EdisWatching.org Archives - Independence Institute

A Colorado School District’s Dubious Union Agreement Under Scrutiny 0
- September 9, 2019
Until a little over a year ago, public sector unions across the United States frequently employed the practice of collecting “fair share provisions” or “agency fees” from employees who had opted out of full union membership. These payments amounted to a prearranged sum of money designed to correspond solely to the costs of the union’s
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Teacher Safety Is School Safety 0
- August 27, 2019
The Colorado Department of Education annually records the number of serious behavioral incidents by students that occurred on school or district grounds. Individual school reports can be found on SchoolView.org. Similar practices have been adopted in many other states, and although these incident reports are valuable, in the vast majority of states they do not
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Study Series Examines how Denver and Other Cities Compare to Their States 0
- August 15, 2019
With the CMAS results being released today, it is worthwhile to take a few minutes and consider an example of how the data made available by standardized tests is being used by education researchers. For several years now, Stanford University’s Center for Research on Academic Outcomes (CREDO) has been publishing reports on the performance of
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New Study Examines Private School Affordability 0
- August 8, 2019
Last week, Bellwether Education Partners released a study on recent trends in private school access and affordability. Recent years, the report notes, have seen widespread closures of Catholic schools, which have long provided quality private education to many less-affluent communities. Combined with increases in non-religious private school tuitions that have outpaced inflation and wage growth,
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Some Ongoing Challenges to State Blaine Amendments and Clauses 0
- July 19, 2019
In light of the Supreme Court’s granting certiorari to Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue last month, it is worthwhile to highlight the fact that the Montana case is not the only ongoing challenge to a state ban on the provision of aid to religious or “sectarian” institutions. Currently, 37 state constitutions feature Blaine amendments, which
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Secretary DeVos and Her Education Freedom Scholarship Proposal Visit Colorado 0
- July 3, 2019
Last week, United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited our state to speak in Colorado Springs at an event organized by Parents Challenge to celebrate the 20thanniversary of the organization’s founding. As now seems to be the case with most public officials, DeVos was greeted by picketers, some of whom seemed to have little
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