PERA – It’s All For The Kids

by Joshua Sharf | 5:18 pm, January 20, 2013

Not all school spending is for the kids.  A lot of it is for the teachers, at the expense of the kids.  Over the last five years, even as school districts and teachers unions complain that per-student spending has been “slashed,” “cut to the bone,” or “eviscerated,” per-student spending on the PERA School Division has [...]

JeffCo’s Teachers Unions Shell Game

by Joshua Sharf | 11:53 pm, July 23, 2012

The unions favoring JeffCo’s 3A & 3B are using the usual scare tactics, of course. But this year, thanks to Sheila Atwell at Jeffco Students First (among others), they’re having to play defense on a number of issues, including the district’s PERA contributions.

Union Concessions Not So…Concessional

by Joshua Sharf | 1:35 am, June 24, 2012

This morning, the Douglas County Federation of Teachers responded to the School Board’s thoughts on the state of contract negotiations. The response is notable, because it appears to walk back a number of concessions that the union had made in earlier negotiations. The union’s justification, laid out in a letter to its membership (see below), [...]

PERA, the Unions, and You

by Joshua Sharf | 1:14 pm, June 3, 2012

One of the less-noticed points of contention at Douglas County’s open negotiations the other week was the status of school district employees who are actually on the union payroll.  Basically, union heads leave the classroom to spend their time representing teachers and the union, yet remain officially school district employees.  The district wants to end [...]

What I Saw At The Open Negotiations

by Joshua Sharf | 12:05 pm, May 25, 2012

Last night I attended the Douglas County teachers union contract negotiations conducted under the county’s new Open Negotiations policy.  This was the first meeting which teachers were able to attend, and the Douglas County Federation of Teachers – the local for the American Federation of Teachers – had called for teachers to show up in [...]

Be Careful What You Wish For

by Joshua Sharf | 11:46 pm, May 31, 2011

Back in 2009, the Colorado legislature decided they had had it with citizen oversight.  They passed HB09-1326, which, among other things: People who successfully challenge the validity of signatures in court could sue sponsors of the measure to recover attorney’s fee. Circulators who collect more than 100 signatures are required to go through a government-sponsored [...]

The 49th Parallel

by Joshua Sharf | 10:28 pm, May 17, 2011

How many states can be 49th?  Let us count the ways. A few years ago, my friend Ben DeGrow noticed that whenever the subject of budget restraint touched on public education, the state teachers union would immediately make one of two claims: either the state was 49th in school spending, or would be after the [...]

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