Monthly Archives: August 2011

Perhaps Parent Trigger Debate Can Take My Mind Off Bad School Choice News

Many of you know what the big education news around here is. I’m still reeling, and it hurts too much to talk about it. So at least for today, while the emotional wounds are raw, I want to bring your attention to something else you may find of interest. Not long ago I told you about the revealing news of how the teachers union in Connecticut bragged behind closed doors of working to stop parental empowerment. For me at least, it raised questions behind the demise of Colorado’s own “parent trigger” bill earlier this year. No matter what you think of the issue, the “parent trigger” has become a hot topic. And the good people at Public Sector Inc. are hosting an online debate between Ben Boychuk of City Journal and New York City special education teacher Julie Cavanagh about the issue. Personally, I agree with Mr. Boychuk and appreciate the powerful opening to his argument:

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Colorado and Indiana Families Both Waiting for Significant Choice Scholarship Rulings

You thought I was going crazy yesterday waiting for a ruling on the Douglas County Choice Scholarship injunction request? Another day, and it isn’t getting any better. We have been promised Judge Martinez will issue a ruling this week, so at the most I should only have another day or so to hold out. But you know what? Colorado isn’t the only place where people are currently waiting for a judicial decision on a “Choice Scholarship Program.” This news comes today from the Northwest Indiana Times: A Marion County judge is set to rule next week on whether Indiana’s new school voucher program passes constitutional muster.

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Waiting for Dougco Ruling: Read Horn, Piper Articles, and Pace to Hornpipe…

Here it is Wednesday afternoon, and I can’t stop pacing the floor — well, in between playing with my Legos, that is. Pacing, playing Legos. Pacing. Playing Legos. — Pacing — Playing Legos — Blogging!!!…. Why? you may ask. Because I’m impatiently waiting for a decision from Judge Martinez about the lawsuit trying to shut down the Douglas County Choice Scholarship Program. Well, I did interrupt my pacing and playing Legos long enough to catch a great Your Hub article by Douglas County’s own Karin Piper: More than 500 kids may lose in Dougco Scholarship lawsuit. You should check it out, too. If after reading Piper’s article you need to get your mind off the whole lawsuit and local voucher situation, may I recommend a piece by Innosight Institute’s Michael Horn about why digital learning will liberate teachers:

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Digging Up School Spending Figures in Colorado's Ongoing Lobato Hearings

Welcome to Week 2 of 5 in Colorado’s ongoing school finance adequacy lawsuit, familiarly known as Lobato v State, or just the Lobato case. A report this morning from Ed News Colorado’s Todd Engdahl highlighted some of Monday’s key plaintiff testimony: One of the main plaintiffs’ witnesses in the Lobato v. State school funding lawsuit testified Monday that his study projects Colorado needs to spent $10.3 billion a year on K-12 schools, an increase of $3.6 billion. Justin Silverstein is vice president of Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, a Denver-based research and consulting firm that produced a 96-page study projecting the funding Colorado school districts would need to support the demands of state requirements such as new content standards, tests and teacher evaluation systems. The firm was paid $115,000 by the plaintiffs for the study. [link added] I think I just overheard one of my Education Policy Center friends ask where they could get $115,000 to conduct a study and write a report. But I digress. Anyway, the lead sentence of that story caused me to do a little back-of-the-envelope math. $10.3 billion minus $3.6 billion = $6.7 billion. Diving deep into the murky waters of school funding statistics — where […]

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So the Public Wants Smaller Class Size, More Funding AND No Tax Hikes? Hmm…

Late last week I chimed in on the results of the 2011 Education Next–PEPG Survey of Public Opinion on school reform issues, noting the significant uptick in support for private school vouchers. Super edublogger Joanne Jacobs drew out another finding, namely that the views of teachers and the general public on key reform issues seem to be diverging rather than coming together. But I think that perhaps the most insightful observation on the results came from Mike Petrilli at the Education Gadfly, who wrote about “the school–and the deficits–we deserve”: …particularly timely, in this era of fiscal austerity, are new insights about the public’s views on school budgets. And guess what: On education, like everything else, Americans don’t want to make tough choices. They want to keep taxes low while boosting school spending. Sound familiar? Petrilli notes that 65 percent of survey respondents don’t want to increase taxes to pay for education. That’s nationwide. The number should be at least as high in Colorado — which is bad news for the Rollie Heath education tax hike headed to our November ballot.

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Connecticut Union Anti-"Parent Trigger" Strategy Raises Colorado Questions

Earlier this year the Colorado legislature considered a bill by state representative Don Beezley that would have empowered parents of students in low-performing schools with new options to turn around those schools. Unfortunately, the “parent trigger” bill was shot down by the House Education Committee. Now, anyone in the know could tell you that the “parent trigger” is hardly an idea unique or original to Colorado. A major version of the idea has taken off in California, and a number of other states have weighed similar proposals. Like Connecticut — where Dropout Nation’s RiShawn Biddle this week exposed an internal American Federation of Teachers (AFT) document giving a transparent look at the union’s anti-parent power strategy and tactics. Biddle later posted a follow-up after the union’s initial reply, noting:

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Education Next Survey Shows Support for Vouchers Rising, Other Reforms Flat

Little Eddie is busy today, so all I’m going to do for today is point you to the results of the 2011 Education Next–PEPG Survey of Public Opinion on school reform issues. The big takeaway? Our findings reveal more stability than change in public opinion over the five years since the Education Next–PEPG survey began, suggesting that the momentous policy develop­ments of the past year were not caused by—nor have they yet produced—broad changes in popular views. The one exception to that generalization is a significant turnaround in support for school vouchers, which until this year had been in decline. To be perfectly frank, the results are a mixed bag for reformers and transformers. Support for charter schools, merit pay, tenure reform and tax credits are all about the same as measured in 2010. And support for online learning actually took a small step back. But the news on vouchers (and given the timing of this week’s court hearing on the Douglas County Choice Scholarship program) is really quite remarkable. When framed as an issue of parental choice, the percentage of respondents favoring vouchers was 47 percent — up from 39 percent last year. When framed as an issue of […]

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Digital Learning Grows, Local Union Sent Packing: School Reform News Utah Two-fer

What is it about our neighbors to the west? A couple months ago I brought your attention to Utah’s new law providing accountability to the use of teachers union release time. But there’s more going on in the Beehive State that has captured our attention here. Within the past month my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow wrote not one but two articles for School Reform News on two other Utah issues. Both are worthy of attention and may be instructive here in Colorado. First and foremost is an article titled “Utah passes first ‘high-quality’ digital learning law; districts seek guidance”:

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Another Colorado "Edu-Trial" Opens Today: Defending Dougco Choice from Injunction

Update, 8/3: Further highlighting how the attempt to enjoin the Douglas County voucher program would disrupt families’ lives, Denver 7 News has a great story — including an interview with Diana Oakley, who was featured in the recent Independence Institute video on Douglas County vouchers. In fact, if you watch the video of the 7 News report, you might even see a little unattributed footage from that video…. Yesterday I pointed out that hearings for the Lobato school funding lawsuit were officially underway. And yesterday, the team at AM 850 KOA’s Colorado Morning News released the first of their two-part dive into Douglas County’s voucher debate. Why? Because Colorado’s second big “edu-trial” of the week starts today, with a Denver District Court judge set to consider a motion for a preliminary injunction against the Douglas County voucher program. I’m still wondering what took so long to try and disrupt families’ lives with the threat of an injunction if it was so urgent for the ACLU & Company. Being young and all, nor do I get why so many groups and people want to take educational choices and opportunities away from kids and families. I’d like to think they have a […]

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Lobato Case Round 2 Starts Today: Of Adequacy, Taxes, Graphs and Rational Bases

Update: In today’s post on Lobato, the Colorado Education Association blogging team writes: “In 2008-09, before the current recession began, Colorado spent $1,809 less per pupil than the national average of all states.” However, the National Education Association’s latest data (see page 55, table H-11) show Colorado spent $9,574 per student in 2008-09, only $616 below the national average. Someone in Denver needs to contact the D.C. mother ship. August is here, can you believe it? For a few students, it means school is starting. But the big news is the first of two major education-related court case hearings gets underway today. Reporter Carol McGraw lays the groundwork of the six-year-old Lobato v State school funding lawsuit with a substantial article in the Sunday edition of the Colorado Springs Gazette: “Where would the $3 billion come from?” asks Ben DeGrow, senior education policy analyst for Boulder-based [sic] Independence Institute. He said the court has no business ordering the legislature what to do. “What makes a judge in a courtroom more qualified? This is throwing the state Constitution out the window.“ Under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, state and local governments cannot raise tax rates without voter approval and cannot spend […]

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