Are the Democrats at the State Capitol trying to govern themselves out of the majority? They sure are making it easier for the GOP - with a string of shenanigans and assorted bad ideas just from the past several days: From slamming the door on school spending transparency To ignoring critical scholarly arguments in order to push through a nakedly partisan ploy to weaken Colorado's political influence and undermine the Electoral College To cravenly moving a vote while a Republican lawmaker was out of town (aiding a relative with Alzheimer's) - all to pass a constitutionally dubious bill that grants in-state tuition to illegal aliens To talking out loud about exploiting a partisan, anti-taxpayer state supreme court ruling to repeal some … [Read more...]
House Education Committee Democrats Killed Spending Transparency… Fast
One of my favorite aphorisms about Colorado politics is that the House Education Committee is where good education reform goes to die. Case in point is Senate Bill 57, the school spending transparency legislation that committee Democrats shot down after hearing more than 30 citizens and activists who volunteered to come down and testify for the bill. Thanks to a Face The State mini-investigation, we learn today it was even worse than that:Also known as Senate Bill 57, the bill was postponed indefinitely after four hours of committee debate that lasted late into the evening. [Democrat] Speaker Terrance Carroll and [Republican] House Minority Leader Mike May arrived to work the next morning ready to revive it. But they were too … [Read more...]
Colorado Government Transparency Facing a Crucial Crossroads
Everybody's talking about "transparency" as the buzzword at the Colorado state legislature this year: even the Sterling Journal-Advocate has taken notice. I've spent plenty of time talking about what happened to Senate Bill 57 and school district transparency. But there's also the promise of greater transparency in House Bill 1288's proposal for a state government spending database, and the threat to transparency in House Bill 1293's sick person tax. My Independence Institute colleague Amy Oliver joined me to discuss these different proposals at the State Capitol on a 9-minute iVoices podcast: The last month of the current legislative session will be a crucial time to see whether Colorado - with the Democrats in charge - will … [Read more...]
Senate Bill 57 School Transparency Defeated But Not Forgotten
It's been a full week since the establishment education lobby and Democrats on the House Education Committee teamed up to kill the spending transparency in Colorado's Senate Bill 57. Amazingly, this little bill that (almost) could in our Colorado state legislature is still making national waves. From an essay written by Paul Miller and published today by American Thinker:This past week in Colorado, Senate Bill 57, also called the Public School Financial Transparency Act, which simply require public school districts to put their spending online, died in committee. How could any responsible public official forbid parents from seeing how their tax-dollars are spent educating their children? The answer to that question is simple: … [Read more...]
Follow Me: You Can Help in Thursday’s Fight for Transparent School Spending
Tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon is the moment of truth at the Colorado state legislature for Senate Bill 57, a measure that would require school districts to open up their financial books online so citizens can search them. It goes before the House Education Committee. Here are things you can do: Starting at sometime shortly after 1:30 PM local Mountain time, listen to the hearing online (House Committee Room 0112) Follow me on Twitter during the proceedings, or join the Tweeting yourself Show up at HCR 0112 and testify yourself, or just pack the room and provide moral support - nothing like an extra concerned citizen or two to remind lawmakers whom they serve Call or email members of the House Education Committee to make your voice … [Read more...]
The Education Empire (Quietly) Strikes Back at SB 57 School Transparency
Senate Bill 57, the school financial transparency bill, has defied anyone's expectation and made it through one-half of the legislature. From the senate, it's now on to the house. Apparently, but not too surprisingly, the lobbyists for the education establishment are looking for a way to kill the bill without looking like they oppose transparency. The COST blog exposes the details. School districts can use low-cost technology to place expenditures and revenues online in a searchable format; that excuse has been worn thin. So I guess it's time to resort to other ineffective arguments, along with procedural tactics and other technicalities. What about the people's lobby? Will they turn out again to speak out for their right to see … [Read more...]
Principal of Jay Bennish’s Overland High School Secures National Post
An interesting tidbit from Cherry Creek Schools:Jana Frieler, principal of Overland High School in the Cherry Creek School District since 2005, was voted president-elect of the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) at the organization’s national conference in San Diego February 27, 2009. Frieler will lead the 30,000- member organization in 2010-2011. Frieler has been active in principal leadership through national-level committee work and service on the NASSP Board of Directors. Congrats to Jana Frieler on her new position. What's the big deal with this announcement, you say? You may remember Frieler as the principal who during her first year was thrown into the fire of national controversy over teacher Jay … [Read more...]
“Union in Practice” vs. “Union in Theory” Highlights Card Check Danger
Update: Face The State has more, including Colorado WINS' rude treatment of state representative Amy Stephens. As teased last night to our handful of Blog Talk Radio listeners... If I try to come up with something witty, you can leave it to Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency to come up with something even wittier. A few days ago I brought your attention to the most recent exploits of Dave Ohmart and his Colorado Loses, a vocal minority of state employees opposed to Governor Bill Ritter's gold-plated invitation to unionize their workplaces. Apparently, Dave wasn't greeted so kindly by union organizer Ryan when he decided to tag along for last week's Colorado WINS union event at the State Capitol featuring Ritter as … [Read more...]
Boulder Valley School Board Considers Costly Appeal in Anti-Charter Lawsuit
After spending nearly $200,000 in taxpayer funds to sue the state to stop students from attending state-authorized charter schools, and being ruled against twice, the Boulder Valley School Board meets tonight to decide whether to appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court and spend even more. Aren't there any more effective ways they could be using this money to ... (I don't know) ... educate children? Read more at the Independence Institute's new GoBash website. … [Read more...]
RMA Blog Talk Radio Tonight at 8:30: Filmmaker Evan-Coyne Maloney, Nadeem Esmail on Health Care
Gloomy about the Obama administration's intervention halting economic recovery and pushing the markets down so we can party like it's 1997? Then I have just the cure. Tune in starting at 8:30 PM local Mountain Time this evening for the 15th edition of Rocky Mountain Alliance Blog Talk Radio, with two very interesting guests. First is Evan Coyne-Maloney, creator of the film Indoctrinate U, which exposes and challenges political correctness run amok on our nation's college campuses. His on-air discuss with the RMA crew comes two days before the movie's showing at Liberty on Film Thursday evening in Denver's LoDo. With proposals to further socialize health care looming at the State Capitol, the second guest is the Fraser Institute's … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- …
- 49
- Next Page »