Special thanks to Progress Now (you can make your own, too!) for facilitating this campaign message. … [Read more...]

I just posted the following excerpted credo on education in a comment at the Dead Governors Web site. I was getting so much into it that I decided to paste my comment here: ...I beg someone to logically refute the following facts: 1. Colorado spends more per pupil in real dollars on K-12 education now than ever before. In fact, Colorado's per-pupil spending was at an all-time high right BEFORE Amendment 23 was passed... and has reached an all-time high each year thereafter. 2. Colorado spends less than 58 percent of education dollars in the classroom. (Maybe it's how we are spending the money, not how much....) 3. From 1992 to 2003, Colorado significantly improved its ranking on national test scores while its national ranking in … [Read more...]

You have to love this tidbit caught by Rocky Mountain News political columnist extraordinaire Peter Blake: You've seen the TV ad a dozen times by now. A couple of teachers are promoting the Vote Yes on C and D campaign. While a teacher identified as Elizabeth Henry is talking, the yellow caption on the ad says: "Kids takes [sic] the hit." Better vote yes. Maybe the state will collect so much extra money there will be enough left over to subsidize the return to syntax school of big-time copywriters and media producers. Fodder for ScrappleFace or some other talented Web satirist? The ad's producers could have been less subtle and said: "Vote for C and D so the state can spend more money on remedial education." Though, of … [Read more...]

Reading this story in today's Rocky Mountain News, I'm reminded that I wasn't the only one who sat and suffered all day through yesterday's School Finance Interim Committee meeting at the State Capitol. Weeks before, the Interim Committee (under the direction of State Senator Sue Windels, D - Arvada) charged a task force of school officials, school finance experts, and a variety of interest group representatives to come up with a report making recommendations for a new way to fund K-12 public education in Colorado. The Task Force has sat through the series of meetings, as have I, listening to a variety of presentations, the details of which I will not bore you with. But today's story in the Rocky reflects the problem with the … [Read more...]

Is Pete Maysmith, the man that gave us Amendment 27, interested in defending the spirit of the campaign finance laws he masterminded and supported, or will he and his group show themselves to be loyal Democrats? Now that Wayne Rutt and Paul Marrick have appealed the administrative law judge's decision in their complaint against the Poudre Education Association and Colorado Education Association, will Colorado Common Cause file an amicus brief supporting the complaint? Or will they say it's okay for Democrats and unions to coordinate on candidate campaigns but not for Republicans and outside groups? Read Peter Blake's column today in the Rocky Mountain News. Great stuff for political junkies, and for anyone interested in the rule of law … [Read more...]

The Colorado version of First Class Education's "65 percent plan", which was unveiled a few weeks ago by House Minority Leader Joe Stengel and some of his Republican colleagues, got some press along the Western Slope with an article by Danie Harrelson in today's Grand Junction Sentinel. A few points in the story need to be examined a bit more closely. First: Colorado, whose school districts on average spend 58 cents of their budget in the classroom, ranks 47th in the nation when it comes to the percentage of state funds that schools invest in instruction, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Mesa County Valley School District 51 pumps about 67 percent of its state funding into classroom instruction, District … [Read more...]

The same week as several Republican state legislators launched their "First Class Education for Colorado" ballot initiative proposal, following a national organization's lead in calling upon school districts to spend at least 65 percent of their operating budgets in the classroom, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education makes this declaration under the announcement of its proposed 2005-2006 budget: DPS Budget Facts 69.1 percent of every dollar spent is allocated to instruction and instructional and pupil support. This includes the learning support provided by counselors, librarians, nurses and others, in addition to books, supplies, computers and other classroom equipment. 23.4 percent of every dollar covers school … [Read more...]