EDUCATION - Opinion Editorials - Independence Institute

District 49's Innovative Strategy is the Real News in Falcon 0
- January 26, 2011
On Jan. 13 the Falcon District 49 school board set in motion a plan designed to empower families, to streamline bureaucracy and to give principals the tools and incentives to succeed. The phrase “innovation zone” at the center of the plan is more than a buzzword or an ethereal abstraction. It represents the promise of positive, transformative change for individual teachers and students.
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Education Jobs Bailout Can't Be Justified 0
- August 17, 2010
Last week, the House of Representatives passed legislation that included a $10 billion payout to states to preserve K-12 school jobs. Retaining or adding school employees may be a priority for the Democrat majority in Congress and their union backers, which stand to gain more than $20 million. But as a national policy, Congress’ Education Jobs Fund — or “edujobs” — bailout is excessive, shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible.
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Smaller Classes Don't Mean Better Teaching 0
- July 26, 2010
In these difficult budget times, preserving teacher jobs and smaller class sizes remains as a high-priority education strategy. Yet Colorado can better maximize outputs by promoting practical changes at the classroom level. Research repeatedly tells us that large-scale class size reduction programs bring very little or no bang for a lot of education bucks.
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Teachers Lobbying on Taxpayer Time Needs to be Addressed 0
- April 30, 2010
Teachers certainly have the right to speak out on legislation that will affect their professional lives. However, unlike supporters of the bill, many opposing teachers have taken days off at taxpayer expense. The locally negotiated perk of “association leave” enables unions to designate teachers to skip class to perform union business.
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Education Problems Not Due to Lack of Funding 0
- February 25, 2010
Through years of steadily rising revenues, lawmakers and education officials have not had enough incentive to deal with the long-term structural challenges that drive costs upwards without improving results. It is unfair and unproductive to scapegoat taxpayers for this reality.
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Courts Should Not Mess With School Funding 0
- October 26, 2009
Colorado’s top judges have opened the door to re-crafting our school finance system from the bench when they should have avoided the possibility altogether.
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