The Citizens' Budget: K-12 Funding Issue Brief
This concise issue brief on K-12 education is part of the comprehensive Citizens’ Budget. The report lays out a road map for Colorado policy makers to implement policies that would close next year’s billion-dollar budget problem and establish a sustainable trend line for balanced budgets into the future, with no increase in taxes or fees. This section explores how Colorado’s current K-12 school funding system works and offers ideas for savings, including a tax credit program to offset private school tuition costs.
A Glimpse at Redefining Public Education
It’s always fun to discover a great new education blog on a Friday. I’m talking about the blog “redefinED: the new definition of public education” by Florida reformers John Kirtley and Doug Tuthill (H/T Eduwonk). A series of their recent entries report and provide analysis from Jeb Bush’s very recent Excellence in Action conference in […]
Federal Stimulus Brilliance: Don’t Let Special Ed Funds Follow Student Needs
I’m super busy working on a new Lego project today, so forgive me for keeping this one short. But I wanted to bring your attention to an investigative piece by Greg Campbell at the online Colorado news service Face The State. The story? “Stimulus funds lavished on special ed – even where the need is […]
The Citizens' Budget: K-12 Funding Podcast
Policy analyst Ben DeGrow discusses K-12 education spending in Colorado and how taking a closer look might unlock some permanent savings in our state budget. A part of the Citizens Budget project.
2010 Edublog Award Nominations
Last year I told you that all I wanted for Christmas was to be nominated for an Edublog Award. Ok, so it wasn’t really ALL I wanted for Christmas, but that’s beside the point.
Well, the 2010 Edublog Awards competition is up and running, and I am proud to say that someone DID nominate me! […]
Parental Involvement is Great, Even Better if the Parents Choose the School
Yesterday’s Denver Post featured an interesting story on a successful program at Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School and its feeder schools to engage parents:
The collaboration is focused on aligning academics and empowering parents — providing them with training, taking them to visit colleges, encouraging them to volunteer and getting them to attend parent-teacher conferences.
Not long […]
Value-Added Teacher Evaluation Makes Sense: Just Look at Baseball
Thanksgiving is football season, so I thought it would be a perfect time to highlight the intersection of education reform and… baseball. Yes, that’s right. Writing on the Education Next blog, Harvard professor Paul Peterson brought my attention to a great new consensus report from the Brookings Institution on the role of value-added in teacher […]
National School Choice Week is Two Months Away: What Will You Do?
We’re getting really close to Thanksgiving. Many of you are probably daydreaming about turkey dinners, football and family gatherings. But let’s look ahead. Exactly two months from today begins National School Choice Week:
Our message is simple: we need a K-12 education system that provides a wide array of options. We need an effective education system […]
Blogging for Real Education Reform? Let’s Take on Master’s Bumps, Productivity
Thanks to Mike Antonucci’s Intercepts blog, I learned that today is “National Blogging for Real Education Reform Day.” The American Association of School Administrators and ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) are hosting this “grassroots effort to bring together Pk-12 and higher education educators.”
I like to help educate people and am definitely […]
Devils Advocate: Local School Vouchers in Colorado?
So what’s the big deal about the proposed school voucher plan in Douglas County? Tune in to Devil’s Advocate to find out as host Jon Caldara is joined by Douglas County School District Board of Education President John Carson and Independence Institute Education Policy Analyst Ben DeGrow for a discussion of how a voucher system […]
DPS Board Adopts Reform Plan in Second Big, Exciting Local Meeting This Week
This is not the week for your average, run-of-the-mill, humdrum school board meeting. Not in Colorado, not in the Denver metro area. I already highlighted the heavy attendance at Douglas County’s Tuesday public testimony on their School Choice Task Force proposals and all the attention generated from it.
Then there was last night in the Denver […]
Experts Weigh In on “Grim” Results, “Tiny” Gains in 12th Grade NAEP Scores
I only have time for a short posting this morning, but thought you should be aware of the newly-released results of the 12th-grade NAEP (National Achievement of Educational Progress) test scores. Instead of weighing in, I’ll point you to the analysis of a few others. First, Fordham’s Checker Finn writes:
The big news, alas, isn’t news […]
