Most Voters Still Lowball the Amount of Money Funding K-12 Public Schools
Interesting results from a survey by the Foundation for Educational Choice came out recently, gauging opinions and understanding of education issues of voters in six different states: Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, New Jersey and New York.
Taking a look at the full results (PDF) is fascinating. A few items about school choice jump out. Respondents in […]
The PUC Has Chosen a HB 1365 Plan…So What’s Next?
The PUC on Thursday decided on an implementation plan for the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act. Read about it here, here, and here. So what’s next? First, Xcel must decide if PUC’s chosen plan is acceptable. HB 1365 allows Xcel “to withdraw its application,” if it “disagrees with the Commission’s modifications to its proposed plan.” […]
LaHood Redistributes High-Speed Rail Funds
Rather than fight the plans of governors-elect Kasich and Walker to cancel high-speed trains in Ohio and Wisconsin, Secretary of Immobility Ray LaHood has preempted them by redistributing the $1.2 billion in federal rail grants to those states. Not surprisingly, most of the money is going to to California ($624 million) and Florida ($342 million). […]
Are Earmarks Necessary?
Represenative Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota, is against earmarks. But not when it comes to transportation. “Advocating for transportation projects for ones district in my mind does not equate to an earmark.” Georgia Republican Representative Jack Kingston agrees. “How do you handle [transportation] without earmarks, since that’s a heavily earmarked bill?” he says. I […]
Congrats to Colo. School Districts with Distinction, School Centers of Excellence
This morning, Colorado’s outgoing governor Bill Ritter formally recognized some schools and school districts for outstanding academic performance.
A couple observations, first about the school districts. As Ed News Colorado’s Nancy Mitchell explains and breaks down, there are five levels of rating districts can earn from the state’s Department of Education. Only 14 of 178 […]
How to amend the Constitution safely and without Congress — according to the Founders
“How to” Issue Papers on obtaining needed constitutional amendments without the consent of Congress.
Bad day for Colorado energy users
It’s a bad day for Colorado energy users, and that’s pretty much everyone. The ethically-challenged Public Utilities Commission just gave a final thumbs up to Xcel’s fuel switching plan as mandated by HB 1365. (See all previous posts from my colleague William Yeatman) Losers in this deal include consumers who will see their utilities costs […]
Review of December 8 PUC Hearing on HB 1365: PUC Punts
The PUC decided almost nothing during four hours of deliberations yesterday. The two major issues discussed were cost recovery and what to do with the 352 megawatt Cherokee 4 coal fired power plant in Adams county. Regarding cost-recovery, the debate focused on timing. Xcel wants to be paid up front for the investments required to […]
EPA’s Ozone Decision Means That HB 1365 Is Most Cost-Ineffective Environmental Policy, Ever
The putative mission of HB 1365 is for Colorado to address “reasonably foreseeable” federal air quality regulations in a holistic fashion, which is supposedly more cost-effective than a piece-meal approach. When it rolled out the legislation, the Ritter administration told the PUC that there were eleven “current and foreseeable air quality requirements (see slides 13 […]
No
That’s the answer to the question (raised here in September), “Should transit agencies buy hybrid buses?” At least, it is in the case of The Rapid, the transit agency for Grand Rapids, Michigan. With the usual fanfare, The Rapid took delivery on five hybrid-electric buses some three years ago. These buses cost $510,000 each, or […]
PUC Chair spends lots of time out of the office
Just about the time that Xcel Energy customers have recovered from the sticker shock of this summer’s air conditioner tax, ratepayers await another decision from the Public Utilities Commission on how much more their bills will increase – this time due to HB 1365, the controversial fuel-switching bill. Our paper “Colorado’s Clean Air Clean Jobs […]
Little Girl Tells Ms. Johnson, Colorado Teachers About Dec. 15 Refund Deadline
It’s not often I get to tell you about a kid cuter than little ol’ me. But credit goes to Lynn Bartels at the Denver Post for noting the real star of this great video — a video which explains how the Colorado Education Association automatically collects funds from members “to help influence elections” and […]
