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Denver Teachers Sated

Any last outside chances that there would be a teachers strike in Denver this year all but evaporated yesterday as 1,767 members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) voted to accept the bargained contract and only 617 voted against. Roughly 600 DCTA members did not vote. Of the district's 4,200 teachers, about 3,000 belong to DCTA. Teachers get back a lost step on the salary schedule, a pay increase, more planning time, and more say in areas of professional development and instruction. Meanwhile, the district and union have planned to phase out the salary schedule with the new ProComp performance-based pay plan, the funding of which has to be approved by voters in November. The brewing tensions within the district … [Read more...]

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The Ugliness Has Just Begun

With a little over seven months until voters cast ballots on the soon-to-be-approved budget deal between Governor Owens and Democrat legislators, the campaign within the Capitol has already begun. And it sure looks ugly: between an anonymous flier and a state-sanctioned e-mail message, neither side comes out looking clean. … [Read more...]

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Interview Under the Belt

Thanks to all those who listened to my first live on-air radio interview - and thanks once more to Senator John Andrews and the crew of Backbone Radio for having me on the air and spending more time discussing my blog than I had anticipated. But I appreciate that! Welcome to all those who are making their first visit here as a result of the on-air mention. Be sure also to visit the main page of the Rocky Mountain Alliance and follow the links to read the quality writings of my fine cohorts. To find out more about the work of the Independence Institute's Education Policy Center, including the paper mentioned on Backbone Radio, go here. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or comments about either my blog here, or about … [Read more...]

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Supreme Court High Stakes: A First Look

Jan Crawford Greenburg of the Chicago Tribune raises the specter today that political expediency might steer the Bush White House away from nominating an avowedly outspoken anti-Roe candidate for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court Nomination Blog speculates on the significance of reported statements that the President's people have dropped strong conservative Judge Edith Jones from the list. I don't think there's too much to read into this solitary report - unless you are starved for news on the subject amid the raging silence of recent days. First, Jones wasn't very high on many experts' A-lists as a potential replacement (even though Main Street USA reveled in her potential role as "the nuclear nominee"). Michael Luttig, Sam Alito, … [Read more...]

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Reflections on Terri and Beyond

My essay, "Reflections on the Suffering and Death of Terri Schiavo," has been posted at Sharper Iron. The essay is personal, philosophical, spiritual, contemplative, and I hope you get a chance to read it. Thanks, Jason, for the opportunity to post it to your site. But even now in Terri's passing, our eyes are being focused on larger moral, cultural, and political debates to come. Read Bill Sammon's piece in today's Washington Times on the powerful resurgence of the pro-life movement in its crusade to reform the judiciary. The secular liberal political and media establishments looked at this case through radically different eyes than many religiously-motivated and spiritually-attuned fundamentalists, evangelicals, Catholics, and Jews … [Read more...]

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The Year of the Tigers-Indians Duel?

Memo to Hugh and other Cleveland Indians fans: it looks like my Detroit Tigers are calling out your team for a little mano e mano: "Forget the other teams," [Tigers designated hitter Dmitri] Young said to the strains of "Cripple Creek," "it's going to come down to us and Cleveland. No disrespect to the Twins and White Sox, I just feel that club, the doggone Indians, is going to be the thorn in our side. "That's our rival," he said. "There are a lot of parallels between us. We've progressed the same." I'm not sure I'm ready yet to subscribe to Dmitri's assessment: the conventional wisdom has me leaning towards believing that the Minnesota Twins are the team to beat in the American League Central. But the long baseball season has … [Read more...]

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Welcome to the “Tunnel of Oppression”

Make sure your seat belt is securely fastened and get ready for a ride through the "Tunnel of Oppression," the latest multi-sensory, feel-not-so-good liberal method to promote an agenda - and 100% free of reason, logic, or coherent argument. But what else did you expect? Gina Garcia, one of the tunnel coordinators, said the shock value is part of the intent of the display. "If you just provide a lot of factual stuff, you're only connecting with people cognitively. This is supposed to be very much of the effect, we're supposed to be getting to people's emotions," she said. A conservative could try to start a conversation about many of the topics graphically depicted in the Tunnel and automatically receive a negative label. But be … [Read more...]

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You Have to Watch What You Say

When you're a United States Congressman, you have to take special care what sort of public pronouncements you make, as they are taken to have much greater weight and significance than utterances from your average "shock jock." Not best known for his great tact, Colorado's own Congressman Tom Tancredo crossed a line while recently on a radio talk show. As one prominent "shock jock" has written eloquently in response: Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo's speculation about using nukes on Mecca following an act of nuclear terrorism in the United States is the most irresponsible statement any American official can make. It will be on al-Jazeera within the hour, and it will be used by jihadists against us. Such speculations send the message … [Read more...]