Friday was a pretty big news day. Two big stories were reported. Fracking RuleThe Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will continue its hearing about the Fracking Rule on Tuesday, December 13. This continuation is primarily because of new information that was disclosed by the EPA about ground water pollution in Pavilion, Wyoming. Attorneys representing the environmental committee petitioned the Commission to consider the new information before finalizing any rule. At the hearing on December 5, an employee of Halliburton testified that there had never been any proven instance of hydraulic fracturing polluting any water. Commissioner Rich Allward questioned that testimony by suggesting that there had never been a study using the scientific method to test a hypothesis. The EPA report on pollution in Pavilion is not a perfect scientific study, but it does come closer. The EPA drilled two wells to monitor the plume of pollution radiating from a gas well. The results of testing demonstrated the presence of chemicals that are frequently used in fracking, and that are not naturally occurring in nature. Industry is still claiming that the results prove nothing. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is charged with two things: ensuring that there is development of Colorado’s natural resources and protecting the health and safety of citizens, including oil field workers and landowners where drilling is taking place. The continuation will be webcast on Tuesday, starting at 8:00 a.m. There is a link to the site where the webcast will be posted below. Colorado’s School Finance is UnconstitutionalA district court judge ruled on Friday that the way that Colorado finances education is unconstitutional because it does not provide the same education to all students in Colorado. Estimates of the funding shortage range from $2-billion to $4-billion. Governor Hickenlooper warned that forcing the state to put more money into education will mean that there will be cuts to transportation and health care. What he should have said is that we cut education funding during the last legislative session, and are facing more cuts in the upcoming legislative session. This case will be appealed to the Supreme Court. There are two Constitutional amendments in conflict on this case. TABOR does not allow any increase in taxes without a vote of the people. In the elections just last month the people rejected a citizen’s initiative that would have “De-Bruced” education with a temporary increase in sales and income taxes. The Constitution also requires Colorado to provide quality education to all of its kids. The court order, which is 183 pages long, details how current funding has no relationship with what is required to deliver quality education to those kids. If the order stands, the legislature is directed to consider how to make educational funding more equitable across Colorado. The only possible response from the legislature is to cut other programs, which have already been cut to the bone over several years of recession driven cutting. In April the University of Denver issued phase 2 of its study on the sustainability of Colorado’s government. The report‘s first paragraph is chilling: “Twelve years from now, Colorado will generate only enough sales, income and other general-purpose tax revenue to pay for the three largest programs in the General Fund – public schools, health care and prisons. There will be no tax revenue for public colleges and universities, no money for the state court system, nothing for child-protection services, nothing for youth corrections, nothing for state crime labs and nothing for other core services of state government.”The judge’s ruling on Friday hastens the complete failure of the State of Colorado. Homework EPA Report on Pavilion, WyomingQ & A About Fracking Study at EPANotice of Continued Deliberation on Colorado Fracking RuleLink to Audio of Rulemaking Deliberations To Be Live on TuesdayJudge Rules Colorado School Financing UnconstitutionalActual 183 Page Court DecisionUniversity Study on Sustainability of Colorado Government
While you were watching the fireworks surrounding Obama’s speech on the federal budget, the Colorado state legislature was busy passing its budget for the year. Colorado is ahead of the game, they are actually working on the fiscal budget for the year to come, not the year that is halfway finished. This budget wasn’t without drama. There were reputed shouting matches, including a dinner that the Senate President decided to leave before the meal was served. He even threatened to submit his own budget because he was having so much trouble getting to an agreement with the House leadership. Both the House and the Senate have passed a budget, and it is good news for WalMart, but bad news for poor kids who might fall out of a tree and break an arm or leg this summer. They won’t have any health insurance, so the rest of us will be paying for that childhood accident with higher health insurance premiums when the kid visits the emergency room. WalMart will get a break on collecting sales taxes. According to a Sentinel story written by Charles Ashby, Judy Solano, a Democrat from Brighton said, “When we give $9 million to the wealthiest corporation in the world … and we’re cutting our schools $250 million, it’s unconscionable for me to vote for this budget,” referring to Wal-Mart’s vendor fee. “To give away 98.8 percent of the vendor fee to large corporations when they speak out of one side of their mouth and say, ‘Education is important,’ and they speak out of the other side and say, ‘Yeah, but we need this extra money,’ we cannot be 50th in the nation for school funding.” I never thought I’d see the day that Colorado is last in the nation when it comes to education. I agree with Judy Solano, it is unconscionable. If you keep electing Republicans who are only guided by ALEC, as Steve King admitted in an E-mail to me, you are going to have kids who don’t learn, can’t get a good job, possibly end up as criminals, and in any event will not be productive members of society. In fact, I remember in debates that Steve King was convinced that there is nothing wrong with Colorado’s education system. He kept pointing to his own kids whenever I brought up the idea that we are killing both public K-12 and higher education with continued budget cuts. If you are poor you can forget about getting a good education in Colorado. Thank a Republican, but be warned, he isn’t listening to you, he is listening to ALEC. P.S. Kevin King, I mailed a check to the state of Colorado yesterday for my Colorado taxes. I just wish more of them went to schools and kids who need a break. Homework Charles Ashby Story (Subscription Required) Under the Gold Dome Fighting Words Denver Business Journal Story about Budget
Wisconsin Republican State Senator Glenn Grothman caused me to stop what I was doing and stare at the TV screen last night. I couldn’t believe I was hearing right. But I was. He said that protesters in Wisconsin were nothing but a bunch of slobs stinking up the State House. Evidently earlier he had called them dirty hippies. I’m not surprised that he believes that, I’m just surprised that he said it out loud. He went on to say that he believes that the protesters are nothing but a bunch of unemployed people or college students who are looking for somewhere to go. Politicians are usually more circumspect in what they say on national TV. But this guy’s been drinking some polluted water. It seems that Senator Grothman is prone to sticking his neck out. His homepage talks about how there should be no kindergarten for 4-year olds. Clearly he doesn’t want unruly children emulating their teachers by turning schools into pigsties. Do you have any idea how troublesome a bunch of little fingers covered in peanut butter and jelly can be? I don’t know much about his congressional district. Maybe they really do think that policemen, and firemen, and prison guards, and teachers, and four-year-olds are despicable, stinking, worthless human beings. But I’ll bet that there are enough despicable, stinking, worthless human beings there to stink up a voting booth on occasion. They are already chanting “shame” at the Senator. Homework Wisconsin Senator Calls Protesters Slobs Glenn Grothman's Home Page Protesters Chanting "Shame" at Grothman Blogger From the Senator's District
Last evening I attended a special showing of “Waiting for Superman.” It is a film about how schools are failing our kids. This showing was by invitation to community leaders as diverse as the superintendent of District 51, a school board member, teachers, bankers, businessmen, the mayors of Grand Junction and Fruita. The show was followed by a community open discussion about the film sponsored by several local businesses.
First the show: It follows several children who are not being well served by their local schools as they try to get into charter schools, where they might have a better chance of actually getting a good education. I’ll admit that the end of the film was a real tear-jerker. The film also focused on the widely reported battle between the teacher’s union and the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. Neither Michelle Rhee nor Randi Weingarten was presented as more than one-dimensional characters, with the film promoting Rhee as the hero and Weingarten as the shrill obstructionist labor boss.
The film had lots of statistics about how many failing schools there are in the U.S. and how few really excellent schools there are. It pointed out that Finland is rated number one in the world when it comes to educating its kids.
The discussion: After the show, we moved to a meeting room and broke up into small groups to talk about the film. My group included the superintendent of District 51, a single mom with teenagers in school, a teacher at a local charter school, a businessman who is a graduate of Grand Junction High School, but whose kids were educated elsewhere.
The discussion revolved around things like who should be accountable, and how the community might be involved in reforming schools. Views were varied but there seemed to be consensus that we need more focus on education, including educating parents about the importance of their involvement. Nobody seemed interested in “throwing money” at the problem, although it was noted that the average per pupil expense in the U.S. is $10,000, but in District 51 it is $6,700.
Reeves Brown, of Club 20, said that there were lots of private showings of this film around the state yesterday, but that Grand Junction was the only place where attendees agreed to meet for a discussion following the viewing. That’s a good thing, but it will take more than 35 interested people to really change the face of education.
Homework:
Waiting for Superman
Michelle Rhee Resigns
Rhee Vs WeingartenFinland's Schools
One of the things candidates do is knock on doors. We do it for a couple of reasons: to learn what voters are thinking and to promote a vote in our favor. This isn’t the most efficient communication method—knocking on about 20 doors generates one conversation. This sampling may not even be statistically accurate--within a standard deviation of the norm.What I’ve been seeing while knocking on doors—and lately from comments left at this blog—is that we don’t have a liberal mainstream media, we have a conservative misleading media. Citizens who get their information from Fox News don’t know that Muslim is a religion protected under the U.S. Constitution. They think that President Obama is a Muslim—despite being married in a Christian church, having two baptized daughters, and attending a very controversial Christian church for over 20 years. They think that President Obama was born in Kenya—despite a Republican governor of Hawaii confirming that he was born in Hawaii, and numerous fact checking organizations posting at their websites a certified copy of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate. They think that President Obama bailed out banks, insurance companies, and automobile manufacturers—despite the fact that the bail-out bill was signed by Bush before Obama was even sworn in as President. They think that “Obama Care” has death panels and will make it impossible for senior citizens to get knee replacement surgery. They want their Social Security and Medicare, but follow candidates who promise to cut or eliminate both.Meanwhile, back at the ranch, local citizens are talking about a “world-class” education for kids in Mesa County. They correctly note that one of the key factors in attracting business to a community is the quality of K-12 education. They correctly note that in the future today’s kids will be competing in a global economy and need an education that is on par with educations available world-wide. Yet the trend is that more and more kids are dropping out of school before graduating from high school, let alone from college. By 2018, more than 75% of all US jobs will require a college education, but Grand Junction has 30% of its kids dropping out of high school. Even more frightening, 72% of young black men drop out of high school in the north eastern US. Absent crime, how are these kids going to survive in a world where education is the path to jobs? How is Grand Junction going to offer a world class education when citizens are suspicious of any spending on schools?While knocking on doors I’ve had people in low-income housing explain to me that they didn’t want any more money going to teachers. It doesn’t matter that teachers here earn less than teachers in other states. That means that the highly motivated and skilled teacher is going to migrate to teaching positions where they can earn a comfortable living. Why would they hitch their star to an economic environment where budget constraints force cuts, cuts, and more cuts to education funding?If our local voter doesn’t value education, and gets their information from a media that is more misleading than informative, how are they ever going to understand when the Chairman of the Federal Reserve System describes options under consideration to get the economy humming again? What does it mean when the Fed says it could:· Buy more assets, · Lower market rate interest (on commercial transactions the rate is pretty close to zero, but credit card issuers have been busy raising rates before new regulations kick in), · Keep rates low for longer than the market expects, or · Charge banks for required deposits at the fed instead of paying interest on those deposits as a way to encourage banks to lend their excess deposits to small businesses? These are important questions. We need voters educated enough to vote in their own best interest instead of chanting the failed policy initiatives of the past decade. We got where we are today because billionaires wanted less regulation, and poor people didn’t know enough to buck the trend with their votes. Today those same billionaires are sponsoring Tea Party events, and the same misinformed voters are chanting for more of the same.HomeworkBuilding a Nation of Know-NothingsBillionaires Building the Tea PartyCredit Cards: If There's a Regulation, There's a Way Around ItEconomists in Jackson HoleEducation Makes a City Great
A lot of people, me included, hoped that Colorado would be awarded funding in Round 2 of Race to the Top Funding. Unlike some federal programs, where every state is guaranteed a share of the pie, this federal program awards funding to those states that put forward the best plans to improve conditions in their schools. The cut-off score for winning was 440 points. Colorado scored 420.2 in Round 2 and 408.0 in Round 1.The money would have been used to improve K-12 education in Colorado in many ways. It would have changed the educational standards to make our students competitive internationally. It would have directed funds to schools struggling to make the grade. It would have provided technology so that schools could better track progress in individual students, and measure teacher effectiveness.It would have meant that some of the funding gap in Colorado’s budget would be filled by federal funding. This is really bad news for Colorado. Yesterday I met with a woman who was helping me to understand how Colorado funds its schools. A lot of the money comes from the state. Some of the money comes from local property taxes. As property values decrease, there is a corresponding decrease in tax revenue. Next year’s school budgets will be further stressed when these lower values are factored into funding formulas. Adding insult to injury, as Colorado struggles to backfill the lost property tax revenues, in order to make sure that all kids in Colorado have equal access to quality education; it is facing its own revenue shortfalls. Who would have thought that fees on marijuana users would pay for schools? It is a strange world we are living in. And nobody is talking about the role that TABOR and Proposition 23 are playing in this strange world.HomeworkUsing Marijuana to Pay for Education?Colorado Department of Education Comments on Failure to Get Race to the Top FundsHow the State ScoredTrends in Local Home Values
In the first round of Race to the Top awards, Colorado was a finalist, but didn’t take the prize. Now, in round two of Race to the Top awards, Colorado is a finalist. Colorado asked for $175 million in round two.The state worked hard to pass a bill that would better position Colorado in round two. (Senate Bill 191) The bill was opposed by teachers and their unions because it changed how teachers were evaluated. Understanding their angst, I blogged that had I been in the Senate, I would’ve supported the bill—for purely economic reasons. If any further budget cuts are needed in Colorado’s budget, one of the few remaining places where significant cuts could be made is in education. (The others are Justice and Medicare/Medicaid.)One way to avoid cuts in education is to find alternative funding sources. Race to the Top is just that. It brings federal money into the budget for education, and saves jobs for teachers. If it works as the designers hope it will, it changes the focus in education to what works for kids. Kids first! Let’s hope we make it to the alter this time.Homework:Colorado is a Finalist in Race to the Top
The Colorado bill changing how teachers are evaluated, signed into law by Governor Ritter, is making waves nationally. Yesterday the Los Angeles Times wrote about the bill, and the impact it is having in California, where a similar bill is being considered.As I’ve written before, evaluating teachers on the tests taken by their students may not produce the results we are seeking. If what we want are kids who are developing into the skilled workers that businesses need, we need the brightest and best in the teaching profession. What we are getting is the bottom quartile of high school graduates. To put this into perspective, we have C students trying to create Einsteins. A students have discovered that they can make lots more money working in other professions.When I was a kid, women had essentially three “career” paths: Mommy, Nurse, Teacher. Bright women chose to go into teaching or nursing. Today women are in corporate board rooms. Women, thanks to the women’s movement, gained the ability to work in a myriad of professions. I’m not saying that there aren’t really good, dedicated teachers in our education system. There are. I met many of them when I visited their schools recently. What I’m saying is that the industry, as a whole, no longer attracts the top students. Without access to that labor pool, we cannot expect huge improvement in the education our kids are getting.As a society we have put more value in jobs like trash hauler and bartender. Their annual salaries often exceed the salaries of teachers. Yet teachers have to invest in constantly updating their teaching credentials. Unfortunately those updates tend to focus on technique, not course content. The system is designed for mediocrity, and no amount of teacher evaluation reform is going to make a dent in the problem.Homework:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-colorado-20100523,0,5945475.storyhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-judd/prematurely-tying-perform_b_580226.html
It is Spring Break time, yet I find myself thinking about the classroom. The more I investigate the job that Representatives have, the more I realize that I need to know a lot more about the educational system. Some of the budgeting woes in Denver stem from the competing instructions voters have given legislators: keep government spending low vs. increase spending on schools. Add to that mixed message the Obama administration’s take on education reform, the Race to the Top, and things get complicated quickly.Colorado is a finalist in the first round of federal funding for the Race to the Top Program. We now need to defend our application in meetings in Washington, D.C. Editorials in the Denver Post last week were chiding Ritter for not appointing a panel to link teacher evaluations to student achievement, a key component of the federal program. The fear is that without the work of that panel, Colorado will not win an award in the first round of funding.I’ve written applications for federal programs where large sums of money are involved. Success often rests on the ability to make the reader understand how your project meets the goals of the program. In the case of Race to the Top, one goal is to make teachers more accountable for the results. With the current drop-out rate in western Colorado, clearly we need some change.What I hadn’t understood, until I was reading the latest issue of Newsweek, was that a majority of the nation’s teachers come from the bottom quartile of students entering colleges and universities. Some innovative programs in the nascent charter school movement are encouraging top students to become teachers by offering salaries competitive with other industries in exchange for teaching in really tough neighborhoods. We need great teachers if we are going to change the local drop-out rates. Evidently a kid that has two years of bad teachers is lost forever. We can’t afford to throw away our future that way. Homework:http://www.newsweek.com/id/234590http://www.newsweek.com/id/154901http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14642101http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14516241http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14507608http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html
I know that some of the people reading this blog are educators, and I’d like to hear from you about regulating the for profit education industry. I also read a story about a Charter School in Denver failing, and would like to hear your thinking about Charter Schools in general. When I was at CRF we financed a charter school in Newark that helped at risk children stay in school, so I’m not predisposed to be against them, but I would like to know what the community of educators is thinking.http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14213656
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