When it comes to public performance audits, there’s a difference between good governance and oversight on one hand, and a far-reaching fishing expedition on the other. The latter SHAMEFUL act is what a handful of Democrat state legislators (Rep. Mike Merrifield, Rep. Judy Solano, Sen. Bob Bacon, Sen. Evie Hudak) put into motion last month.
The four lawmakers crafted an audit proposal to make a wide-ranging probe into all of the state’s public charter schools. They did not consult with charter school leaders on their expedition. They singled out charter schools from other public schools, with some of the requested information presented in an obviously skewed way. They neglected some of the oversight already provided by charter school authorizers and the Colorado Department of Education’s charter school office.
Fellow Democrat state senator Lois Tochtrop publicly called the proposal a “witch-hunt against charter schools,” and she was right. Tochtrop and the four Republicans on the committee (Sen. Kevin Lundberg, Sen. Josh Penry, Rep. Cheri Gerou, and Rep. Frank McNulty) did a GOOD thing by voting down the proposal at a Monday meeting of the Legislative Audit Committee.
Sen. Lundberg was also quoted as saying:
“This request was way over the top,” he said. “It was a misguided attempt to unfairly target and discredit Colorado’s charter schools and deprive parents of their right to public school choice.”
Click the play button below (or this link) to listen to an iVoices podcast as Colorado League of Charter Schools president Jim Griffin explains the issues at hand and why the proposal was simply out of line:
Below is a copy of the memo that includes the original request for an audit: Read the rest of this entry »
The Colorado Supreme Court says today in response to Boulder Valley School District’s lawsuit against the State Charter School Institute: Hearing “DENIED.”
The state’s highest court will not hear the case, and that’s a GOOD decision. Boulder Valley previously lost its legal attempt to deny families more educational choice and opportunity, both at the district court level and at the appellate court level. To better understand the case, read Attorney General John Suthers’ response to the appeals court decision.
You can find full coverage of this story at Ed News Colorado.
Colorado is making major revisions to the state’s academic standards. At the Independence Institute, we’re especially interested in the Social Studies standards. Our own Ben DeGrow has served on the subcommittee to draft new standards for history.
What’s really GOOD about the process is how the Colorado Department of Education has worked to solicit feedback on the the draft Social Studies standards (PDF) from everyday citizens. Many have already shared their comments. If you have any interest, you should take the opportunity to participate, too!
If you would like to learn more about the process and the first draft of standards, click on the play button below to listen to a new iVoices podcast discussion featuring Pam Benigno and Ben DeGrow: Read the rest of this entry »
June 30, 2009 was a GOOD day for thousands of Indiana children in the home state of the Friedman Foundation and the GEO Foundation, two long-time school choice advocates. Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a 2.5 million corporate and individual scholarship tax credit program. The program gives companies and individuals a 50 percent tax credit in return for their donation to a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to low-income children to attend private schools. Obviously, the state of Indiana has recognized that it needs the private sector to play a greater part in the education of Indiana’s low-income students.
ACE, Parents Challenge, and Seeds of Hope are Colorado’s three major nonprofit organizations that have helped thousands of low-income children obtain a high quality education in private schools. A tax credit law in Colorado would increase the numbers of children these organizations could rescue from the BAD situation in many public schools.
Also in June, the Colorado Children’s Campaign, A+ Denver, and the Metropolitain Organizations for People released a new report showing that even though the Denver Public School system has implemented several new reforms Denver’s schools still do not perform adequately. Only about half its ninth-grade students graduate from high school in four years.
The anti-private school choice special interest groups need to drop their weapons of mass destruction and recognize that a tax credit for donations to scholarship programs would allow for thousands more Colorado children to receive a high-quality education and at the same time save the state millions!
Acting like spoiled children, over a three-day period, several hundred Boulder Valley teachers held a collective temper tantrum. Our government-run education system has trained teachers to expect a raise whether or not the money is available and whether or not they are good teachers.
When a spoiled child misbehaves, who must share in the blame? (Usually it’s the parents, but in this case it is society as a whole.) However, teachers are not children.
What can we say about those Boulder Valley teachers who caught the “blue flu” and neglected their duty as public servants? The Denver Post calls their actions “appalling”, but we prefer to say it’s just plain SHAMEFUL.
Good picks by a Republican leader! Colorado Senate News has reported that Republican Senate leader Josh Penry will appoint a Democrat to the Interim Committee to Study Financing of Public Schools. The Democrat is education reformer Michael Johnston, who was selected by a committee to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Senator Peter Groff.
Before he left for D.C., then-Senate President Groff appointed Republican school choice supporter Senator Nancy Spence to the committee. One GOOD non-partisan decision deserves another!
Penry also appointed fellow Republican Senator Keith King, who supports charter schools and has his own creative ideas of how to improve school finance. This interim committee (which also includes Democrat Senators Bob Bacon and Chris Romer) may come up with some fresh ideas rather than focus on politics as usual!
Once again, charter schools survived Colorado’s legislative session. There are many legislators from both political parties that deserve to be praised for their support of charter schools. However, Sean Bradley, the Director of Governmental Affairs for the Colorado League of Charter Schools, deserves a loud “shout out” from all those who support charter schools. He doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk!
As a Democrat education reformer, Sean is passionate about providing kids with the best educational opportunities. GOOD job Sean and thanks! Click the play button below to listen to a new iVoices podcast as Pam Benigno and Sean discuss this past legislative session and the GOOD news that Michael Johnston was selected as the new Senator from District 33.
To realize the impact of yesterday’s Arizona Supreme Court decision watch this video about a little girl named Lexie. Also, read the media release from the Institute for Justice. Lexie has multiple disabilities. Her public school was not able to meet her needs, but the state-funded scholarship program for children with disabilities gave her the opportunity to attend a private school where she received more attention and learned new life-changing skills.
SHAMEFULLY, Lexie and other children served by the voucher program will not receive a voucher next fall. Ironically, other students supported by public dollars will remain in Lexie’s school. The difference is that public school staff made the decision to send the children to the private school, not their parents.
The Arizona Supreme Court struck down both of the state’s voucher programs on the basis that they violate one of the state’s Blaine Amendments. One program serves children with disabilities, and the other serves foster children.
The “usual suspects” filed the SHAMEFUL lawsuit - including the ACLU, People for the American Way, PTA, teachers unions, and the school board and school executives associations.
Parents were required to endorse the checks for tuition aid over to the schools. Arizona’s highest court said this action constituted state aid to the non-public schools.
The battle for a quality education for America’s children continues…
Today, two public schools received waivers from 40 state statutes, 32 district policies, and 18 collective bargaining agreement provisions. The Colorado State Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of granting waivers to two Denver Public Schools, Manual High School and Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment.
The schools are the first “Innovation Schools” under a law passed in 2008 sponsored by Senate President Peter Groff and Senator Nancy Spence. The Denver Public School Board voted 4-3 Monday night to allow the district to seek the waivers from the State Board.
State Board of Education member Elaine Gantz Berman declared, “This is groundbreaking for Denver Public Schools and the state of Colorado.”
Yesterday the Joint Budget Committee cut the printing of next year’s School Accountability Reports (SAR). Also, a bill going through the legislature that will make major changes to Colorado’s accountability system does not include printing of the new reports. Not sending home a SAR (aka school report card) keeps parents in the dark about a school’s student performance. This is BAD news for families!
When you look at the cost of printing the reports, it would cost less than a can of cheap soda pop per kid. Yet the value of parents reading the SAR can mean the difference between failure and success for thousands of children. The kids that live in the big houses in safe neighborhoods will do fine. Besides, they probably have at least two computers in their homes and if they aren’t happy with their neighborhood school or if they want to know about a school’s student performance, they will conveniently check out the school report card online.
But what about the other kids? The ones who don’t have a computer in their home? At the very least schools should be required to print the report on a piece of copy paper for every student. Oh, but that is an unfunded mandate!
The government needs to get in touch with the basics of school reform. Parents are very important to improving a school. They should be provided with the truth about a school’s student performance. The best way to disseminate that message is to send home a school report card. If Colorado schools can find the money to buy ice cream on the October 1 count day to ensure every penny due to them, they can certainly find the money to print a copy of the SAR for each child. It is SHAMEFUL if every effort isn’t made to inform parents about student performance!
