President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%↑
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(R) Jeff Hurd
(D) Adam Frisch
50%
50%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
52%↑
48%↓
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
January 31, 2019 01:13 PM UTC
14 Comments
Johnston might want to cut a deal with Cary so she doesn't enter this race
Kennedy's an executive-mind – she wants to be in charge, not legislate.
Johnston needs to cut a deal with the teachers union so they don't eviscerate him in the primary.
I know, I was just yanking Mike's chain. He probably still has nightmares about her (and Jared) from the gubernatorial race.
As for the teacher's union, I don't think there is anything he can say or do that they would believe to make them support him.
Cary Kennedy should run for mayor of Denver.
Because we knew one of the candidates I had my parents from Ohio watch some of the 2018 Dem debates. They were really impressed with Mike. My parents aren’t liberal at all, and that should be a sign that Mike has some ability to get mandate type vote.
You Dems should think very strongly about him as your nominee.
Way early to be thinking of who potential nominees might be. Having said that, I like Mike. I've met him and talked at length with him. He'll have more appeal, I would think, to the non-affiliated than the other candidates mentioned.
As for the teachers' union, they need to get over themselves. I've already opined that a centrist Dem will have the best chance of taking out Cory.
Possibly because he misrepresented his education experience and wasn't pushed to defend his stupid education bill that threw teachers under the bus instead of seeking much needed funding in a state where half the districts are on 4 day schedules. His dumb law connected standardized test results to teacher performance, which there is no connection at all. Such test scores correlate to affluence and do not reflect a teacher's strength in the classroom. We don't need more dumb ideas from the corporate make-money-off-public-education crowd that supports Johnston.
Next!!!
Colorado school districts: 181
Colorado school districts on 4 day week: 102
181 / 102 = 56%
However, rating and paying teachers on standardized test scores is … too weird.
Oh, that is exactly how that works.
Would somebody remind me what it was for the teachers union to get that pissed off at Johnston?
2010's State Senate bill 191 which fundamentally changed the way teacher's were evaluated and terminated. He also gets a lot of funds from charter school advocates.
When SB191 was passed, I counted the years until it would go into place, and said "Whew! I can retire before that." and I did. Having 1/2 of a teacher's evaluation based on student's test scores is discouraging to good teaching practices and encourages "teach to the test." That sort of education philosophy is one I wanted no part of. I saw it as nothing more than "Beat up on Teachers." Geez..teaching is an incredibly tough job, and laws like the one Johnston got enacted only made it harder on educators, and undermined respect for teachers by students, parents, communities, and newspaper editorial writers.
Right….”Teacher Accountability”, i.e., how well teachers do on standardized tests depends a lot on the kids teachers get that year. So one year, you have kids who are moving 3 times a year, barely surviving on parents' minimum wage jobs, entered US school late or attended intermittently because of immigration and refugee problems. They might not do so well on the standardized tests.
Another year, you get kids who are stable, interested in and hopeful about their futures, not hungry, have basic skills either from their home country or from the US. They do fantastic on the tests.
And then, within the school and community culture, one year, you may have 3 different principals because nobody wants to teach in your district or your school is about to be "re-organized" and made into a charter school. (Thanks Mike Johnston!)
Discipline is shaky because of the inconsistency, and crime is rising in the neighborhood. Families are getting split up constantly because you have a new President who thinks this will MAGA.
Both years, you could be doing an exemplary job of teaching, being creative, teaching with rigor to the standards, having good relationships, etc. Those are the factors you can control, over all of the ones you can't.
What we know works in education is smaller class sizes, more adults in the room (the Title 1 model with a licensed teacher and a paraprofessional in each classroom), adaptation to kids' levels, remediation or advancement as necessary. There are a few tried and true writing models that work well (6 traits, created by Vicki Spandel) . Educational success doesn't have a lot to with fancy expensive curriculums or online learning that attempts to replace the teacher with an algorithm.
And yes, it does help to pay teachers well enough that they don't have to work a second job or marry a rich person to be able to stay in the profession. Denver teachers negotiate with DPS, which is about to cut some central office positions in order to pay teachers better.