Category Archives: Independence Institute

Thanks to Mike Antonucci’s Intercepts blog, I learned that today is “National Blogging for Real Education Reform Day.” The American Association of School Administrators and ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) are hosting this “grassroots effort to bring together Pk-12 and higher education educators.” I like to help educate people and am definitely grassroots, but I probably don’t fit the bill of whom they’re looking for to blog on the topic. Nevertheless, here’s a post for real education reform on November 22, 2010, and it has to do with educators. Specifically the way they are paid. I’m talking about all the money we pay teachers and other educators just because they have a master’s degree. As noted in a Saturday Associated Press story (H/T This Week in Education), we spend about $8.6 billion nationally each year on these “master’s bumps” — which have no connection to improved student learning. In Colorado, thanks to the research of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, we know the amount is nearly $140 million annually (that figure is from year-old data). My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow pointed this out in July 2009 testimony he gave before the state’s Fiscal […]

This is not the week for your average, run-of-the-mill, humdrum school board meeting. Not in Colorado, not in the Denver metro area. I already highlighted the heavy attendance at Douglas County’s Tuesday public testimony on their School Choice Task Force proposals and all the attention generated from it. Then there was last night in the Denver Public Schools, as a divided Board of Education was set to weigh a controversial turnaround reform proposal affecting the Far Northeast (FNE) part of the city. According to Jeremy Meyer in the Denver Post, the Board stayed up well past my bedtime to approve the proposal on a 4-3 vote. The newly-approved proposal includes a lot of features — which are well broken down in Nancy Mitchell’s Ed News Colorado story. One piece is an expansion of the successful Denver School of Science and Technology program using shared space in the Cole Arts and Science Academy innovation school. My Education Policy Center friends alerted you to this possible development back in March on an iVoices podcast with Cole principal Julie Murgel. In its story, Ed News Colorado also published a 4-minute highlight video from the Denver school board meeting, a more balanced presentation than […]

So last night the Douglas County Board of Education hosted an hour of public comment on proposals made by the community’s School Choice Task Force. Of course, the testimony overwhelmingly was about the “Option Certificates,” or voucher, proposal. The Denver Post‘s Jeremy Meyer reports that public comments “were evenly split for and against the plan.” Ed News Colorado’s Nancy Mitchell says the comments were about 60/40 against the private school choice proposal, though their embedded five-minute video dedicates 80 percent of airtime to opponents. In addition to the Ed News video, you should watch the local 9News report, including a great comment from Douglas County resident and task force member Charcie Russell: “It’s not about private versus public, it’s really about more choice, and I see that great for kids, great for parents, and great for the district,” Russell said. It’s not surprising to see passion on both sides. The opposition, though, should consider the merits of their arguments. Drawing from resources at the Foundation for Educational Choice and the Institute for Justice, my Education Policy Center friends have compiled the following document to address concerns about effects on public school performance, fiscal impact and constitutionality:

In all the excitement over what’s going on in Douglas County, I nearly overlooked something else in the Denver Post that deserves our attention. An article last week about the state’s new education accountability system included this little gem: State officials have called the new School Performance Framework a national model. “It is intended to build a communal understanding of the performance of schools and to build a planning process on how to improve schools,” said Colorado Associate Commissioner Richard Wenning. The School Performance Framework’s big reveal isn’t supposed to be for another month, when state officials are planning an event that will include the governor, unveil a new online tool for parents and provide every school a detailed scorecard. A new information tool for parents? If it makes SchoolView.org more helpful and parent-friendly, then three cheers and a big hurrah! Perhaps it will turn out to be something else to complement the incredibly valuable information we provide on our School Choice for Kids website.

It’s the day after a late night election. There are some yawns and droopy eyes around here. But I did want to share you with some initial reactions. Let’s start in Colorado. First, we learned that Republicans won the state house and closed the gap on the Democrats’ state senate majority. Democrats hold on to the governor’s office, with John Hickenlooper taking the place of Bill Ritter. Alan Gottlieb opines in this morning’s Ed News Colorado commentary that a Hickenlooper administration will be “more in tune with the Obama administration and Democrats for Education Reform than with traditional Democract [sic] influencers, including teachers’ unions.” I sure hope he’s right.

Keep saying it to yourself: The election is almost over. Last week I told you about the low-profile contests for Colorado State Board of Education and the Denver Post endorsements in those races. My takeaway: Wouldn’t it be cool to have more education transformers on the Board? If you have State Board members on your ballot and you’re not sure how to vote, or you just want to be a more informed citizen, I commend to you the profiles posted today at Education News Colorado. Candidates in the 2nd, 5th and 6th District — the three seats up for grabs in 2010 — responded to questions about school funding, selecting a new commissioner, common core standards, testing and Race to the Top. Check it out. So all you big people out there, arm yourselves with the information you need. While you’re filling out your ballots for those big races and issues, don’t forget to get educated on the people who want to represent you in overseeing our state’s K-12 public education. One other resource: an iVoices podcast you can listen to with current State Board chair Bob Schaffer explaining what it is the Board does and how it works. You […]

How many days left ’till we all can stop talking about these political campaigns? Every time one of those ads comes on the TV or radio, I swear my mom is going to go berserk. My dad? Well, even worse. That’s why it’s so disturbing to learn that nearly $2 million worth of Colorado’s latest negative political ads have been paid for by the National Education Association using automatically-collected teacher dues money: The National Education Association (NEA) has reported spending nearly $1.9 million in independent expenditures to purchase ads to attack U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck. The money is drawn from general dues funds collected from education employee members in Colorado and nationwide. The NEA’s new $547,000 radio ad purchase follows a $1.35 million anti-Buck television campaign rated by the Denver Post as “leans deceptive.” “Many teachers don’t like their money used this way,” said Independence Institute education policy analyst Ben DeGrow. “Besides leaving the union, there really isn’t anything they can do about it.”

My friends at the Independence Institute yesterday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission after a local teachers union small donor committee reported giving $2,000 to Congresswoman Betsy Markey’s campaign. As the Longmont Times-Call reports: The teachers’ union committee is not registered with the Federal Election Committee, so it is prohibited from contributing more than $1,000 to candidates for federal offices. “It was an oversight; it’s been corrected,” said Trip Merklein, president of the SVVEA [St. Vrain Valley Education Association]. One of my Education Policy Center friends chimed in about the complaint:

‘Tis the political campaign season, fa la la la la…. Yesterday the Denver Post published its endorsements of Colorado State Board of Education candidates. This year 3 of the 7 seats are up for election — two open after Board members are retiring and one held by an appointed Board member who stepped in to fill out a term. So what does the Post think?: The Colorado State Board of Education will face many important issues in the coming years, not the least of which is choosing a new education commissioner. The balance of the seven-member board is crucial, and we hope voters will choose to elect reformers who will continue the good work that has put Colorado at the forefront of education reform. One critical issue is the approval of the nuts and bolts of a new teacher evaluation system that will link teacher tenure to student achievement. Now, look. Little Eddie doesn’t touch candidate endorsements with a 10-foot pole. All you big people out there have to decide who you want to serve on the State Board of Education. But maybe you’re wondering what it is the Board actually does. That I can help with. We’ve got an […]

In his role as writer and contributing editor for School Reform News, my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow recently came out with two articles on charter school developments in other states. First up is a research-based boost for nontraditional public school excellence in one of the Heartland’s cities: Researchers at Vanderbilt University’s National Center on School Choice followed students in Indianapolis who switched from traditional public schools to charter schools. The study found the group, which included students from 2nd through 10th grade, made substantial strides in math achievement and smaller gains in reading. African-Americans made statistically significant gains in math, and Hispanics demonstrated significant growth in reading. “Indianapolis was a district in high need of innovative schools,” said Anna Nicotera, coauthor of the study and director of research and evaluation at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS). “These schools appear to have filled that niche.”