In Denver, Romney touts free-market education reform
DENVER-- Yesterday all but certain GOP candidate for president Mitt Romney, speaking at the Alliance for Choice in Education's (ACE) 10th Anniversary Luncheon , stressed the importance of choice and free-market principles in K-12 education. He condemned politicians for not looking at data and analysis before making decisions on such vital policy decisions as class size. But Romney argued that class size has no effect on student scores even though studies show that in schools where 1st through 3rd grade class size was limited to 18 students and where teachers shifted their teaching behaviors to reflect those smaller class sizes, there is considerable improvement in performance.
Ritter signs teacher assessment legislation into law
DENVER-- Governor Bill Ritter signed SB 191, the controversial teacher assessment bill passed at the end of the session into law Thursday. The governor said the bill was the capstone of his administration's work on education policy and a model for education nationwide.
Bold bipartisan bill will rework Colorado higher ed funding
DENVER-- The Higher Education Flexibility Act passed the Senate last week and is scheduled to make it to the House Monday. It's a bold bill that would rearrange the relationship between public universities and the government. It would mean greater autonomy for university administrations which, for example, would be free to levy tuition hikes under 9 percent per year. Current higher education funding in low-tax recession-wracked Colorado has become unsustainable. The new bill seeks to buffer universities against a likely $300 million funding cut next year.
Colorado minority youth disproportionately tried as adults
Lopsided percentages of young people charged as adults in Colorado courts appear to be ethic minority youth, an apparent bias rights activists suggest should be examined, especially given that Colorado is one of only 14 states in the country to embrace the hard-line "direct file" system, where district attorneys decide, without judicial review, whom to try as adults. According to analysts, the "direct file" system can be counterproductive and, in Colorado at least, is plagued by inadequate data collection and review. Indeed, even the most basic information, like the ethnic makeup of the juveniles being charged with adult crimes, is unreliable or simply not collected.
Top-Notch Denver school wins Obama cabinet-member commencement speaker
The Denver School of Science and Technology, not used to be a runner up for anything, made it to the final round but lost...
Denver School one step closer to scoring Obama commencement speech
Denver School of Science and Technology has made it to the final round in the White House Race to the Top High School Commencement...
Arizona legislature bans ethnic studies programs
A week after passing a state immigration law that has drawn wide criticism that it is a racist law or at least will promote...
Teacher tenure ‘juggernaut’ bill clears Senate, faces tougher battle in House
SB 191, the teacher tenure bill that has divided traditional political allies and made for strange-bedfellows in the State Legislature this session, passed on...
Denver student walkouts target Arizona and Colorado immigration laws
Students across the metro area will walk out of class today beginning at 1:30 p.m. and march to the west steps of the state Capitol to protest Arizona’s SB 1070, the new state law giving police the authority to detain people based on “reasonable suspicion” they may be in the country illegally.
Denver school risks right-wing ire in seeking Obama commencement visit
Some Coloradans were sent into a fury over fears of socialist indoctrination when Pres. Obama recorded a video to be shown at public schools...