Here we go again — another textbook example of big-government bait-and-switch. Colorado voters were sold legalization with the shiny promise that tax revenue would fix crumbling schools and help kids thrive. Fast-forward a decade-plus and the state has vacuumed up $3.1 billion from legal weed… and classrooms are still begging for scraps while bureaucrats, special-interest programs, and who-knows-what-else feast on the rest.

This isn’t incompetence. It’s the predictable outcome when you hand progressives a new revenue stream and expect them to keep their word. They campaigned on “education, education, education” — then quietly redirected the cash to their favorite social-engineering projects, pet nonprofits, and whatever pet causes poll well with their donor class. Meanwhile, parents watch property taxes still skyrocket and test scores stagnate. Classic.

The right warned this would happen: once government gets a taste of easy money, it never limits itself to the original mission. Legalization itself isn’t the villain here — personal liberty and getting government out of people’s private choices is a conservative principle. The villain is the political class that treated the tax windfall like an unlimited slush fund instead of honoring the deal they made with voters.

Time to demand transparency, claw back the diverted funds, and enforce strict accountability — or admit the whole “taxes for schools” line was always just marketing to get the camel’s nose under the tent. Colorado conservatives have been saying it for years: trust the government to keep its promises at your own peril. Today’s marijuana tax scandal is just the latest proof.