The Post editorial: Douglas County deserves a school board that is not beholden to an outside group.

The nation’s second-largest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, is directing a flood of campaign money into Douglas County’s heated school board election in hopes of tipping the scales in favor of a slate of four candidates. We hope the tactic misfires.

Douglas County deserves a school board that is not beholden to an outside group whose president has likened school choice advocates to old-time segregationists, as Randi Weingarten did this summer.

Weingarten also suggested in a blog post that districts should require the equivalent of an environmental impact statement for new charter schools in a brazen attempt to slow their expansion.

School choice is a primary issue in the election, with the fate of a lawsuit defending the district’s voucher program hanging in the balance. That program, which would allow parents of eligible students to use their share of funds at private schools, including religious schools, has been in limbo for years.

The case gained new life this year, however, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided a religious liberty case out of Missouri and then vacated the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling regarding Dougco’s program and ordered the court to reconsider the case.

Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. vs. Comer, the Missouri case, was an important blow to those who rely on historically bigoted Blaine amendments in state constitutions to exclude religious schools from various programs. And yet Colorado’s high court drew decisively upon our state’s own Blaine Amendment in its voucher opinion. The court must now reassess its reasoning.

One slate of candidates in Douglas County wants to see the lawsuit through. Another slate — the union-backed slate — would pull the plug on the litigation. We support those willing to stay the course: Ryan Abresch in District B, Randy Mills in District D, Grant Nelson in District E, and Debora Scheffel in District G. Collectively they are known as the Elevate Douglas County ticket.

There is no guarantee the state high court will rule in favor of Douglas County next time, or that the U.S. Supreme Court will either, should the case wind up there. But the constitutional status of the Blaine Amendment, steeped in anti-Catholic bigotry of an earlier era, demands clarity. We believe the amendment is incompatible with equal protection and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, and hope the courts would agree.

Both slates of candidates include accomplished, thoughtful people with roots in the district. And the answers they provided in questionnaires suggest members of both slates are willing to take a fresh look at the district’s compensation system and at ways to shore up community trust. But here too the potential influence of the union is worrisome — especially if the next board recognizes the AFT as the official bargaining unit, as seems likely if the AFT-backed slate wins.

Although the compensation system put in place by the former superintendent has flaws, it would be a mistake to retreat to a 20th century model in which longevity and paper credentials are the driving determinants of pay and actual classroom performance is downplayed. And while none of the candidates actually embraces such an antiquated model, the AFT presumably expects something in return for its investment.

Douglas County schools is a good district that has been torn by division in recent years. Both slates, fortunately, want to heal the wounds. But that doesn’t mean throwing out everything from the past, especially a program that would empower parents with unprecedented choice. The members of The Denver Post’s editorial board are William Dean Singleton, chairman; Mac Tully, CEO and publisher; Chuck Plunkett, editor of the editorial pages; Megan Schrader, editorial writer; and Cohen Peart, opinion editor.