Monthly Archives: December 2009

You’ve all heard that little girl singing about all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. Well, forget her. All I want for Christmas (and I really, really mean it … no Legos, no Nintendo games, nothing else would matter) is to be nominated for the 2009 Edublog Awards — Best Individual Blog category. Because their rules say I can’t nominate myself, I am dependent on the kindness of strangers. In shameless hopes of a little reciprocation (hey, I’m 5 years old … what maturity level do you expect?), I will take this opportunity to nominate a few of my favorites: Best Individual Blog: Colorado Charters Best Group Blog: Jay P. Greene Best New Blog: Education Next Okay, now please hurry up! You only have until next Tuesday, December 8, to nominate me (read the instructions here). I won’t ask for anything else for Christmas … I promise. Well, maybe, except for the Denver Broncos Mr. Potatohead — that would be totally awesome!

This week the Detroit News reported on one of the measured reactions Michiganders have to proposals to address that state’s budget crisis: Local public school districts have too little funding to provide a quality education, according to 60 percent of voters surveyed in an exclusive Detroit News/WXYZ (Channel 7) poll released Tuesday. Only 23 percent of respondents said the taxes and fees paid for public education are “too high”; 60 percent said they are about right, and 12 percent said “too low.” What’s missing from the story?

Thanks to the Complete Colorado site, I saw this revealing article from yesterday’s Boulder Daily Camera: Boulder Valley began taking open-enrollment requests for the 2010-2011 school year this week, but the school district’s new online application system crashed within an hour of its debut — possibly because of an overwhelming number of applicants, officials said. According to the school district website, they hope to have the system back up and running in a little while — by noon local time. I’m not so interested in the technical difficulties (though some of my Education Policy Center friends have examined the quality of school districts’ online choice information), but in the reminder that open enrollment time for many Colorado school districts is here or soon will be. And whether you’re in Boulder Valley or Jeffco, on the Western Slope or Eastern Plains, or anywhere in our great Centennial State, you need to bookmark the School Choice for Kids website for all kinds of valuable information on different schools and the process of selecting the best one for your child. And may you not encounter any crashing computer systems along the way.

Last night marked a key moment of transition for the Denver Public Schools, as the old, reform-friendly Board made its last votes and the new, not-so-reform-friendly Board was sworn in to take its place. More remarkable and bizarre, however, was how dramatically events unfolded, as reported by Ed News Colorado: As board member Michelle Moss walked up to take her seat for what was to be her last meeting in eight years representing southwest Denver, her newly elected replacement Andrea Merida told her that she would be sitting on the dais instead. Merida, rather than waiting to take the oath of office with two other new members after the meeting, had instead been sworn in hours earlier so she could cast a vote on the controversial reforms.