Former Governor Dick Lamm Joins Amendment 31 Campaign as Honorary Chair

Press Release

Denver, CO—Dick Lamm, a former three-term governor of Colorado, has enlisted in the Amendment 31 campaign as Honorary Chair.

During his 1974 to 1986 term of office, Gov. Lamm helped establish Colorado’s current system of bilingual education for immigrant students. He has now come to regret that decision, which he believes has led to a widespread system of Spanish-only classes, preventing Hispanic students from learning English.

Therefore, he has now joined the campaign for Amendment 31, intended to dismantle those bilingual education programs, replacing them with intensive classes of sheltered English immersion

Gov. Lamm has begun starring in a statewide series of radio spots urging voters to support Amendment 31 and thereby “undo his mistake.”

In those ads, the Governor, currently a professor at the University of Denver, sharply criticizes the false and deceptive advertising of the No campaign, which has been lavishly funded by a $3 million donation, the largest in state history.

His radio spots cite editorial writers at the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post, and the Wall Street Journal, who have all characterized the No on 31 commercials as being filled with “lies” and “false and inflammatory charges,” even “setting records for deceit and distortion.” In addition, the AdWatch news column of the Rocky Mountain News has described the No commercials as “inexcusable.”

Gov. Lamm suggests that most of the real opposition to eliminating bilingual education is coming from the employees of what might be considered the “bilingual education industry,” which receives many millions of tax dollars each year to fund their unsuccessful program



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