Claudette Konola

Always a Bridesmaid, never a Bride?

07/28/2010

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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
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The Dog Ate My Homework

03/30/2010

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The Dog Ate My Homework

Linked below are lots of stories about school finance, and how dire it is in Colorado. At a campaign event, I was asked how I thought Colorado would fund schools, and my reply was that I hoped some federal funds from Race to the Top would fill the funding gap. It still might, but Colorado lost out in the first round.

Today we are moving Dad from the VA Hospital to a rehab/nursing facility where he will receive some speech therapy. We are hoping that the therapy will help him regain his ability to communicate with more than shoulder shrugs and hand signs, not to mention his ability to swallow food. I’m helping my mom with all the paperwork.

I’m also up to some administrative stuff in my campaign that will result in big news later this week. But I can’t write about it now because the dog ate my homework.

Homework

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304370304575151682457897668.html

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/district_51_considers_cutting

http://www.journal-advocate.com/sterling-local_news/ci_14764161

http://www.junctiondailyblog.com/index.php

http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/articles/colorado_district_51_still_hop/
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Fire Bad Teachers?

03/10/2010

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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/234590

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154901

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14642101

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14516241

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14507608

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html
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