Category Archives: Teachers

Seeing as it’s Friday, rather than laying on the analysis really thick or going off on one of my infamous tangents, I wanted to make sure you saw a long but very interesting article that came out this week. In the September edition of Denver’s 5280 Magazine is a feature by Robert Sanchez titled “The Education of Ms. Barsallo” — which highlights on a very personal level the challenges and rewards of a first-year teacher in a high-poverty public school. The reason why I decided to give the article some special attention? Ms. Barsallo taught last year at Cole Arts and Science Academy, an Innovation School in Denver that my Education Policy Center friends had the privilege of visiting last November. So I guess you could say it has somewhat of a special place in their hearts. But anyway, please go ahead and read Ms. Barsallo’s story in 5280 Magazine. It may pull at your heartstrings, and it also may provoke you to think a little more deeply about urban education reform. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Did you know that in many Colorado school districts teachers and other employees can opt into union membership and automatic dues payments at any time but that opting out is a much trickier business? It gets even worse: Did you know in a few Colorado school districts non-union teachers and other employees have a brief window of time each year to opt out of paying unwanted fees worth the full amount of union dues? (Congrats if you already knew. You probably saw the video about Colorado teachers unions.) Especially if these facts are new to you, I invite you to check out a newly-published article by my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow. The September edition of Liberty Ink Journal features his article titled “Hotel California for Colorado Teachers” (on page 15 of the print edition, page 17 of the electronic issue). To find out more about union opt-out processes and periods, including local details, visit our Independent Teachers website.

My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow made the case against the education jobs bailout two weeks ago in the Denver Post. The problem? It’s “excessive, shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible.” In that spirit, a new blog post from Education Week‘s Alyson Klein brings attention to the planned use of Edujobs funds in Rhode Island. She cites a Providence Journal story that shows another element of the fiscal irresponsibility: A new law aimed at saving millions of teaching jobs and protecting school programs across the country may not accomplish either goal here in Rhode Island. Instead, Governor Carcieri intends to use the $32.9 million Rhode Island is eligible to receive to plug an estimated $38-million deficit in this year’s budget. Now, let me be clear: I don’t necessarily see this same sort of scenario happening in Colorado. But how many other states will use the federal printing presses and the public sympathies “for the children” to take some of the education jobs money in order to cover general shortages in their budgets? Because we still don’t know the extent of how many teacher and other school employee positions actually have been cut, much less how many of those cuts are needful […]

There a couple new education-related publications out there that shed some light on current debates. When it comes to K-12 education, public opinion, policies and results are interconnected, though the relationship often is not so apparent. If we want to help improve and maximize student learning, it’s good to be informed on all fronts. First, Education Next recently released the results of its 2010 annual survey. The bottom line? With the exceptions of school spending and teacher tenure, the divisions between ordinary Democrats and Republicans on education policy matters are quite minor. To be sure, disagreements among Americans continue to linger. Indeed, with the exception of student and school accountability measures, Americans as a whole do not stand steadfastly behind any single reform proposal. Yet the most salient divisions appear to be within, not between, the political parties. And we find growing support for several strategies put forward in recent years by leaders of both political parties—most notably online education and merit pay.

I know that political campaigns are going on. Election season is upon us. When I ask my mom or dad what’s happening in the race for governor, they usually roll their eyes, take a deep sigh, and pat me on the head: “You’ll understand when you’re older,” they say. That may be true, but I do like to understand where the people running for office stand on education issues, so I was glad to see today’s story by Todd Engdahl in Ed News Colorado on Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper’s education agenda — which breaks down the campaign’s official issue brief: Education needs to be about what is best for our kids and that means raising the level of their achievement in knowledge and skills necessary to be successful adults. We must continue our investment in building a 21st Century education system in Colorado. Without a strong education system, job creation and economic development cannot be sustained. Making Colorado synonomous [sic] with innovation has to include supporting great teachers, and engaging parents and local communities as partners to improve our schools.

Nobody in the education world is talking about anything else, so why not just make it official and call this “Race to the Top week”? The fallout continues. In an exclusive interview on Tuesday, State Board of Education member Marcia Neal told my Education Policy Center friends that we might see an effort to slow down or roll back Senate Bill 191: Colorado’s landmark teacher tenure and evaluation reform. I’m not sure if she was thinking it would happen this week, but open up the opinion section of today’s Denver Post, and you’ll see a guest column written by Cherry Creek educator Brian Kurz titled “Go back and fix SB 191.” My modest suggestion would be for the author to go back and check some of his facts and assumptions. First: [Bill sponsor] Michael Johnston authored SB 191 and pushed its passage as a way to better position Colorado for Race to the Top money. Johnston knew first-hand the obvious flaws with both the language of [sic] bill and the ambiguity of how to achieve its goals. Despite the lack of specifics, the bill was Colorado’s chance at a $175 million lottery. While Johnston certainly expressed hopes of winning Race […]

So this morning I ran across an interesting posting from Mark Tapscott of the Washington Examiner, based on a little research “to see which states have the public school districts with the most top-heavy bureaucracies.” As Tapscott explains, he took U.S. Census Bureau data to build a table and find out which states have the most “non-instructional employees” as a share of the state’s population. Who qualifies as a “non-instructional employee”? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, anyone who works for a K-12 public school but does NOT have one of the following positions: [C]lassroom teachers, principals, supervisors of instruction, librarians, teacher aides, library aides, and guidance and psychological personnel. Anyway, here are the top 10 states with the highest per capita ratios of “non-instructional employees”:

I’m pleased to report that my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow’s guest column in the Denver Post taking on the edujobs bailout has garnered some attention — you know, the one I told you about a couple days ago. Without further ado, here they are: Reason’s Nick Gillespie quotes the op-ed, observing that Congress is “hot for teachers’ votes (by giving away our money)” National Review Colorado reporter Michael Sandoval links back to Ben’s piece with a note that Congresswoman Betsy Markey voted for the Edujobs bill while saying she’s opposed to bailouts Writing at Education News Colorado, local teacher Mark Sass takes exception to Ben’s piece with “a view from the ground” (and Ben already has responded with a comment) Marc Kilmer from the Maryland Policy Institute — who is rumored to have known Ben in a past life — cites the op-ed and points out that the small amount of teacher layoffs don’t amount to the tragedy some have claimed Finally, although he doesn’t link to the Denver Post op-ed (looks like they were posted online about the same time), education policy guru Rick Hess elaborates with some excellent points about why he sees the Edujobs bailout […]

My Education Policy Center friends truly have done it this time. They produced a 4-minute video about a Colorado school employee’s story that highlights an unjust policy: Thank you, Colorado teachers unions. From the YouTube summary:

My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow made the opinion page of today’s Denver Post with a featured guest column titled “Education jobs bailout can’t be justified”: Last week, the House of Representatives passed legislation that included a $10 billion payout to states to preserve K-12 school jobs. Retaining or adding school employees may be a priority for the Democrat majority in Congress and their union backers, which stand to gain more than $20 million. But as a national policy, Congress’ Education Jobs Fund — or “edujobs” — bailout is excessive, shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible. That’s all the appetizer you get for now. Seriously, just click the link above and read the whole thing. The comments so far are typically what you’d expect — very little tangling with the actual argument and plenty of vitriol. But as long as it’s “for the children” like me…. If you want to jump in the comment section (either here or there), feel free. The water is fine.