Looming Legislative Session Evokes More Heartburn than Hope for K-12 Issues
Run for cover, and hold onto your wallets! Tomorrow marks the beginning of the first session of the 69th Colorado General Assembly. At first, I thought about just re-posting last year’s pre-session...
View ArticleVideo Begs Question: What Would Union Leaders Like Tax Hike to Pay For?
A couple days ago I brought to your attention the looming heartburn the Colorado legislative session portends for those who support parental choice, school accountability, and the transparent,...
View ArticleTo Free Up Education Funds, Fix PERA and Offer Scholarship Tax Credits
You know how much I have to restrain myself when it comes to using the “it’s for the kids” mantra, so I simply couldn’t resist quickly bringing your attention to some important new insights from local...
View ArticleA Couple More Weeks of Waiting for School Finance “Grand Bargain” Details
Back in early December my Education Policy Center friends helped put on a State Capitol event, laying out ideas for dramatic “backpack funding” reforms that need to be at the heart of this year’s...
View ArticleDigital Learning Day Could Help Propel Colorado to Student Course Choice
It’s been a whole year since the last Digital Learning Day, and somehow I’m still 5… Go figure! There is so much going on with digital learning innovations in Colorado, but I just wanted to hone in on...
View ArticleUse Real School Funding Facts and Tell the Story that Empowers Families
A few weeks ago an article by the I-News Network (“an independent, nonprofit journalism project that creates long-form investigative reports, in partnership with major daily newspapers and has recently...
View ArticleResearch Ought to Give Second Thoughts about Government Preschool Programming
It’s been almost two years since I last brought your attention to the overwhelming research findings that the nearly-50-year-old Head Start program has not made a real difference in education outcomes....
View ArticleHeartbroken by Choice Bill Defeats, Hoping for Some Scholarship Tax Credit Love
I tend not to get into all the icky Valentine’s Day stuff (flowers, pink hearts, greeting cards), except to the extent I can stuff my face with candy. Even so, some events that transpired yesterday at...
View ArticleLatest Dougco Lawsuit Suggests Little Beyond Need for Presidential Limelight
Since it’s Presidents Day today, it seems somewhat fitting to write about a local teachers union president seeking some limelight with a Friday lawsuit: The Douglas County Federation of Teachers filed...
View ArticleTransparency and a Collaborative Mirage: A Tale of Three Colorado School...
A clever wag once famously said: “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.” Some other smart-aleck might have reason to make a similar remark about K-12 education:...
View ArticleLet’s Figure Out How PERA Can Fit Into Colo. School Finance Reform Debates
The long-awaited draft of the big school finance reform bill (144 pages in all its glory) is finally here this week. You can rest assured I will have more to say in the coming days as my Education...
View ArticleThree Bens Could Lead Colorado K-12 to Three Million Benjamins in Savings
Recently, I raised the issue of how PERA reform could fit into the ongoing school finance reform debates. It certainly lessens the sense of a “grand bargain” — tying reforms to a billion-dollar tax...
View ArticleOpen Window on Bargaining: As Thompson Moves Ahead, Teachers Express Support
You can’t judge a book by its cover. There are many expressions like this one out there that convey a basic piece of wisdom. A beautiful building you may have driven by many times could be a filthy...
View ArticleLobato Case Returns: We Need School Finance Reform, Not Constitutional Crisis
Yesterday, some attorneys got up and argued an important case affecting K-12 education before the Colorado Supreme Court. The hearing was about an appeal of the Denver district court’s Lobato decision,...
View ArticleCourt Upholds Teacher Removal: Adams 12 Board Vindicated, Taxpayers Pay
When Colorado and other states pass education reform laws, it’s important to pay attention to what problems are solved and what problems are not. As an example, Colorado’s SB 191, which passed three...
View ArticleTransparency in DougCo School District: Toward a Happy Ending to the Story
If you’ve followed little old Eddie for any length of time, you know I’m a fan of the following two things: open government and the education reform pioneers on the Douglas County school board. So...
View ArticleBig SB 213 School Finance Bill Hearing Keeps Me Watching, Brings Out Questions
When it comes to the world of K-12 education in Colorado — you know, what keeps my little eyes busy watching — today (this week!) is all consumed in the political debates over Senate Bill 213, the big...
View ArticleGuess No “Vouchers” in SB 213, Really Not Much Backpack Funding, Choice at All
Update, 5:10 PM Extra audio added. So some of you may have been missing me since a couple days ago when I asked a dozen questions regarding the major school finance bill, SB 213. Many of my questions...
View ArticleAll This Talk about Course Choice Makes Colorado Debates Seem So 20th Century
While the big school finance reform legislation at the Colorado State Capitol explores reshuffling the dollars in a 20th century system — and dashing my youthful hopes along the way — other states...
View ArticleChange of Heart on Choice, Reform, Funding, and Unions: Time for Ed Is Playing!!
It’s been several days since I’ve had a chance to write here. The end of my spring break provided a lot of time for reflection on some issues that really have been bothering me. Now that I’ve had time...
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