Category Archives: Independence Institute

How often do you see a local school board proactively promoting school choice — including choices inside and outside the district, for the sake of satisfying the local education customers? Let’s be honest: It’s pretty rare. So maybe it’s time to introduce you to the Board of Education for the Douglas County School District, the third largest in Colorado. Last Thursday the DCSD board sent out a memo that included this interesting passage: We also want to address the perception that the Board of Education prefers one type of school over another. Nothing could be further from the truth. Simply put, your Board supports choice. We believe that informed parents, not Board members, are best suited to determine which schools will best serve the needs of their individual students. Under our Superintendent’s leadership, schools are making efforts to define themselves clearly. We strongly support these efforts so that parents have the best information to choose which school will meet the unique learning needs and goals of their children. This work will also provide choices for teachers to match their professional styles with the school’s learning environment. Our role will be properly limited to ensuring that all schools operate on a […]

You might be saying by now: When will this kid stop writing about the movie Waiting for Superman? To be honest, I don’t know. I’m too young and impulsive to plan that far ahead. But since today is the movie’s official opening in Colorado, what better reason to bring it up again today? Well, here’s one. My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow got the opportunity to conduct a 5-minute exclusive interview of the movie’s director Davis Guggenheim. You can listen to it online. Special thanks to the gracious staff of the Colorado Children’s Campaign for their help in making the interview possible after their special 25th anniversary luncheon event. (For another Guggenheim interview from yesterday’s event, check out Ed News Colorado’s blog, complete with video.) No, make that two reasons: My Education Policy Center friends are going to see the movie today. Do you think they invited me? No. Not even to cheer me up from the “Reformer-Michelle Rhee-Resigned-from-Her-Job-in-D.C.” Blues. So maybe if they read this, they’ll feel guilty and invite me along. At least I hope so. While my friends soon will be Done Waiting to watch Waiting for Superman, this Colorado kid can’t wait any longer to […]

Look, I’m going to admit up front that little Eddie isn’t inherently balanced, not when it comes to discussions education issues anyway. I have a point of view. It’s no secret. I try to back up my arguments with evidence as much as I can, but in the end I have some pretty strong beliefs of which I also try to persuade my readers. But then again, I’m not a public affairs television program on PBS. If I were, then maybe you could add Studio Eddie to your regular boob tube viewing routine. Instead, PBS viewers last week were treated to this hour-long Studio 12 panel discussion, inspired by the new film Waiting for Superman, about current, pressing education issues:

Interesting new story out of northern Colorado… Sherrie Peif of the Greeley Tribune reported yesterday on some turmoil in the Weld County Re-1 School District as the local school board considers changing the process of addressing teacher policies: On Friday, Jo Barbie, the district superintendent, sent an e-mail to teachers telling them that the board was considering a policy change that would affect the Valley Education Association. Barbie attached a copy of the changes to the policy that struck all wording in the current policy and added two sentences that VEA members said essentially take away their right to choose their own union representation. The story goes on to explain that just over half (52 percent) of Weld Re-1 teachers belong to the union, and that a lot of teachers may feel left out of the representation: “In the past year, the board has been contacted that the views that are being expressed aren’t always the views of everybody,” board member Steve Reams said. “We want to make it where every teacher can come in here and engage in that.”

Yesterday I brought your attention to a new report on what effective teacher evaluation systems should look like, and expressed my wish that the implementation of SB 191 ends up reflecting the six principles in schools across Colorado. It wasn’t much later that local education reformer Amy Slothower posted about some of her recent frustrating experience observing Denver Public Schools stuck in a rut on — guess what? — the teacher evaluation system. Here are some key paragraphs: I’ve been working in education reform for 10 years now, and I’ve come to accept that this business is full of frustrations and battles over divergent interests and an achingly slow pace of change. However, the A-Plus Denver committee meeting I attended this morning has me so aggravated that I am moved to do something I’ve never done before: blog about it!…

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about the federal government’s “magical money tree.” Funny how we forget so quickly about $100 billion of borrowed taxpayer funds shipped around the country to prop up the K-12 status quo. Or have we forgotten? Rich Lowry at National Review writes a column today that takes a big-picture view of stimulus education funding from the perspective of someone outside the education field. Sometimes it takes that kind of perspective to provide needed wisdom: The stimulus bill devoted $100 billion to education (about $80 billion of it for K–12). As Reason magazine notes, that’s twice the Department of Education’s annual budget. “Race to the Top” is less than 5 percent of this staggering gusher of money. It’s not “Race to the Top” that is the Obama administration’s signature education initiative, but spending that the teachers’ unions would only have dreamed of two short years ago. These funds have kept school systems from having to undertake wrenching changes, or any changes at all….

Today I don’t have a lot to say, but am hoping my school choice and market-reform supporting friends take a dive into Rick Hess’s new National Affairs piece titled “Does School Choice Work?” While Dr. Jay Greene is correct that we should be optimistic over the progress made thus far in building support for school choice, Hess offers some serious food for thought about what we’ve learned and where we can go from here. With little comment, I want to share a few provocative remarks from Rick Hess to spur your interest in reading his long but important article: Competition matters only when it pinches, and the reality is that competition in K-12 education has not yet been given a robust test. And:

Are you a parent of school-aged kids and live in Colorado? Perhaps you already have been to our enormously helpful School Choice for Kids website to learn about all the education options available near you and great tips to navigate the school district open enrollment process. (If you haven’t, why not check it out now?) But maybe you are looking for other handy resources on school-related issues. Then there’s another site to add to your list, EdNews Parent. The three areas of emphasis are Healthy Schools, Teaching and Learning, and Safe Schools — with an opportunity for parents to ask questions of 14 different experts. (Here’s hoping my mom and dad don’t log on to ask about how to deal with their 5-year-old son’s blogging addiction or Lego obsession….) Of course, I have to give the standard disclaimer about the site. I don’t necessarily endorse any or all of the advice offered there, nor should you necessarily rely wholly on that advice alone. But I did want to make known the availability of another important resource for Colorado parents, one that has some promise and potential and one you might find to be of value.

Update, 10:30 AM: And surprise of surprises, more evidence emerges that the figures of teaching jobs lost — used to promote the Edujobs bailout — was wildly overblown (H/T Education Intelligence Agency). A couple weeks ago I told you about how the ill-advised Edujobs bailout discriminates against charter schools. So you’d think the national news service wanting to do a story on this would give little Eddie a call, right? Okay, not exactly. Last week Family News in Focus talked to my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow about this issue. You can listen to the brief news story with select interview clips, or read the story on Citizen Link: Ben DeGrow, education policy analyst for the Independence Institute, said that charter schools should not be discriminated against by public schools. “The education jobs bailout is reckless and fiscally irresponsible policy,” DeGrow said. “But, if the money is going to be spent, it should be given to public schools and public school teachers on a even playing field.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ben did write that op-ed on the Edujobs bailout in the Denver Post last month, so I guess he’s qualified and smart enough to make the comment. Maybe even […]

The new week brings an interesting Ed News Colorado story from new writer Katie Kerwin McCrimmon called “Keeping Up with the Dunruds.” The story highlights a Denver family with a boy about my own age who sounds like he shares some of my penchant for prodigy: Braeden Dunrud was riding in the family car when he saw a sign for the Spicy Pickle restaurant and asked his mom if it said “Spacey Pickle.” Pretty darn close for a 3-year-old. A short time later, Braeden revealed his reading abilities again. As he carried a can of root beer to the recycling bin, he called out, “Does it say Mug’s?” His parents looked at each other, stunned. Yes, as a matter of fact, it did say Mug’s, a brand name the parents never used. Clearly, Braeden was teaching himself to read. Now 5, Braeden is among 38 children in advanced kindergarten at the Center for Early Education in Denver, a stand-alone site that houses preschool programs for four southeast Denver feeder schools, along with both traditional and advanced kindergarten classrooms. The center opened in 2009 and expanded to provide preschool for 3-year-olds, along with kindergarten, this year.