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...]

I've written here before about Governor Ritter's proposal to raise taxes for new education programs. But a more thorough and carefully-constructed opinion can be found at the new Independence Institute op-ed I penned: "Ritter's Tax 'Freeze' Plan is Melting: New Education Spending Proposal Needs Voter Approval." Please check it out. … [Read more...]

Senator Nancy Spence (R-Centennial) deserves Colorado's Charter School Champion Award. A few weeks ago she led the charge to flip a highly regulatory, anti-charter school bill upside down. Today, she got the School Finance Act amended to prevent charter school students from being shortchanged. Spence's nemesis in both cases has been Senator Sue Windels (D-Arvada). After winning Round Two, the state senate's Charter School Champion expressed her frustration: “Frankly, I’m getting sick and tired of these repeated attempts, bill after bill, year after year, to undermine charters,” Spence said. “Parents want them because their kids obviously aren't being served by traditional schools. After trying for years to reason with lawmakers … [Read more...]

How do you sell a tax increase as something other than a tax increase? These days Colorado Democrats are even having a hard time with it. Last week Governor Bill Ritter announced the unveiling of the cleverly-named "Colorado Children's Amendment," which somehow would do two things simultaneously: 1) Freeze scheduled property tax rate reductions, raising next year's tax bill for homeowners and business owners in many of the state's school districts - ostensibly to save the State Education Fund (created by Amendment 23 to finance only certain K-12 expenses). Of course, this is not an entirely new idea - one that has been shot down before because it violates TABOR by changing tax policy without a vote of the people, but it has been … [Read more...]

Our Democrat Governor Bill Ritter announced today to Colorado homeowners: "No tax cut for you!" The Governor's plan is to freeze a scheduled cut in property tax rates so he can increase funding for K-12 education - already the richest, healthiest part of the state budget. The proposed funding increase (part of Senate Bill 199, this year's School Finance legislation) is primarily designed to create more full-day kindergarten and preschool slots. According to the reliable source of Colorado Senate News, Republican Senator Josh Penry correctly identified the move as a "tax increase," while Assistant Senate Minority Leader Nancy Spence rightly questioned the "one-size-fits-all approach" that trumps the Democrats' conveniently played "local … [Read more...]