U.S. Senate
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(D) J. Hickenlooper*
(R) Somebody
80%
20%
Governor
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(D) Phil Weiser
(D) Joe Neguse
(D) Jena Griswold
60%
60%
40%↓
Att. General
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(D) M. Dougherty
(D) Alexis King
(D) Brian Mason
40%
40%
30%
Sec. of State
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(D) A. Gonzalez
(D) George Stern
(R) Sheri Davis
50%↑
40%
30%
State Treasurer
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(D) Brianna Titone
(R) Kevin Grantham
(D) Jerry DiTullio
60%
30%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) Somebody
90%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
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90%
2%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd*
(D) Somebody
80%
40%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert*
(D) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank*
(D) Somebody
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen*
(R) Somebody
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(R) Gabe Evans*
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(D) Joe Salazar
50%
40%
40%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
May 19, 2007 06:24 AM UTC
8 Comments
Don’t agree with all of Hardaway’s points but I do believe that America has gotten too far from the basics. It is also a shame that our teachers are unable to do more to control their classrooms. I’m not advocating hitting a child, but I see no problem with other methods of discipline – like waterboarding. I’m kidding, I’m kidding…
We should have both, increased spending and tougher curriculums. I saw the Ben Franklin exhibit in Denver and the interactive educational tools they had there should be in every school in our country. Touch screen LCDs that help critical thinking and math skills, for example.
I’ve always thought that public schools could learn from private schools. Teachers pay should not have gone up 18% since 1970, it should have been 30%. Federal aid to education is wasted when used to institute programs such as No Child Left Behind. Fire half the administrators, hire more teachers to teach the basics in lower performing schools (including ESL for nonative English speakers), and completely revisit the School Finance Act in Colorado (and Amendment 23).
Aside from that, we are in agreement. A kindergarten teacher (kindergarten mind you) was describing to me what she has to do each and every day for state and federal “accountability”, including a rash of documentation and tasks mostly unrelated to the basics. Remember when kindergarten included crayons, play dough, and field trips to the zoo? Ah the good old days.
Private schools have the benefit of less “accountability” and therefore more time spent with each student and on the basics. There are many successful public and private schools and these should be used as models for under performing schools.
With the number of charter and private schools increasing, public schoos are increasingly having to reassess how they do ‘business’. I’m shopping schools right now. I go to the private schools and they tell you their accomplishments, their strenghts, their plans… I go to a public school, I’m lucky to be able to see a classroom. It is like they don’t want my kids as students, opting for those parents who send their kids there by default.
I couldn’t agree more about the federal and state requirements for documenting progress. CSAP is a poor way of tracking a student’s intellect, but I’m unaware of a better option. There has to be a better way to design and implement a system that measures and tracks student and teacher progress over the years. Denver implemented a new system this year or last, but I don’t know if teachers are happier with it or not. Anyone know? Any other district have a system that works well?
I just read this morning in the paper that there was serious pushback from school districts on a proposed tougher curriculum for high schools. The argument was if we make it more difficult, they kids won’t meet the standards and then the test scores will be lower and the school district will be in trouble.
Blows my mind.
I hear this from many parents. When you have a tax funded public institution with a given number of students, the administration doesn’t have to cater to parents or would- be parents. That’s just an unfortunate reality. If a school does a good job with this, it is because of the individual qualities of the principal or others who make it happen.
IMHO, charter schools can go a long ways to promoting competition in the provision of educational services, competition that cannot help but improve our failing system. There are several sucess stories associated with charter schools.
However, there are loads of “market” restrictions on charter schools in Colorado that turn them into the the “branch office” of public schools rather than a viable competitive alternative.
Charter schools are defined as public schools, which means they cannot charge tuition, their teachers are considered public employees (and members of PERA) and they cannot offer specialized programs (e.g., a school for boys, school for gifted or special students). They can’t offer programs to student who live outside the district in which they were formed. A charter school organized in Vail could not, for example, accept students from Glenwood Springs. In addition, charter schools must be approved by the school district with whom they will compete. BY statute, private, accredited schools and home study programs simply cannot be converted to charter schools.
None of these restrictions are sensible unless you believe that public schools should have a monopoly on education.
One needs only look at the performance of other monolithic monopolies — e.g., Qwest — to see that a monopolistic provision of service does not breed excellence in anything, good customer relations or good corporate governance.
Charter schools are burdened by the same state and federal mandates as public schools, they only have the benefit of being smaller and create some competition for the per pupil dollars. Many parents experience apathy and lack of responsiveness from the public school system, a common complaint about most government funded bureaucracies.
belief that the basics need to be taught and that a “good” school is the result of the principle of that school. I have experienced some very outstanding principles at my kids schools and those schools were also exceptional. I have also experienced some real duds for principles at some of their schools and those schools were in trouble and I could not waite till they were beyond that school.
Outside of Colorado, I haven’t seen a raft of studies stating that private schools are doing any better – in fact, outside of Colorado, wherever some kind of standards testing is required, your average charter/private school does WORSE than the public school system, adjusting for pupil ability (read: recruitment/rejection).
We have gotten away from the basics – I can’t agree more with the basic premises that have been stated above. But I disagree with the article’s unstated slur on teacher pay, and I disagree that money isn’t an issue. Teachers pay out of their own pockets for school supplies; they teach from outdated textbooks; and they get no credit for the hours they put in training over the summer and grading homework after school hours.
Is money the only issue? Certainly not. Do we need to perform some radical reworking of the system? Yes. But campaigning against increasing school finances isn’t appropriate at this time, IMHO.