Count Window is closing

Time is running out. In Colorado, the future of your child’s education isn’t decided in May at graduation — it’s decided in the fall, during something called the Count Window.

The Count Window is a two-week period: one week before and one week after Oct. 1. This is when schools verify enrollment for state funding. But make no mistake — Oct. 1 is the day that matters most. The state looks at who is enrolled that day and locks in the money for the entire year.

If your child changes schools after Oct. 1, the funding does not follow them.

Here’s the catch: many schools will encourage parents to “wait until the end of the first quarter” to see how their child adjusts. By then, it’s too late. The money is already set, and your child’s new school will be left without the resources they should have had.

At my small charter school, Eastlake High School, families often discover us after Oct. 1. We welcome them with open arms, but the funding tied to their student has gone elsewhere. That means fewer teachers, fewer supports, fewer opportunities than those students deserve.

So here’s the call: if you’re unsure about your child’s school, act now. Tour schools. Ask tough questions. Trust your instincts. But don’t wait until October. Waiting costs your child more than time — it costs them the resources that make learning possible.

Oct. 1 is around the corner. Don’t let the system decide for you.

Cassandra “CJ” Berry

Colorado Springs

It’s all a misunderstanding

Gov. Jared Polis would have us believe —straight-faced, no less — that Colorado is not a sanctuary state. That’s rich. It’s the kind of line that belongs on stage at Comedy Works, not in a gubernatorial news release.

Let’s not mince words: when your state bans local cooperation with federal immigration authorities, fines agencies $50,000 for merely sharing information, and rolls out $80 million in taxpayer-funded red carpet treatment for those in the country illegally, you don’t get to claim plausible deniability. You don’t even get to call it policy. It’s performance art — with Coloradans footing the bill.

And yet, when called out by the federal government, Polis and crew retreat behind the laughable claim that it’s a misunderstanding. As if ICE raids, overburdened shelters, and DMV cuts were part of a tourism brochure gone awry.

This isn’t leadership — it’s gaslighting. Sanctuary by any other name still undermines federal law, stretches city resources, and mocks the residents forced to watch their own government pretend it’s above the rules.

Colorado didn’t just become a sanctuary. We legislated it, budgeted it, and now —we deny it.

Good one, guv.

Jeffery Chandler

Colorado Springs

A blatant and corrupt move

I am outraged about President Donald Trump’s direction to move the U.S. Space Force’s headquarters to Alabama.

This will introduce a major distraction to an important command, impacting effectiveness.

It will personally impact the lives of many service members, requiring an additional move in a profession where moves are a burden.

It will separate the command from the numerous support contractors nearby and impact the local economy.

Worst, it is a blatant and corrupt move to reward a political crony and damage a state that has not bought into his lies.

Now what are we going to do about it?

Tom Thomas

Colorado Springs

This is Gestapo tactics

“We got robbed by the Feds:” That is the headline of a very well-written and absolutely terrifying article published Aug. 27. A quick recap: On Aug. 13, “at least 20 agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal organizations, including Homeland Security Investigations” raided two El Ranchito restaurants on suspicion that they were laundering money. “DEA agents arrived in unmarked cars” and some agents were photographed wearing masks and sunglasses. According to the owner, they took all their cash and their communications equipment.

Got the picture? Hey, I am opposed to crime of any type. I believe in law and order — literally and figuratively. I am OK with seizing items for evidence, provided there was a court order. But the owner’s means of making a livelihood was taken. And they “took our register lady to the back and interrogated her, yelling at her and asking them about us and how we do money transfers.”

And a witness was roughed up (assaulted?) for taking a video. And “the officers never gave their names or badge numbers when the family asked them to provide that information.”

This is Gestapo tactics in broad daylight, right here in our American city. Is anyone being held accountable? Who was the person directly in charge of this raid? Can he or she explain some of this? Why do reporters get stonewalled or prerecorded answers when they contact agencies involved?

My parents escaped the Holocaust. My brother and I are retired U.S. veterans who fought in a war for our country. We are both registered Republicans. This is not American values. No law and order. No due process. No one is accountable. I am ashamed … and afraid.

Peter Knepell

Colorado Springs