Education

As the hard won accomplishment that is SB-191 moves deliberately towards fulfillment, it is important to remember that however admirable, it is but a single element in the more comprehensive challenge of improving teacher quality.

While the public has long fixated on what to do about ineffective teachers- an issue most usefully addressed by SB-191 -- far less attention has been given to the much larger question of how we recruit teachers in the first place.

Thanks to John Boehner's tenacity, opportunity has been restored for at-risk kids in Washington, DC, one of the lowest performing school districts in the nation.

Republicans and Democrats have voted for more education spending for decades with very little to show for it.  In fact, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) test results from 65 developed nations by the show that American student's academic performance has remained flat for 40 years. 

An enduring memory from the early days of the iconic "Monday Night Football" was when the late "Dandy Don" Meredith -- partner to Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford -- would when the game got out of hand croon "Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over."

Today astute mavens of the Education Establishment -- principally the teacher unions -- are beginning to hear echoes of that melancholy tune. Across America from Albany to Sacramento a fifty state rebellion is brewing against the power, privilege, and pensions of the most arrogant and successful political machine in American history.

Editor's Note: The following remarks delivered by former Colorado Education Commissioner (1997-2007) William Moloney at the January 13, 2011 meeting of the Colorado State Board of Education. Moloney's entire Policy Brief, Much Better Schools on Much Lower Budgets, was published by and in cooperation with the Centennial Institute.

Just released test results indicate more of the same – the status quo is failing to educate America’s children.  In fact, over the last 20 years we’ve lost ground.  First, read the following AP story, and then see what’s happening just across our border in Canada.

The 18th century English lexicographer Samuel Johnson famously discovered virtue in the prospect of being hanged in the morning because said circumstance “concentrated the mind wonderfully”. Similarly public officials all across Colorado will be having their minds concentrated wonderfully as they commence what one described as the “budget year from Hell”.

Governor Ritter was absolutely right in detecting “some flaws” and questionable objectivity in the judging process that deprived Colorado of millions of desperately needed Race To The Top (RTTT) dollars.

As if there wasn’t quite enough of government’s big nose in the middle of education already, the U.S. Department of Education is trying to put another layer on top of the nation’s colleges and universities – even private ones.   The plan is scheduled to go into effect in November and would require “authorization” of the institutions by federal and state government.