Taking a Few Leaps to Promote Excellent School Leadership in Colorado
Since today is February 29, I’ll take a timely leap from some of my usual fare to point you to two new podcasts produced by my Education Policy Center friends. In the first, Gina Schlieman explains how school-level autonomy has empowered some positive changes in Britain. In the second, foundation president Tom Kaesemeyer highlighted a […]
Colorado Education Transparency Train Rolls On
Union agreements bind many local school boards in how they use public funds, while also setting priorities and policies for local schools and classrooms. What other private group do we allow to have secret meetings with government officials over tax dollars and official policies? Following a 2010 K-12 financial transparency law, HB 1118 would open union negotiations to public view. The education transparency train rolls on.
Breaking news: carbon tax repeal passes Colorado state house
Good news for Xcel Energy ratepayers. HB 1172 “no imputed carbon tax”, Representative Spencer Swalm’s second attempt to repeal Colorado’s carbon tax, passed the state House on third reading this morning. It is now headed to the Colorado Senate with Senator Ted Harvey as the sponsor. Details of the recorded vote to follow when available.
Colorado Consumer Health Initiative takes power from patients, hands it to politically-controlled health plans
Erik Lessing’s excellent letter to the editor in the Denver Post in response the Colorado “Consumer” Health Initiative’s pro-ObamaCare op-ed. Continue reading
Weld County suspected storm clouds over Abound
Update: The personal property tax incentive was not extended to Vestas either for the 2012 budget. In the 2011 budget Vestas received $96,252 in tax incentives. Commissioner Sean Conway said the vote to discontinue the incentives going forward for both Abound and Vestas was 5-0 in December 2011. The same measure was defeated for the […]
Comprehensive Milwaukee Voucher Study Shows Some Positive, No Harmful Results
The big news from the education reform world this week is the release of the School Choice Demonstration Project’s final reports evaluating five years of matched student comparisons between the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and the Milwaukee Public Schools. What can we learn about vouchers from the results of this program?
The American Federation for Children […]
Jared Polis, you’re wrong: Obamacare is a government takeover
Colorado Congressman Jared Polis (D-Boulder) claims that ObamaCare is not “a government takeover of the health care industry.” He’s wrong. The only way he could be correct is that if he acknowledged how much government controlled the industry before ObamaCare. Continue reading
Back in the Air Again
The Antiplanner is in Honolulu this week talking with people about the city’s planned $5.7-billion rail line. Rail advocates want to believe the rail plan is set in stone, but not everyone agrees. The project still has many obstacles to overcome. If the transportation bill that Congress eventually passes recognizes fiscal realities, for example, the […]
Senate Bill 82 Shows Utah Serious about Treating Teachers Fairly
Many Colorado schools and teachers impart to their pupils the importance of fairness, whether through formal lessons, classroom conversations, special events or codes of conduct. Meanwhile, school officials could glean some important ideas about fairness from legislation being considered by our western neighbors in Utah. The grassroots reformers at Parents for Choice in Education are […]
Colorado HB 12-1242 would compromise patients’ medical privacy
By requiring people to choose between health care and personal privacy, Colorado’s All-Payer Health Claims Database and the proposed HB 12-1242 are both unacceptable infringements of individual rights. Read more in the CO Springs Gazette. Continue reading
Letting the Infrastructure Crumble
Portland can spend hundreds of millions on streetcars and billions on light rail. But it is letting its most-valuable asset–the city’s $5 billion road system–fall apart, says an expose featured in yesterday’s Oregonian. The city’s transportation department, says the article, has enough money to hire eight new employees to oversee streetcars, build more than a […]
The Great Forgetting
The meaning of some of the Constitution’s 18th century terminology was lost during the 19th century, leading to widespread misunderstanding.
