March 30, 2009 11:34 PM UTC

Schools Bill Cuts to Heart of Why Dems in Control

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• by: Colorado Pols

As The Denver Post reports:

Lawmakers Sunday unveiled a plan to offer school districts low-interest loans to install solar panels on rooftops, build wind turbines or convert diesel-guzzling buses to battery power…

…House Bill 1312’s architects couldn’t say how many schools might participate or the estimated size of loans. But they said the program would likely start with just a few schools at first, and windswept Eastern Plains school districts are likely candidates.

The proposal heads to the House Education Committee today. It’s one of a handful of recent bills aimed at making alternative energy more affordable for more Coloradans.

The cash for the loans would come from the vast swaths of land set aside to benefit schoolchildren in the 1800s.

The state already invests proceeds from land sales, spends part of the interest and boasts a $581 million balance in the account.

Rather than investing that money as the state typically would, it would lend some to schools at rates that are lower than a bank’s but high enough to match or outstrip the fund’s traditional return. The fund’s rate of return is 5.1 percent at the moment, said state Treasurer Cary Kennedy…

…The wind turbine that Wray School District RD-2 switched on in late January was held up as an example of potential projects.

The district expects the turbine – which churns out an average 11,000 kilowatts a day – to offset most of its $80,000-a-year electricity bill.

Is this bill the solution to all that ails Colorado schools? Of course not, but it is a clever idea for helping schools keep more money while also investing in alternative energy, and it highlights a very real divide right now between Democrats and Republicans at the legislature. While the GOP is busy saying no to everything it can, Democrats are putting together creative pieces of legislation.

This is a very simple difference that cuts to the heart of how each party has chosen to lead in the legislature. There’s no reason Republicans couldn’t come up with ideas like this if they weren’t so head-in-the-sand set on being “The Party of No.” Not only is this good public policy, but politically it is the kind of idea that Kennedy and Kerr can use to run for re-election. It’s how Democrats took control of Colorado in 2004 (by saying they’d work to solve major issues) and it’s how they’ve stayed in control since (by doing what they said they’d do).

The problem for the GOP isn’t that they haven’t been “conservative” enough, or that Democrats have a few rich people on their side – it’s that Republicans don’t do anything with their elected positions, and Democrats do. It’s really not that complicated…but it doesn’t look like the GOP has figured it out yet.