Category Archives: Independence Institute

Last week I introduced you to my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow‘s new 3-page report on “What Should School District Financial Transparency Looks Like?” Highlighted prominently in the paper and in Ben’s testimony last week before Colorado’s House Education Committee was the remarkable work of Jefferson County Public Schools — Colorado’s largest school district — in creating perhaps the best online financial transparency database of any school district in the nation. This week Ben interviewed Lorie Gillis, the chief financial officer of Jeffco Public Schools, for a 12-minute iVoices podcast. Follow this link or click on the play button below to listen:

While Colorado’s governor and state officials have created a 15-member Council on Educator Effectiveness and Denver Public Schools has received a $10 million Gates Foundation grant to study and develop a new teacher evaluation system, Harrison School District in Colorado Springs is moving forward on a truly bold merit-pay reform. So reports Nancy Mitchell in today’s edition of Education News Colorado: Incentives play no part in the plan created by Miles, the superintendent here since 2006. There are no bonuses for teaching in struggling schools. Teachers don’t pocket a couple thousand bucks more if their students do better than expected on state tests. Instead, teachers in Harrison will soon have their entire salaries based on a combination of their annual evaluations and their students’ academic progress. No longer will teachers get annual raises for another year on the job or for taking more college classes – the way most districts in Colorado and across the country pay their instructors. These changes are made easier by the fact that Harrison teachers do not have collective bargaining rights.

Update: House Bill 1036 passed unanimously out of the House Education Committee this afternoon. Ben’s report and testimony added some important information and perspective to the discussion. Now the legislation heads to the floor of the lower chamber for a full 65-member vote. Stay tuned as I continue to cover the two school transparency bills as they move through the legislature. Many months ago, after a heated debate at last year’s legislative session, I pointed out that opponents of public school financial transparency were running out of excuses. Well, I’m proud to say that several school districts in Colorado have received the message, and at least one has done a remarkable job of making user-friendly detailed spending information available. I’m talking about Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s largest school district. You really have to check out their online searchable spending database. My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow explains some more about where Jeffco’s idea came from and how much it cost, etc., in his new issue backgrounder “What Should School District Financial Transparency Look Like?” One key advantage has been to build greater trust with members of the community, by providing key details to each spending transaction. It […]

My mom and dad like to listen to Colorado’s Morning News on AM 850 KOA in Denver. So how excited I was on Thursday to tune into the show and hear the “Your Health / Your Kids” segment with Robbyn Hart. Why? Because she was interviewing my Education Policy Center friend Pam Benigno. Follow this link to listen to the informative 1-minute soundbite about the fantastic School Choice for Kids website. Ms. Hart is correct: It is open enrollment time! So don’t waste a moment, Colorado students and parents. Head on over to School Choice for Kids right now for a free visit to learn about the education options near you and how to take advantage of them!

It’s important to recall from time to time that there are so-called intellectual elitist types out there who are uncomfortable with families exercising an educational choice they don’t agree with. Such appears to be the case with Robin L. West who wrote an article titled “The Harms of Homeschooling” (PDF) for a university publication. There isn’t much left for me to say in response to this shoddy and prejudiced piece of work. Big Journalism’s Izzy Lyman and the American Enterprise Institute’s Jay Richards already have effectively skewered it. Let me just add: As Education Next writer Milton Gaither clearly showed a little over a year ago, people choose homeschooling for a wide variety of reasons. The caricature West tries to draw is simply a figment of someone’s imagination.

Every year the Education Intelligence Agency’s Mike Antonucci undertakes the daunting work of going through the National Education Association’s federal financial disclosure report (hosted online by the U.S. Department of Labor). In his latest exclusive analysis, Antonucci found the NEA’s contributions to advocacy groups and charities reached $26 million in 2008-09 — nearly double from the previous year’s total. To almost no one’s surprise, the NEA’s disclosed giving includes plenty of money for liberal causes and some education-related initiatives. But the biggest chunks of money went to politically active committees to fight state-level issues. Out of the $26 million, the NEA sent more than $5 million right into our Colorado backyard — including the single largest recipient on the list:

Two days from now Colorado’s state legislature starts the 2010 session. And with a recession cutting into tax revenues, many lawmakers will show up without the enthusiasm to create new programs or boost spending on existing programs. As legislative sessions go, this one has a particularly strange character about it. Tough and unpleasant decisions will have to be made. But what about K-12 schools? As Todd Engdahl explains in a thorough preview for Ed News Colorado, at least a few lawmakers (Engdahl quoted many more from the majority Democratic Party) are not looking forward to education reform debates when budget cuts are on the table: Some wish that were the case. “I’m hoping there isn’t too much [education legislation], quite frankly,” said Rep. Karen Middleton, D-Aurora and a member of House Ed.

A new USA Today article by education reporter Greg Toppo is featured under the banner of “Recession fuels shift from private to public schools” — more middle-class parents with less money to spend on tuition are making the switch: Private-school parents typically find that the structure of public schools takes some getting used to. In most states, funding for public schools is calculated on a per-student basis, based on average student counts during the first few weeks of the school year. If a student drops out after 40 days, the funding that student generated stays with the school — even if he or she does not return to that campus. Private schools, on the other hand, risk losing tuition payments once a student leaves. “Private schools tend to treat you more like a customer than the public schools,” [parent Angela] Allyn says. Public schools are “going to get their tax dollars whether or not you as a parent are upset. If you’re in a private school and you yank your kid out, that’s a lot of money walking out the (private school’s) door.” Many of those parents who were accustomed to selecting private education options through their own financial means […]

You can write about education issues a lot, have your eyes focused on the future, and still miss some of the debates that are going on out there. Washington Post blogger Valerie Strauss says that schools need to hire more male teachers, especially in the early grades, for the sake of boys. Citing Richard Whitmire’s book Why Boys Fail, blogress extraordinaire Joanne Jacobs responds: “Boys can learn without male teachers.” While I don’t have much to add to the debate, I at least have a vested interest in the discussion. As a boy, I want a smart and caring teacher who keeps the standards high and doesn’t let me get away with nonsense. (Someone who believes in homework quality over quantity, and has a soft spot for Legos and Mr. Potatohead, would also be appreciated.) More important for troubled boys than whether their teacher is male or female is expanded opportunity for an excellent education through school choice. That’s what Independence Institute senior fellow Krista Kafer persuasively argued for in “The Boy Crisis in Education” (an Independent Women’s Forum publication), and that’s what I’m sticking with.

So with this new year of 2010, I’m really thinking all futuristic. Yesterday it was brain skills testing. But what about technological changes that promise to transform our education system? That’s what Harvard professor Clayton Christensen writes about in his 2009 book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. If you can’t afford the time or the money for the book, then you’ll at least want to check out this audio/video presentation on the topic by Dr. Scott McLeod (H/T Mike Antonucci).