Are you a student at a charter school or the parent of one? Or maybe just stuck on one of the long waiting lists to get in? In the past week we've learned that the now-ex-chairman of Colorado's House Education Committee Mike Merrifield (D-Manitou Springs) thinks you're worthy of eternal damnation - Mike Littwin thinks it's a big joke: This wasn't a Deanna Hanna or a Joe Stengel scandal. This was Mike Merrifield writing that backers of vouchers and charter schools deserved a "special place in hell." That's it. It was written on private e-mail, but, apparently, not private enough. Windels' e-mails went the way of a public records request from a new conservative Web site - facethestate.com - and, when it went public, Merrifield had to … [Read more...]

Colorado Democrats continue to show their true colors. They voted to create a fund to accept donations for after-school math and science tutoring programs but shot down an attempt to give even a token amount of state funds as seed money. Senator Mike Kopp (R-Littleton) proposed contributing $250,000 from the State Education Fund for the program, which has a proven track record of success: “This amendment would augment strength within the program by moving money to fund the proposal,” said Kopp when proposing his amendment. “I think $250,000 is a reasonable amount to help these kids achieve their goals. (The program) has a 100-percent graduation rate, and some of these kids are doing types of mathemathics I haven't even heard of … [Read more...]

Ideally speaking it is the hard job of a legislator to prioritize the distribution of scarce resources to programs based on their deserving and effectiveness. Representative Cheri Jahn (D - Wheat Ridge) is laudably pushing to ensure that foster children receive their share of state social services funding. But the Democrat majority in Denver could do significantly more to provide these children greater stability and an opportunity for success: provide publicly-funded scholarships allowing foster kids the ability to choose a stable education program, whether the school be public or private. Foster children frequently are shuttled from home to home, and in the process transferred from school to school - often moving into educational … [Read more...]

Overlooked in a lot of the brouhaha over now-former House Education Committee chair Mike Merrifield's incendiary comments was the outright duplicity he and Senator Sue Windels (D-Arvada), fellow sponsor of Senate Bill 61, publicly shared to hide their true anti-charter school motives for the legislation. Michael at Best Destiny was one who caught the important point, which is also explained more fully in a new story from Colorado Senate News. The highlight of the CSN story is that pro-school choice legislators are redoubling their efforts to ensure that SB 61 gets amended into a pro-charter school bill: Now, [Republican Senator Nancy] Spence said she and [Democrat Senator Peter] Groff will push for that key provision – which lets the … [Read more...]

Update: Representative Merrifield delivered an apology from the floor of the House and distributed an official memo that reads: "I don't want my remarks or my health [Ed. Note: It has been reported that Merrifield is suffering from neck and throat cancer] to sidetrack the important work of the House Education Committee. Accordingly, I am asking Rep. [Judy] Solano [D-Brighton] to assume my duties as chair for the remainder of the session." According to a fresh report from the Associated Press, Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has called for House Speaker Andrew Romanoff to remove Rep. Mike Merrifield (D-Manitou Springs) from the chairmanship of the House Education Committee in the wake of the revelation of a controversial email saying that … [Read more...]

Kudos to the Rocky Mountain News editorial board for calling out Senator Sue Windels' attempt to overregulate online schools. The Rocky also highlights yesterday's sensational discovery of the email from Representative Mike "Give 'Em Hell" Merrifield. In the article, Merrifield was rebuked by a prominent member of his own party: "It shows there's absolutely no good faith on the Rep. Merrifield's part, who is clearly more concerned with defending a crippled and ineffective status-quo public education system then [sic] creating opportunities for all kids," said Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver. Finally, Governor Ritter's plan to raise property taxes received a bit of good news, as the legislature's legal team said the plan could be enacted … [Read more...]

On a party line vote today, the Senate Education Committee passed a bill sponsored by Senator Sue Windels (D-Arvada) to mandate standards on Colorado schools that teach sex education. Three committee members, all Democrats - Windels, Bob Bacon, and Ron Tupa - voted to support the House Bill 1292 mandate six weeks after voting against a mandate setting higher state graduation requirements for math and science (Senate Bill 131), and eight weeks after voting against a requirement that high school graduates have basic competency in English (Senate Bill 73). Suzanne Williams (D-Aurora) was the only committee member to cast votes for all three measures. … [Read more...]

If you want to know why a prominent Democrat state legislator thinks the proprietor of this blog and so many of my friends and allies - including those who provide an educational service in demand by thousands of Colorado families - merit "a special place in Hell," then check out what was uncovered at the new Colorado political news site Face the State. Representative Mike Merrifield is chairman of the House Education Committee and one of the Colorado Education Association's favorite lawmakers. His antagonism toward school choice - now seen to border on hatred - is well-known. No information about his theological credentials was readily available. … [Read more...]