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	<title>Ed is Watching</title>
	<link>http://www.ediswatching.org</link>
	<description>Keeping an eye on Colorado laws, policies, and other developments that affect parents’ educational choices</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:30:04 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Bill Ritter&#8217;s Quality Teaching Blue Ribbon Commission Cause for Concern</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ed News Colorado has a story about yesterday&#8217;s first meeting of Governor Bill Ritter&#8217;s Council for Educator Effectiveness:

Thursday’s session, held at the Lowry headquarters of the state Community College System, was the usual first-meeting mix of introductions, setting expectations and deciding on a future meeting schedule.
The introductions gave some hints of how individual members are [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/bill-ritters-quality-teaching-blue-ribbon-commission-cause-for-concern/</link>
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		<title>Big Cost to Fixing Up Colorado Schools? Time to Think Outside the Box</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Ed News Colorado reports from yesterday&#8217;s State Board meeting about the state of school buildings:

Colorado schools have $17.8 billion in maintenance and renovation needs over the next eight years, according to a statewide schools facilities study released Wednesday.
The study, required as part of the 2008 Building Excellent Schools Today law, was the first-ever comprehensive structural [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/big-cost-to-fixing-up-colorado-schools-time-to-think-outside-the-box/</link>
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		<title>Another Good Site with School Choice Information for Colorado Parents</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m pretty partial (OK, I&#8217;m very partial) to the School Choice for Kids website (or Opcion Escolar Para Ninos, en espanol) as an invaluable source of information for parents in Colorado who want to exercise their educational options. But it&#8217;s not the only source out there.
Denver&#8217;s Piton Foundation and 9 News have teamed up to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/another-good-site-with-school-choice-information-for-colorado-parents/</link>
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		<title>Enhanced Teacher Training Short-Term Answer, Online Technology is Future</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Are great teachers just born that way, or is there a proven method to train many instructors to become much more effective? 
In one of the most fascinating (and longest) education articles out there, Elizabeth Green wrote in the New York Times Sunday magazine about &#8220;Building a Better Teacher.&#8221; The experts she talked to suggest [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/enhanced-teacher-training-short-term-answer-online-technology-is-future/</link>
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		<title>It&#8217;s Past Time for Colorado to Seriously Consider Private School Tax Credits</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Denver Post&#8217;s website yesterday published an opinion column by Alliance for Choice in Education executive director Norton Rainey, decrying the &#8220;unsurprising&#8221; but disappointing defeat of House Bill 1296:

HB 1296 would have provided low-income families with an annual $1,000 tax credit for enrolling their child in a private school. The bill would also have provided [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/its-past-time-for-colorado-to-seriously-consider-private-school-tax-credits/</link>
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		<title>R.I.P., Senator Al Meiklejohn</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I pause from my regularly scheduled juvenile opining to acknowledge the passing of someone who gave many years of service to the state of Colorado &#8212; including many on behalf of public education. He and I wouldn&#8217;t have agreed on every issue, but there&#8217;s no doubt he was independent in thought, well-informed in his views, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/r-i-p-senator-al-meiklejohn/</link>
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		<title>&#8220;Sweet 16&#8243; Too Many Finalists, Race to the Top Winners Get &#8220;One Shining Moment&#8221;?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s March &#8212; which means, if you like basketball as much as I do, there&#8217;s a really big tournament coming up. And after a team wins two games in that tourney, then they become part of the cleverly named &#8220;Sweet Sixteen.&#8221; But what about states that filled out applications for competitive federal K-12 grant money? [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/sweet-16-too-many-finalists-race-to-the-top-winners-get-one-shining-moment/</link>
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		<title>Still for School Spending Transparency, Denver Post&#8217;s Tune Changes a Bit</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Denver Post followed up its Sunday story on local school district expenditures with an editorial today that says &#8220;Shine the light on school spending&#8221;:

A bill now advancing in the General Assembly would require school districts to make budget information available online, including discretionary spending. House Bill 1036 argues that districts ought to take advantage [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/still-for-school-spending-transparency-denver-posts-tune-changes-a-bit/</link>
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		<title>Even If Lobato Lawsuit is &#8220;For the Kids&#8221; Doesn&#8217;t Make Taxpayer Funding Good Idea</title>
		<description><![CDATA[If you can dig way back into your memory banks, four months ago the Colorado Supreme Court decided it had a say in determining the state&#8217;s school funding policy &#8212; giving new life to the Lobato v State lawsuit. Recently, two of the plaintiff lobbying groups have been urging local school boards to agree to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/even-if-lobato-lawsuit-is-for-the-kids-doesnt-make-taxpayer-funding-good-idea/</link>
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		<title>&#8220;If You Can&#8217;t Defend It, Don&#8217;t Spend It&#8221;: Denver Post&#8217;s Look at School Finances</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In recent weeks I&#8217;ve told you about the recent successes Colorado has seen in the area of school financial transparency &#8212; namely, the detailed online financial databases created by two of the state&#8217;s three largest districts (Jeffco and Douglas County).
Yesterday the Denver Post&#8217;s Jeremy Meyer and Burt Hubbard reported some of what can be learned [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.ediswatching.org/2010/03/if-you-cant-defend-it-dont-spend-it-denver-posts-look-at-school-finances/</link>
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