Douglas County Stopped The Machine, Why Can’t Other School Boards?
It’s Friday, so instead of making you read a lot, kick back and enjoy this 4-minute video from Reason TV, explaining how teachers unions’ influence on education politics works like a well-oiled machine:
Earlier this week, the Douglas County Board of Education officially put an end to the automatic dues collection service that helped to power […]
Reviving TIF in California
Last year, California Governor Jerry Brown persuaded the state legislature to shut down redevelopment districts whose use of tax-increment financing was eating into school and other local budgets and, by turn, into the state budget which was forced to make up for school losses to redevelopment. This year, the legislature has quietly been sneaking TIF […]
9/6/12
Education Policy Center Newsletter September 6, 2012
— Friday TV Alert: Exposing Social Activism in Denver Teacher Evaluations
— AFT Union Loses Battle to Preserve Dougco Power and Privilege
— Watch John Corcoran, The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read
— DeGrow, Farmer Discuss Back-to-School Union Opt-Out Periods
— Eddie Tackles Colorado K-12 Funding Debate
Winters’ Work on VAM Adds Value to Colorado Educator Effectiveness Policy
I’m guessing that 2012 has been fairly busy for education policy researcher Dr. Marcus Winters. He started with the launch of his book Teachers Matter, which included visiting Denver as the first-ever speaker in the Independence Institute’s Brown Bag Lunch series. And he since has published work on school innovation and productivity, and the […]
Will Obamacare Play Games With Your Actual Life?
Under new ObamaCare rules, hospitals will have a similar incentive to “game” the system to improve their Medicare statistics, even at patient expense. Continue reading
The Truth About GM and Chrysler
VP candidate Paul Ryan has been accused of lying when he claimed that Obama broke a promise by letting a Wisconsin auto factory close, when in fact the factory closed before Obama took office. Although that isn’t precisely what Ryan said, there is some validity to the accusation that his statement was deceptive. But numerous […]
Trick or Treat: Teachers Union Rhetoric vs. Priorities?
Originally posted at Colorado Peak Politics. Re-posted here with permission. By Ben DeGrow On August 26, a glowing Denver Post feature introduced Kerrie Dallman to thousands of readers as the new president of one of the state’s strongest and most one-sided lobbying arms: the Colorado Education Association. Dallman told reporter Kevin Simpson that the union […]
Amy Oliver Show: On Protests and Teachers Union Priorities
Senior education policy analyst Ben DeGrow highlights the contrast between the new Colorado Education Association president’s statement that students should be at the “front and center” of the union agenda, and her call to members to show “solidarity” at a Wednesday protest of the Douglas County school board.
10 Ways Obamacare Limits Patient Choice
bamacare limits patient choice either directly or indirectly in a variety of ways. Here are just 10 Obamacare provisions to be aware of. Continue reading
Class Warfare in 2012
Liberals accuse Republicans of engaging in class warfare. Conservatives accuse Republicans of engaging in class warfare. Cynics accuse both parties of existing “solely to hurl rhetoric at each other and pander to the the most ignorant of their base constituencies.” While the Antiplanner is sympathetic to the cynical view, I also think the idea of […]
Colorado Springs Early Colleges Student’s Heroic Actions Worth Bragging About
Not everything in the world of Colorado K-12 education is a serious statement about policy. Sometimes the more compelling story comes in the heat of a dramatic moment, when more is at stake than grades on a test. The Colorado Springs Gazette’s Matt Steiner reports on a high school freshman who, when confronted with a […]
Hospital consolidation increases costs, ObamaCare promotes it
In the Wall Street Journal yesterday morning, a report from the other end of the monopolization of health care services – what happens when a hospital buys out your specialist. Continue reading
