Great Education Colorado Blog - Recent Comments

But Mr. Ritter Vetoed HB 1186

Teacher — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:52:12 GMT

Boulder Daily Camera; Local Section: Editorial; page 12B; Sunday 15, 2008

CSAP: Forced Tests violate students rights

Governor Ritter vetoed HB 1186. HB 1186 pertains to a no school penalty for non-participation in the CSAP due to misadministration or parent refusal.

HB 1186 would have barred school officials from punishing students for skipping a state standardized assessment test, by such means as not allowing students who do not participate in CSAP testing to attend school events such as field trips, special events, and other enjoyable enriching activities.
Do we still live in a democratic country? Does our governor stand for democracy?

If the state has to hammer our young and their parents/caregivers into compliance with regards to taking the CSAP, Colorado's high stakes tests, then something is deeply wrong.

Schools are supposed to be places where democratic principles are upheld and lived. This kind of bullying is a travesty and should not go unnoticed.

Education comes from the latin word, educare, meaning to lead out. Mr. Ritter's veto of a bill which advocates for students and parents'/guardians' rights is wrong minded and does not lead out. What is Mr. Ritter thinking?

Perhaps it's time to consider a recall vote for Mr. Ritter. His job is to protect Colorado citizens, and especially our youth from the Halliburtons of education.

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." ~Albert Einstein

Here's a wild idea:

pkdaylu — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:24:54 GMT

Let's mandate that Electric and Gas utilities, as well as health care insurers provide these essential products and services free of charge to all public schools as part of their cost of doing business in the state. If they wish to invest additional dollars in energy efficiency upgrades to school facilities to reduce their long-term cost, so much the better.

Thanks.

fundraised out — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:37:02 GMT

That Post editorial got me pretty riled up. I appreciated 95% of it, but that was outweighed by the "underfunded" comment, which just reinforces the flat-out wrong "conventional wisdom" that K-12 has been taken care of by Amendment 23.

Thanks for helping to set the record straight.

Not just in Colorado . . .

TraceyLott — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:43:07 GMT

Because the site where I taught was violent and gang-ridden, I left the education field two years ago. In addition to supplies and extracurricular activities, budgets cuts caused us to lose members of the security department which, in turn, caused more teachers to leave. When a former administrator told me that I needed to "accept that children fall through the cracks", the site where I worked in San Diego Unified School District left me whole-heartedly disappointed and at a loss. I have read an incredible work by Dr. David Gruder entitled, "The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World". It emphasizes how necessary integrity is in education, politics (afterall isn't education political?) and in business (school districts are, in essence, businesses). Our education system fails students in many ways and this carries over into adulthood. Because our country sets low standards to provide funding for student performance and behavior, we enable our society to fail. If districts and administrators were more accountable, I truly believe our world would be filled with competent and caring adults.

Historic Day for Great Education Colorado

psparent — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:59:13 GMT

Nice to hear that the elected officials credited Great Ed's Lisa Weil and Liane Morrison along with Children's Voices and the Colorado School Finance Project for their work on making B.E.S.T a reality. When legislators actually leave the gold dome and talk to people on the front lines, good things can happen.

But it takes a monumental organizing effort, not to mention funding, for non-profit organizations to arrange these kinds of tours. We all benefit from Great Education Colorado's hard work, and I'm sending a contribution today so it will continue.

Great to see this coverage

fundraised out — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:27:24 GMT

It feels like, until now, the slow bleeding of public schools has been a story in the shadows -- at least statewide. The conventional wisdom at the Capitol and in downtown Denver has been that Amendment 23 took care of schools while everything else got cut. This article finally makes the point explicitly -- Amendment 23's increases are simply not enough to prevent health care and energy inflation from hammering our schools.

This has been obvious to me as a public school parent. Every year we have to fundraise more and more, just to keep what we have.

I hope this is just the beginning of the Post's coverage. The more people know the more they will be willing to take action to help our schools. I truly believe Coloradans want to do right by our kids. Because of TABOR, it's not enough for us to just WANT to do right, though. We have to take action, because the ultimate decision about whether to invest more in our kids lies with us at the ballot box.

School Budget Cuts

ptoMom — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:02:51 GMT

What we really need to do is is recognize that this State cannot have it all. We cannot have excellent schools, affordable higher education, well maintained roads and bridges, all with one of the lowest tax rates in the nation. We need to stand up as a State and say that these are our priorities, and we value them enough to pay for them. If we do that, then we don't need to keep looking for a better way to calculate the true costs of education.

Great article, but misleading headline

psfan — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:44:07 GMT

It was great to see the Denver Post acknowledge the effect of inflation on our public schools. On the Post editorial page, K-12 needs are often overlooked.

The headline "Souring Economy Hurts Schools" is certainly true -- especially if predictions about decreasing property values are correct. But the underlying problem is that the Consumer Price Index (upon which annual school funding increases are based) does not keep pace with the increased costs that districts actually face in running schools. That's true in good economic times and bad. Districts have been cutting programs and teachers and holding off on maintenance and necessary purchases for years now.

The Treasurer is right: we need to base annual increases on a new index that takes into account health care, fuel and pension inflation. Then at least we could stop cutting.

Bruce Benson's position on scholarships

ptoMom — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:09:31 GMT

I find it really interesting that Bruce Benson is bemoaning the lack of operating funds for CU and other institutions of higher learning, since part of the problem can be laid at the feet of former Governor Owens and other Republicans. In 2000, the Republican controlled General Assembly voted to reduce the State income tax to 4.63% from 5%. It may not seem like a lot , but it cost the State $500 million in revenue in 2000 alone. That reduction, coupled with TABOR spending restrictions have caused the problems we now face in adequately funding K12, higher ed, health care and roads. I would like someone to admit that they made a mistake and were short sided. The State needs more revenue to provide essential services, and some politician needs to say that.

Ritter on CPR

JaneF — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:55:49 GMT

I am confused. I heard Gov. Ritter this morning as well. He said that money above the 6% limit would be available to augment public school funding. That is not what I have heard the Speaker say, or any of the newspapers. I thought only roads could benefit from money above the limit. What is correct?