Transparency in DougCo School District: Toward a Happy Ending to the Story

by Eddie | 3:34 pm, March 18, 2013

Update, 3/25: Happy endings don’t usually come so quickly. But just one week later, Dougco has made and received confirmation on a number of online transparency improvements to now receive an A-minus grade. If you’ve followed little old Eddie for any length of time, you know I’m a fan of the following two things: open [...]

On This Measure of Charter School Laws, Colorado Ranks 4th… Not Bad

by Eddie | 4:51 pm, January 30, 2013

Keep those education policy grades a-rollin’ in! Not even two weeks since I shared with you that the Center for Education Reform placed Colorado 10th nationally for the strength of its charter school law, here comes another rating. The ever-growing National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) has released its fourth annual ranking of state [...]

On This Measure of Charter School Laws, Colorado Ranks 4th… Not Bad

by Eddie | 10:09 am, January 30, 2013

Keep those education policy grades a-rollin’ in! Not even two weeks since I shared with you that the Center for Education Reform placed Colorado 10th nationally for the strength of its charter school law, here comes another rating. The ever-growing National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) has released its fourth annual ranking of state [...]

Looming Legislative Session Evokes More Heartburn than Hope for K-12 Issues

by Eddie | 4:12 pm, January 8, 2013

Run for cover, and hold onto your wallets! Tomorrow marks the beginning of the first session of the 69th Colorado General Assembly. At first, I thought about just re-posting last year’s pre-session warning. Yet while there may be some similarities between 2012 and 2013, it would end up being a lazy thing to do, and [...]

Top 10? Yes, But ‘C’ for Colorado on Students First Policy Report Card

by Eddie | 4:02 pm, January 7, 2013

Not too long ago I was telling you about new information out grading Colorado schools’ performance. But how is Colorado doing in applying policies that promote an excellent, equitable and efficient education system? Today the national group Students First released its first-ever State Policy Report Cards.
How did Colorado do? Depends how you look at it. [...]

Won’t Back Down Movie Makes Cool Kids of Education Reformers Like Me

by Eddie | 1:31 pm, October 2, 2012

Last week I was excited to tell you about the special screening and premiere of the new education reform film Won’t Back Down, that has created quite a stir of teachers union protests. (They should protest, writes National Review’s Rich Lowry, noting “the calculation of their self-interest was exactly right.”)
Not here in Colorado, though, at [...]

What the Smart Experts Are Saying about the Chicago Teachers Union Strike

by Eddie | 9:29 am, September 12, 2012

No time to opine today, but the attention of the K-12 education world is on the continuing Chicago teachers strike. A lot of pixels are being used to cover the topic, but I believe the following are the most informative and insightful:

Dr. Terry Moe, one of the nation’s foremost experts on teachers unions, writes at [...]

Douglas County Stopped The Machine, Why Can’t Other School Boards?

by Eddie | 2:43 pm, September 7, 2012

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 [...]

Please Don’t Send a Class of Little Eddies on an Occupy Denver Field Trip!

by Eddie | 11:06 am, August 30, 2012

Stop for a moment and picture a classroom of 20 little Eddies and Edwinas (girls, I know, yeck). The nice teacher one day gets up in front of the room and hands out permission slips for a field trip. “Field trip? Yay!!!” we shout. “Where are we going? The zoo? The science museum? The fire [...]

Accountability, Please? Arbitrator Says Dougco Union Can Keep Tax Funds

by Eddie | 3:27 pm, August 20, 2012

Ed News Colorado reports today regarding a dispute over publicly-funded teacher union employees, that an arbitrator has ruled in favor of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers (DCFT) and against the taxpayers. At issue is $118,500 school district officials say the union president agreed to pay rather than be accountable for the use of tax-funded [...]

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