators lead with more moral clarity without crossing any legal or ethical lines?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, there’s what you teach and there’s who you are. We get to be who we are. The First Amendment guarantees us the right to freely express our religion. However, we can’t press that religion in an educational setting on those that do not want to participate. That area is one I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not going to try and split that hair too finely, but I can tell you that this nation was founded in a way that free expression of religion was just assumed. Now, it was guaranteed in our Constitution, but it was kind of a statement of the obvious in that our schools reflected it, our society reflected it, our founders made observations that this Constitution is not appropriate to govern a people that’s not already moral. There’s a clear assumption throughout the founding of this country and the framing of this country that we are all free to exercise the moral framework and the religious beliefs that we hold so to me it’s it’s a simple matter that you don’t have to worry about whether or not you can you have to get worried about what someone tells you you can’t
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s really good advice. Ken, when you were a school board member, you worked really hard to try to do some good policy work. And then you were hired to be the superintendent of Woodland Park during a very consequential time. What did you walk into when you arrived in Woodland Park?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I have to say, I walked into an environment with just a great board that was very focused on improving academic results on allowing a supportive framework in the schools that did not undermine parents that that respected parental rights. So, in a lot of respects, I’d say we walked into an ideal situation where the board and I were strongly aligned. And on what needed to happen and respecting parents rights and raising the academic standards, and we succeeded on all of those fronts. I believe we had significant. improvements in academic performance. The board made decisions to found a set of purpose statement and a belief statement that was very clearly reflective of the direction that they were trying to go and the respect they were trying to institute for the beliefs of the families in those schools. And I think they did a great job and I was just honored to be a part of it.
SPEAKER 01 :
So I’m still currently a full-time teacher in Denver. At one point, I was a member of the Teachers Union. Everybody knows not only was I a member of the Teachers Union, but I was a leader in the Teachers Union. I was a treasurer, secretary. I was on the political action committees, both at the local and state level. And I left the Teachers Union about two and a half years ago. I walked away because… They lost their way, in my opinion. I can no longer defend an organization that’s actually damaging our students and our educators. So I remember watching the news and seeing how the teachers union was just coming after you. This little school district. in Woodland Park that was trying to do all of this wonderful stuff in a conservative area, Christian community, and they tried to infiltrate. And it made me more upset because I thought, you know, you’re not really respecting the community and the wishes of the families that are there and what was being built. You did something really innovative with the teacher benefits. Talk about what you did in order to help support educators.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely, we, we always are looking for great ways to recognize and reward our great teachers, but we also recognize and Brazil. I, I appreciate your background. I’m glad to hear you’ve recovered, but I won’t miss words. I believe the single greatest problem in education, public education today is the influence of teachers unions. So. We wanted to make certain that our teachers knew that they didn’t have to work in fear of not having professional liability insurance, which was the number one reason for many to join a union that their beliefs didn’t align with, right? A union whose resolutions of late were embarrassing some of these teachers, but they still felt like they had to Be a member, because they needed professional liability insurance. So we simply wrote a professional liability insurance benefit into our package and ensure that every teacher. Was covered and knew that they were covered by an organization called pace, which does a great job as an educational institution. Now, of course, the teachers could reject it. There’s nothing’s forced on anyone. But the take-up rate was extremely high, and the excuse that the union often offers of, well, you may not like what we do, but you need to be a member or you’re at risk with liability, that excuse was taken off the table, and it yielded great benefit in Woodland Park.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I can say that that was the reason why I joined the teachers union, because I was told as a baby teacher, you know, your principal can fire you at any time and you need to have protection. And it’s literally, it’s the fear that gets you in. And once they, once they get you in, then they start to build this community around you. And you feel like, well, these are my friends and colleagues and we’re fighting, you know, fight, fight, fight, fight for, fight for public education, red for ed, red for ed. Right. And then I started looking at, well, we’re not really fighting. Like, CMAS scores are not going up. And I’m still being treated terribly by my admin. And if I complain, I get retaliated. So there were no protections, actually, paying $70 a month. So finally, I gave myself a raise. I’m like, $70 a month. I could put gas in my car. You know, I could invest that. I can… go out to lunch with some friends. Like there are a lot of ways I could, you know, do a whole lot, but you’re right. I want teachers who are listening to know that they could find alternatives like with PACE or Teacher Freedom Alliance. There’s all kinds of opportunities. Teacher Freedom Alliance is free and you get $2 million of liability insurance. So you don’t have to pay dues. And let me add this one more thing because this really taps my head. The national presidents are making half a million dollars a year. They can’t relate to anything I’m doing in the classroom. I can’t relate to making half a million dollars a year in salary being a teacher. And, you know, some of them haven’t even taught in the classroom in decades. So they really can’t relate to what we’re doing and what our needs are. But they definitely have a big voice.
SPEAKER 1 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
They do, both on the statewide scale. The CEA passed a resolution saying that capitalism was evil and that it was a problem for education and that it exploited children. Teaching kids, they clearly have an agenda to teach kids to dislike the country and the founding of this country and the principles on which we operate. That certainly made me very angry and it’s one of the reasons why we took a very hard stand. Also, when I met with the union leader in one of those school districts that we were just discussing, I had them read aloud the NEA, the National Education Association’s reading list for teachers for the summer, which included genderqueer. And I asked him, why is your education organization’s primary concern for teachers that they sexualize their students? And he didn’t have a very good answer. So I don’t have much respect for teachers unions.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I’ve completely lost respect as, again, a master teacher, national board certified teacher, and former union leader. And it is embarrassing that we have an education organization that doesn’t truly understand what capitalism means. And it’s no wonder that our students are not successful at school because they can’t think, they’re not creative, and they don’t understand what free market is. And if they understood what capitalism was, they would advocate for it more. But it is really damaging. So, Ken, with President Trump signing his executive orders, ending DEI and the Department of Education, what’s your opinion of ending the Federal Department of Education? Do you think that’s a good idea or not a good idea?
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s long overdue. Uh, the Constitution is clear about what rights states have and what responsibilities the federal responsibility and authority the federal government has. It clearly stated what authorities are given to the federal government and then states that the remaining authorities reside with the states. Education is not a federal authority. And the Department of Education had no reason to exist. It was created as a behind the scene deal making in an election. And it was paid for as a basically quid pro quo for the winning of a Democrat presidential candidate some years back, Jimmy Carter. And it has done nothing but create problems in education ever since. It is time for that department to be dissolved. It is time for states to take full responsibility for public education. And I’m glad to see that we’re headed in the right direction.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, to that point, I read that that year that President Carter was nominated. there were almost 200 delegates who were members of the NEA who became delegates in order to nominate him as the nominee for president. And the, the NEA president at the time took credit for helping get him over the edge. So I thought that was really, really interesting how much the teachers union played a part of that. And I, It’s really unfortunate that we have really great candidates. A lot of times we don’t even get elected. They don’t have a chance to lead because we have people who are in the pockets of the teachers union, but we don’t see anything resolved. I was talking with the governor the other day And I mentioned to him, I said, you know, prior to COVID, if you were a national board certified teacher in the state of Colorado, you got an eighteen hundred dollar a year stipend and less than one percent of Colorado teachers are national board certified. So it’s very prestigious and it is in state statute. But the Democrat dominant legislature has not funded this stipend for the best teachers in the state. And I have asked CEA, why aren’t you lobbying for this money for our best teachers? And they refuse to lobby even for teachers. So this tells me all I need to know. I will save my money. You won’t get my money. I am going to lobby for my own self, my own stipend, because you’re not lobbying for me. That’s another. Oh, my goodness. We can go on and on about that. the things that give me heartburn about the teachers union. So Ken, I’ve heard that there has been remarkable growth through your organization, re-envisioned. Talk about some of the things that are happening and the innovative things that you’re doing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely, I think 1 of the great indicators that we’re on the right track at education re, envisioned is that you hear in the news, you see constantly records of declining enrollment in almost every school district in the state. By contrast, Education Reinvisioned has seen 40% growth, 30% growth, 30% growth year over year over year in enrollment. As we continue to create, to authorize, we’re not really the creators, so I want to be careful. We authorize programs and schools across the state where we can work out the appropriate agreements. And these programs offer all kinds of educational models. We have brick and mortar schools only a handful of those that provide 1 is a send college prep, which provides truly a college preparatory educational environment for high school students that are that are on that track and committed to that track. We did a school for dyslexic students, which has been transferred to D11 so they can carry on that great work. We’ve done a couple of classical academies in districts that did not have them available to parents. So we’re proud that those are open 1 in Woodland park that has a significant percentage of the population student population in that school 1 in Pueblo. And has a significant and growing enrollment in that school as well. We’ve created the are authorized the state’s 1st Christian school publicly funded Christian school called Riverstone Academy also in. Then we have a large portfolio of online schools across the state. Uh, those, these are statewide online schools. uh for all every age range for a three four different school models for the for the kind of curriculum and the style of educational interface that those schools use so parents can find the right the best online education if that’s what they’re looking for for their child and then our largest growing area is homeschool enrichment programs we have campuses with homeschool enrichment programs All over the state of Colorado, and quite frankly, that percentage growth that I’m talking about manifests not just in student count, but it also manifests in number of campuses, particularly in that area. We’ve had, I believe. 25 ish homeschool enrichment campuses 2 years ago. 50-ish this year. We’re expecting substantially more next year. We’re probably adding another 40 to 50 campuses next year. All different kinds of programs, welding and metalworking and animal husbandry and forestry and forest school, outdoors activities, as well as conventional reading, writing, and arithmetic homeschool enrichment programs for homeschooling families. So we have just a huge variety of of programs. And what we’ve seen is this has resulted this year in enrollment across all of our schools and programs of over 13,000 students with the growth rate that I was mentioning before. That’s from 5,000 to 7,500 to 10,000 next year to 13,000 something this year. So we’re continuing to see enormous growth because we’re satisfying what parents are really looking for, what they wish their kids could be in.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s so beautiful to see all of this expansion and how it’s going to help parents, especially homeschool parents who may feel like they don’t have everything that, you know, I know a lot of homeschool parents, they don’t start because they don’t think that they can do it. But this really removes a lot of the barriers for parents to say there’s an option no matter what you want your child to learn, that there’s something there for them that they can access. And I can’t think of a better way for you to spend your years after all of that time being on school boards, being a superintendent, being in business and how you’ve learned and you’re just giving back. We need more people like you, Ken, that are passionate about the future. And with it being America’s 250th birthday, I feel like this is going to be just a great year to reset. So, Ken, before we go, my show is called Restoring Education in America. What do you think it’s going to take for us to restore education in America?
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re going to have to take back the classroom. We’re going to have to take back the environment in such a way that teachers and schools respect parents. And their oversight of their children that our public education system in general, but in specifically every single school. Refuses to put themselves between parents and their children attempting to keep secrets from parents by their children. that respects, looks to understand the educational climate, the desired educational climate for their communities and respects that and supports it. And we’re going to have to continue to aggressively expand school choice so every parent can find the environment that does respect and support the education that they want for their children so that they’re never stuck in an area that is not respecting their children or is putting itself between those parents and their kids.
SPEAKER 01 :
And there you have it from the master, Ken Witt, Executive Director of Education Reenvisioned. One more time, Ken, where can people find you?
SPEAKER 03 :
Edreenvisioned.org. And that’s E-D-R-E-E-N-V-I-S-I-O-N-E-D.org.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, to my listeners, I hope you enjoyed today’s conversation. Thanks for tuning in and catch me next time. And remember, educating the mind without the heart is no education. So seek wisdom, cultivate virtue, and speak truth.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks for tuning in to Restoring Education in America with Priscilla Rahn. Visit PriscillaRahn.com to connect or learn how you can sponsor future episodes to keep this message of faith, freedom, and education on the air.
