Category Archives: Just For Fun

The campaign silly season just got sillier. A union-backed school board candidate in Adams 12 was just ruled to be ineligible for office because she lives outside the correct district boundaries. To think, two weeks ago she was most famous for subjecting her toddler son to a Klingon language immersion program. Yesterday’s unexpected development makes one wonder whether Amy Speers or the local teachers union that spent $39,000 on her candidacy knew she lived in the wrong district and tried to hide it, or just avoided doing their homework. Due to population changes, the Board of Education followed the law and redrew the boundaries back in May 2012. So it wasn’t exactly new or secret. In late 2011, Speers vied for the District 4 vacancy created by Heidi Williams‘ resignation to serve as mayor of Thornton. Rico Figueroa was chosen instead and now runs unopposed to keep the seat, because no one apparently paid enough attention to the fact that the new boundaries moved Speers into another district. Stories like this one make me worried about all those adults out there who I’m supposed to look up to. So does the underlying truth in this hilarious 3-minute video:

I have some ideas of what to blog about. In fact, you can probably count on more fresh and insightful commentary tomorrow. But with the initial shock of the partial government shutdown, this young and sometimes naive edublogger is trying to keep composure and not panic. But I think the situation might even be worse for policy wonks like my friends in the Education Policy Center. Try heading over to the federal government’s National Center for Education Statistics to download the latest spending and enrollment data, or to run research queries on state NAEP scores, and this is what you encounter:

For whatever reason, people in Colorado don’t often think of looking up at New Mexico. And that’s not just because they are below (south of) us on the map. When it comes to education outcomes, we hold the upper hand — spending about the same amount per student, but also having fewer students in poverty and having other challenges. Still, New Mexico has at least one education-related achievement to which we could aspire: a first-in-the-nation record at state education financial transparency, while Colorado only musters a D-plus. Also admirable is the attitude and approach of their Education Secretary (kind of like our Commissioner) Hanna Skandera. She told the Santa Fe New Mexican: When we put students’ interests first, the criticism is welcome as an opportunity to get better at what we do. When we’re putting adult interests or politics above our kids, then we have to take it back and ask the question: Is this about our kids or politics and adults? It’s Friday afternoon, and I can’t think of a better way to wrap up the week. Kudos to Skandera, and onward and upward for Colorado!

I’ve been delinquent from blogging so much lately, you may think little Eddie just has been on a long field trip. Well, before you get too critical, you might want to consider the great advantages this could have for me. The results of a first-of-its-kind study, outlined by Dr. Jay Greene for Education Next, are worth a closer look: Today, culturally enriching field trips are in decline. Museums across the country report a steep drop in school tours. For example, the Field Museum in Chicago at one time welcomed more than 300,000 students every year. Recently the number is below 200,000. Between 2002 and 2007, Cincinnati arts organizations saw a 30 percent decrease in student attendance. A survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that more than half of schools eliminated planned field trips in 2010–11.

Sometimes it’s good to step back and take a look at the big picture. That’s as true in the discussions about education reform as it is anywhere. A brand-new, 6-minute video does just that, but in a clever and lighthearted manner:

I’m a little late to the game on this one. But Friday is the time for funnies. The crazed August 29 manifesto on Slate declaring that parents who send their kids to private schools are bad people received a lot of attention for the ignorant delivery of shock value it effected. I couldn’t begin to sort through the myriad responses. But this one was too good to pass up. (H/T Greg Forster) Writing at National Review Online, Kevin Williamson took Allison Benedikt’s Slate piece at face value and offered a superior solution:

Once upon a time, there was a boring chick flick called What Women Want (don’t ask me what it was about, but I needed an easy segue). Today the Fordham Institute has taken a slightly different tack, with the release of the paper What Parents Want. They worked with Harris Interactive to conduct an extensive marketing survey to see what families might be looking for when they choose a school. The idea is an interesting one, and the report really worth studying if you’re looking to start a school, especially in more populated areas. In the end, Fordham’s team identified six major categories, or “market niches,” that emerged, with certain characteristics of parents more likely to fit into one or more of the following:

June 24-28 has been designated the first-ever National Employee Freedom Week. “National Employee Freedom Week is a national effort to inform union employees of the freedom they have regarding opting out of union membership and making the decision about union membership that’s best for them.” The Independence Institute is one of more than 40 organizations across the United States to join in celebrating the occasion. The following post is part of a series highlighting the issue’s impact in Colorado. Is it Friday already? Wow, what a National Employee Freedom Week — starting with the news that 3 out of every 8 Colorado union members would quit the union if they could. We’ve spent time this week appreciating the options Colorado teachers currently enjoy, but also noting that opportunities exist to expand those freedoms and cure some injustices.

Talk about ancient history for a kid like me. On Friday the Fordham Foundation and American Enterprise Institute commemorated the 30th anniversary of the landmark A Nation at Risk education report with this 23-minute video documentary:

Parent educational power has made some great strides in a number of states in recent years, prompting not only 2011’s aptly-named “Year of School Choice” but also the rapidly-growing National School Choice Week phenomenon. That doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels nor expect opponents to sit back and do nothing. We’ve seen the anti-school choice Empire Strike Back before. This time, as the result of a political power change, certain legislators undertook an effort to repeal the state’s scholarship tax credit program enacted just last year. No school choice program has been shut down legislatively after being adopted. If New Hampshire lawmakers could revoke the Corporate Education Tax Credit, it would represent a blow not only to the choice movement but also to the opportunities of many Granite State students. The House passed the repeal, but that only got the measure halfway across the legislative finish line. Last week then brought good news out of Concord: