09/24/2026
Logan Davis and Barb Clementi Coming to Delta and Montrose, Colorado.
This weekend’s conversation about the future of public education in Delta is bringing together two people approaching the issue from very different directions.
Logan Davis comes to the conversation as a Colorado journalist who has reported on political movements, organizations and individuals attempting to influence public education and local school governance. Barb Clementi comes from inside the education system, with decades of experience as a teacher, school board member and education organization leader, and she is now running for the Colorado State Board of Education.
Clementi is expected to attend Davis’s “Future of Public Education” event Thursday and Friday. A separate meet-and-greet with Clementi is scheduled for Saturday, September 26 at 10:00 a.m. at Doghouse Espresso, 449 Main St. in Delta.
The connection between the two is worth paying attention to.
Davis’s reporting has focused in part on political and religious movements seeking influence in public institutions, including public education. Clementi, meanwhile, has made concerns about public education funding and religious involvement in publicly funded education part of her campaign message.
Her website states:
“Public money belongs in public schools.”
Clementi argues that vagueness and loopholes in Colorado policies and laws have allowed what she calls “bad actors,” including religious organizations, to direct public education dollars toward private and religious education. She says that if elected, one of her goals would be working to close those loopholes.
Those are Clementi’s claims and policy positions, and they touch some of the same broader questions Davis has examined through his reporting: Who is influencing public education? Where is public education money going? How much transparency should be required? And what happens when political or religious movements become involved in local school governance?
That doesn’t mean Davis and Clementi are saying precisely the same thing, nor does Clementi’s attendance by itself establish an endorsement by either person. But it does make Friday’s event an interesting intersection between investigative reporting about what is happening around public education and a candidate explaining what she believes state government should do about some of those issues.
Who is Barb Clementi?
According to her campaign website, Clementi has spent more than 40 years working in public education and related leadership roles.
She grew up in a family of educators and spent 30 years teaching in public schools, beginning her career in Pueblo School District 60.
Clementi holds a bachelor’s degree in English Education, a paralegal certification and a master’s degree in Educational Technology. Her career has included work in leadership development, facilitation, consensus building, organizational development and labor-management collaboration.
She also represented Colorado on the National Education Association Board of Directors.
After retiring from classroom teaching, Clementi was elected to two terms on her local school board, serving two years as vice president and two years as president.
Her experience also includes significant involvement with the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB). According to her campaign biography, Clementi served on CASB’s legislative advisory committee and Board of Directors and ultimately became president of the organization.
She says those different roles have given her experience with school finance, district budgets, education law, classroom instruction and school governance.
Why Delta County residents may want to listen
The State Board of Education can seem far removed from what happens inside a classroom in Delta, Cedaredge, Hotchkiss, Paonia or Crawford, but statewide education decisions eventually reach local districts.
Clementi is seeking to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, a geographically enormous district that her campaign says includes 27 counties and roughly 30 percent of Colorado’s school districts.
She says being visible and accessible throughout that territory would be a priority if elected.
That makes this weekend more than just another campaign stop.
Friday offers an opportunity to hear a broader discussion about forces affecting public education. Saturday gives residents an opportunity to sit across from a State Board candidate and ask what she would actually do about those issues if elected.
Ask Clementi what she means by closing funding loopholes. Ask how she would approach charter schools and homeschooling. Ask where she believes state oversight should end and local control should begin. Ask what her policies would mean for rural districts like ours.
BARB CLEMENTI MEET & GREET
Saturday, September 26 | 10:00 a.m.
Doghouse Espresso
449 Main St., Delta
Clementi is also expected to attend the Logan Davis “Future of Public Education” event Friday.
Colorado Department of Education Colorado Education Association U.S. Department of Education Department for Education
