Monthly Archives: March 2013

Every once in awhile you see a piece of K-12 education legislation appear, and you just scratch your head. (Okay, really, it’s more often than every once in awhile.) Colorado’s latest example is the short and sour House Bill 1257, which I think should be called the Stifling Innovation Act of 2013. HB 1257 as introduced says that any school district working to craft an employee evaluation system must work in collaboration with a local teachers union if:

Yesterday, some attorneys got up and argued an important case affecting K-12 education before the Colorado Supreme Court. The hearing was about an appeal of the Denver district court’s Lobato decision, previously referred to by the Denver Post as the “Super Bowl of school funding litigation.” Judge Sheila Rappaport granted judgment for the plaintiffs, contending that an additional $2 billion-plus a year would be needed to fund the K-12 system. Where the money is supposed to come from, who knows? Before the state’s highest court, the lawyer for the State of Colorado questioned one of Rappaport’s key findings: [Jonathan] Fero, an assistant attorney general, repeatedly argued that having a thorough and uniform educational system doesn’t mean creating a system where every child is equally successful.

You can’t judge a book by its cover. There are many expressions like this one out there that convey a basic piece of wisdom. A beautiful building you may have driven by many times could be a filthy mess inside. How do you know? If it’s somebody’s house or private property, they would have to invite you inside for you to properly find out for yourself. But if that building is a place where tax dollars are paying officials to negotiate how tax dollars are spent and policies are made for our public schools, then there’s no reason for the doors to be locked. Citizens should be able to peer inside and know what’s going on. The Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE) — one of Colorado teachers’ professional membership options — today highlighted some interesting results from their latest member survey, showing that most of their members like the idea: The Professional Association of Colorado Educators recently asked member educators their views on a variety of relevant policies related to education in Colorado. One of these issues related to whether or not negotiations between school boards and union officials should be open to the public. An overwhelming 81% of […]

A few years ago, a great movie called The Blind Side was released, portraying the real-life story of a poor, homeless young man who thrived on the football field under the care of an adopted family. Michael Oher went on to be a college All-American and last month a Super Bowl champion offensive tackle as a member of the Baltimore Ravens. It was good news not from Baltimore, but from the home of the college football national champions, that truly blindsided many observers last week. Seemingly out of nowhere, Alabama legislators overwhelmingly passed a bill that included the adoption of tax credits for donating to scholarships that free kids from failing schools: “I truly believe this is historic education reform and it will benefit students and families across Alabama regardless of their income and regardless of where they live,” said Governor [Robert] Bentley said in a press conference Thursday night. “I’m so proud we have done this for the children of this state and especially the children who are in failing school systems and had no way out. Now, they have a way out.”

Recently, I raised the issue of how PERA reform could fit into the ongoing school finance reform debates. It certainly lessens the sense of a “grand bargain” — tying reforms to a billion-dollar tax increase — when such big issues are left off the table. But then I came across the information in a Friedman Foundation sequel study, Part II of The School Staffing Surge. Then, as now, we can do better than having Colorado’s K-12 education system as a jobs program, correct? As this Washington Times story by Ben Wolfgang (cool name, huh?) details: