Education

By Hilary Masell Oswald, Contributing Editor
Advocates of school choice have long argued that parents ought to have the right to choose the best schools for their children, that students shouldn’t be relegated to schools based on arbitrary factors, such as a family’s zip code. If parents have the right to choose, the argument goes, then schools become like other service-providing organizations: they must compete for students (and the dollars that come with those students). Competition yields better performance. Better performance means better education for students. Good schools prosper; bad schools close. The nation produces well-educated men and women prepared for our increasing global economy.

By Peggy Littleton - Member, Colorado State Board of Education
The America’s Promise Alliance released a report last week, Cities in Crisis, an Analytic Report on High School Graduation. Studies cited in this report indicate that on average only 7 out of 10 students in the USA are successfully finishing high school. In Colorado, the statistics for 2007 graduates, those who started 9th grade and finished with a diploma in 12th grade, was 75% or 7.5 out of 10, which is slightly higher than the national average. One must wonder if the $6,660.00 spent per pupil annually (almost $90,000.00 over the course of a K-12 education!) is a wise investment. With this amount of money being spent, the student should expect to have the knowledge to enter the workforce or to continue in some form of higher education.

By Bill Moloney
The Colorado Democratic Party clearly has a master plan for education reform but they will go to any lengths necessary to make sure our citizens never figure out what it really is. This stealth strategy amounts to loudly proclaiming grandiose ambitions for sweeping school reform while behind the scenes doing everything possible to completely dismantle the important gains of the last fifteen years.

By Bill Moloney
The refusal of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association to support the contract waivers sought by Bruce Randolph School has resulted in one of the worst public relations disasters ever suffered by a Colorado labor union. In rejecting the very reasonable reform requests sought by the great majority of the school's teachers, supported by parents and approved by the Denver Public Schools board, the DCTA has gotten a very public black eye that no amount of union doubletalk or sophistry can conceal.

By Bob Beauprez
Colorado enjoys one of the most educated workforces in the nation, and our economy has been the beneficiary of increased diversity, low unemployment, and relatively good wages for the vast majority of our citizens. The great paradox is that for all the skill of our existing workforce, there are warning signs about the job we're doing preparing the next generation. Often cited is the observation that Colorado's well-educated workforce is more a result of importing new residents than of "growing our own."

By Hank Brown, President of the University of Colorado
The colleges and universities that educate our state's citizens also serve as a magnet for business and innovation, provide tens of thousands of jobs, attract more than $1 billion in federal research funds annually and enhance Colorado's quality of life.

By Linda S. Bowman, Ph.D.
As Colorado has grappled with the correct balance for tax and expenditure policies, the resourcing of higher education has hung in the balance, one of the few discretionary areas within our state budget. But is a well-prepared workforce discretionary? We must ensure that we invest our resources in an efficient, relevant system of education that provides the greatest gains for our future. And we will have to make some decisive choices on the best return on our investments.

By John Coors, Colorado School of Mines Trustee
Much is right with higher education in Colorado. Though recent years have been financially lean, the state’s universities have remained academically strong and steadfastly committed to providing value to Colorado. While the state’s public higher education system has increased its student population from 203,000 to more than 213,000 since 2001, the state higher education operating appropriations were reduced by almost 20 percent and capital appropriations were cut by 97 percent from 2001 to 2005. The schools’ efforts to maintain high standards during these challenging times have been extraordinary. Still, our universities have the potential to do so much more.

By Bob Beauprez
It matters who wins elections, and here's another example...Reacting to a new state law that requires teaching of contraception and sexually transmitted diseases sponsored by Rep. Nancy Todd (D-Aurora) and signed by Gov. Ritter, the St. Vrain Valley School District is taking steps to implement a revised and considerably expanded sex education curriculum. According to a Channel 7 News report the first lesson was recently given to the school board and featured a "demonstration with male and female anatomical models and the proper use of birth control and contraceptives."

By Bob Beauprez
For the last three months, A Line of Sight has focused on the education and the reforms necessary to give our kids a fighting chance at a good learning experience, and thus a hope for all the blessings and opportunities of our great nation. The path to the American Dream in large part begins with a quality education.

By Mike Munier, Principal, Jefferson Academy Charter School
In the summer and fall of 1993, a group of parents, in the northern portion of Jefferson County, convened with the sole purpose of investigating an alternative choice for their children's education. These meetings and the ensuing process were encouraged by the passage of the "Charter School Act" by the Colorado State Legislature. It was the desire of this group of parents to establish a school with a content rich, fundamental, traditional, "back-to-knowledge" learning environment. Thus, was the founding of Jefferson Academy.

By Charlotte Ciancio, Superintendent, Mapleton Public Schools
It was January 2002 as we came to the end of three very long days. Exhausted by the intensity and wound up by the activity, we gathered at the restaurant to debrief the events. We huddled around the table as if planning a covert operation or protecting a secret. Our mood was serious. Our expressions were intense. The hurried sounds of the restaurant were silenced by the frantic thoughts racing through my head. A wave of panic coursed through my body. What had I done? Why did I agree to do this?

By Mike Painter, President and CEO of Colorado UpLift
For those of you unfamiliar with Colorado UpLift, we are a character education/mentoring program working with over 3,000 young people in 18 urban schools in Denver, Colorado.

By Tim Taylor, President, Colorado Succeeds
If Colorado businesses want a pipeline of skilled workers, then business leaders must become engaged in education reform. That was one of the key messages conveyed by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings at a roundtable discussion with a group of Colorado business leaders on July 30, 2007.

By Bob Beauprez
It seems the worst of all paradoxes that in America - the shining city on a hill, the bastion of hope and freedom in the world - that we would even have to consider whether parents should have the right to choose where and how their children are educated. But, for the vast majority - particularly those who cannot afford another option - that is the reality.

By Senator Josh Penry (R-Grand Junction)
Earlier this year, the General Assembly adjourned without addressing Colorado's most pressing education challenges. Lost in end-of-session accolades and "mission accomplished" rhetoric was a sad fact: Thanks to the curious priorities of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly, Colorado now has more rigorous standards for sex education than for math, science or English.

By Kevin Swanson
Homeschooling was far from a nationally-recognized educational approach in 1969 when my parents chose homeschooling for their 6 children. Since then the movement has burgeoned to from a handful of participants to several million nation-wide.

By Terrence O. Moore
As politicians, pundits, and teachers' unions continue to clamor for spending more money on a failing public education system, the public itself should become more educated about schools outside the educational monolith that are thriving on a fraction of the cost of the typical school. In particular, many charter schools around the nation are proving daily that providing a good education for children does not require a lot of money or even a great deal of originality. Case in point, the charter high school of which I am principal has ranked as the number-one public high school in Colorado two years in a row.

By Carolyn R. Jones, Ph.D.
I believe that I have the most wonderful job in the world. The job I have is that of the principal, and oh yes, the founder, of Challenges, Choices and Images Charter School, a Denver Public School charter established in 2000. It's a wonderful job because I work with some of the brightest, most creative, and caring young people in the world.

By Colin Mullaney
Recently in Colorado there has been a concerted effort to roll back the mechanisms that have allowed parents to choose their children's schools and which have created success for so many children. Given the demonstrated value of educational choice it is disingenuous of the current anti-choice crowd to continue their raging "debate." The evidence is in; choice in education is creating success for children.