Category Archives: Teachers

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.

Have I mentioned how glad — how really, really glad — I am that the elections are almost over? Just when little old me thinks I’m done writing about topics related to the election, I find a story like this one at Face The State about a highly deceitful group’s campaign flier: Accountability for Colorado, which paid for the glossy mailer sent to District 50 households, quotes McGee as telling Boswell, “You weren’t good for jobs in Greeley.” Boswell, who until recently owned a Western Sizzlin’ restaurant franchise near the Greeley Mall, was a guest on McGee’s September 28 show. Problem is, that quote is a paraphrase of an allegedly biased report in the Greeley Tribune, which McGee moments earlier in the broadcast slams as the “Greeley Pravda.” “You weren’t handled very favorably when the restaurant closed,” McGee said, setting up his question. Listen to a clip of the broadcast using the player above. [link added]

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:

One argument in education I’m already tired of is what’s the impact of union collective bargaining on student learning. Do unions help or hinder achievement? The problem is it’s an oversimplified question, as I once explained a long time ago. But the ever insightful Mike Antonucci from the Education Intelligence Agency put forward an interesting twist to the question on his Intercepts blog. The real effect of teachers’ union contracts, he says, is the 20.7% cost premium for states (including Colorado) with collective bargaining. To take it a step further, it would be good to control this finding for the cost of living to see how much of the premium remains. On that note comes an interesting story from California (H/T Joanne Jacobs): a school employees union “is protesting a program to place parents in volunteer positions on campus.” I guess it comes down to whether you think our K-12 system is primarily a taxpayer-funded jobs program or a means to help educate students and prepare them for the future. I vote for the latter. Whichever priority you choose has consequences–including the cost of education. Definitely something that deserves a closer look.

‘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 […]

An article in yesterday’s Denver Post brought attention to a new report by our friends at Colorado Succeeds that urges Colorado to follow Florida’s lead on education reforms. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah… Jeb Bush’s Stellar Education Reform Record Worthy of Colorado Emulation (July 2008) Bolstering the Case for Jeb Bush’s Education Reform Success (October 2009) Florida Keeps Star Role Among States in Improving Student Test Scores (March 2010) CSAP Scores Get Little Attention, But Call for Expanding School Reform Approach (August 2010) If Colorado policy makers read the report and follow the Florida formula, frankly I don’t care who gets the credit. The Denver Post story focuses heavily on two planks of the Colorado Succeeds report’s five-plank recommendation: 1) End promotion from 3rd grade to 4th grade until students prove basic literacy skills; and 2) Improve the Colorado Growth Model with clearer, easier-to-understand letter grades and other consequential refinements.

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:

The Waiting for Superman debut (coming soon to a theater near you, my Colorado friends) really has super-charged the discussion about the American education system and the need for change. This weekend the Washington Post featured a column by 16 major school leaders — including Denver Public Schools superintendent Tom Boasberg, former Pueblo City School superintendent J. Wm. Covington and my edu-crush Michelle Rhee. The theme?: But the transformative changes needed to truly prepare our kids for the 21st-century global economy simply will not happen unless we first shed some of the entrenched practices that have held back our education system, practices that have long favored adults, not children. These practices are wrong, and they have to end now. It’s time for all of the adults — superintendents, educators, elected officials, labor unions and parents alike — to start acting like we are responsible for the future of our children. Because right now, across the country, kids are stuck in failing schools, just waiting for us to do something.

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.”