Education

What your education dollar isn't buying

By Krista Kafer Ever wonder what you’re paying for with your federal tax dollars? Look at just one department (the one Republicans once promised to eliminate). This year, Colorado received $406 million in federal funds for k-12 education programs. The state received another $199 million for higher education, while students received $1.2 billion in new taxpayer subsidized loans. That’s a lot of money.

Ever wonder if the programs work? Anecdotal evidence will tell you that there are students who benefit from federal programs. Aggregate achievement statistics, however, may make you wonder. It’s pretty obvious that a lot of money doesn’t necessarily mean a lot of progress.

Researcher zaps school lobby’s money myth

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com While both untrue, myths and lies are not the same. A lie is meant to deceive, usually to gain an advantage that the truth would not likely yield. A myth, to borrow from Merriam-Webster, is “a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone...” But these guileless origins notwithstanding, myths can be as destructive as lies -- particularly when it comes to public policy.

When faced with emotionally charged issues like education, distinguishing between myth and fact can be difficult. Such a tangle of myths has grown up around public education that few know the facts.

Logic of parental choice ensnares Spencer

By Kelley Harp harpkw@yahoo.com Can it be? Is Jim Spencer, our favorite ultra-liberal columnist for the Denver Post, a new advocate for school choice and school vouchers? In his Oct. 12 column, he notes that while poor kids still do worse on standardized tests than others, poor kids in poor schools do worse than poor kids in richer schools. "The numbers prove that poverty affects the academicperformance of Colorado's schoolchildren," writes Spencer. "The question is what -- if anything - the state can do about it.

Boozy campuses are drunk on other people's money

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com Well, well. So the national Phi Kappa Tau fraternity is suspending its University of Colorado chapter at least until August. Its 35 members will have to find a new place to live. Apparently the house was “not representative of the values and principles of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity nor those of the Greek community in Boulder” according to the national office. That’s a delicate way of saying they partied too much.

Teacher merit pay on Denver ballot

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com You know you’re not in Kansas anymore when a union, a large, urban school system, and prominent Democrats support a teacher merit pay program. This weekend, U.S. Senator Ken Salazar joined Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Denver Public School (DPS) Superintendent Michael Bennetm and City Council President Rosemary Rodriguez in supporting ProComp, a program to reward teachers for professional excellence . The program, devised by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools would link pay to classroom performance and surpassing expectations .On November 1, Denver residents must decide whether to fund the program. If passed, Ballot Question 3A will establish a $25 million tax increase for this purpose.

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