Taxpayers should write a big thank you note to the members of the Douglas County School Board. They had the nerve to say “NO” to the school bullies that defend the education establishment.

The Douglas County School Board won’t use taxpayer dollars to sue taxpayers for more — you guessed it — taxpayer dollars, according to a story from Face the State. The state’s third largest school district won’t join Greeley Evans District 6, the Poudre School District, and 15 others across the state in the Lobato v. Colorado case, a.k.a. “Lobatomy v. Colorado.”

Despite pressure from the Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB), the Douglas County School Board ultimately sided with Attorney General John Suthers who believes this issue should not be litigated but rather legislated.

Our board has taken a look at it, and we feel that the issue involved is properly dealt with by the elected Legislature, and not the courts, said John Carson, president of the Douglas County School Board.

Even without Douglas County, CASB raided taxpayers’ wallets to the tune of nearly $245,000 to litigate this case.

Thanks to my friends at Complete Colorado for pointing me to this story. You can hear either Todd Shepherd and Justin Longo,of Complete Colorado on my show every Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. on 1310 KFKA for a media wrap up including the most over and under reported news stories of each week as well as stories that could only happen in Boulder.

This week Coloradans got their first glimpse at 2010 student achievement scores with the release of third graders’ CSAP reading test results.  They weren’t great.  The Denver Post headline read “30 percent of Colorado 3rd-graders not reading at their level, CSAP finds.”

The perspective from Greeley’s newspaper was a bit different.  The public school cheerleaders, a.k.a. The Tribune, wasted no time spinning the Greeley Evans District Six marginal test results as success. An article headlined “District 6 third-graders narrow the gap in CSAP reading scores” began with this lede:

After slipping a bit last year, Greeley-Evans third-graders took a giant leap forward this year in closing the gap between their scores on the Colorado Student Assessment Program reading test and the statewide average score.

Quick history lesson.  In 2008, 65 percent of D6 third graders were proficient or better in reading.  In 2009, the percentage of proficient or better dropped to 63 percent.  This year the percentage is back up to 65.

So according to the Tribune, “slipping a bit” means a two percentage point drop from 2008 to 2009.  In fact, when the Tribune reported on the 2009 D6 third grade reading scores, it called the slide a simple “step backward.” Now, a two percentage point rise that brings D6 back to 2008 levels is labeled as a “giant leap forward.”

Also, as the paper promoted in its headline, D6 narrowed the achievement gap between its students and the state average.  The second paragraph reveals much of the reason why.

The state helped out a bit by dropping 3 percentage points since last year in the average number of students scoring proficient or advanced.

So D6 third graders took a “giant leap forward” because third graders in other districts didn’t perform as well. The newspaper should be ashamed of itself, but it probably isn’t.

The Tribune does no favors to the school district, students, parents or the community by constantly sugar coating marginal results.  Want to congratulate schools that saw success such as East Memorial or Shawsheen Elementary with their 15 and 14 point percentage increases respectively? Great!  Do it.  Those schools deserve recognition for their hard work but the district should not be congratulated for  the unacceptable fact that 35 percent of D6 third grade students read below grade level.

The Tribune has been a cheerleader and an apologist for the school district administration for as long as I can remember.  Remember this glowing editorial about former Superintendent Tony Pariso who left the district just as it was facing academic watch.  The Tribune’s inability to report honestly on the school district makes the paper part of the problem instead part of the  solution for a better education for our kids.

Even my little friend Eddie knows the difference between journalism and junk.  Check out his take on how the Greeley Tribune “reported” third grade reading scores.

Cash-strapped Colorado school districts have ponied up nearly $245,000 in taxpayer dollars to fund a class action lawsuit to sue taxpayers for more money for K-12 education according to a recent Face the State article.

The Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) and the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE) are championing the suit, Lobato v. Colorado. In January of this year a letter signed by both organizations (and linked to on Face the State) urged every school district to donate $1 per student to pay for legal expenses.

Greeley Evans School District 6, which suffered an electoral shellacking last November when it asked voters for an enormous mill levy override, acquiesced and gave $17,856 to the cause of demanding more from taxpayers.

The letter also reveals the true intent of the lawsuit: to get rid of the popular Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).  Talking points that accompanied the letter stated:

…this lawsuit is a powerful lever to move forward fixing the constitutional restrictions that prevent Colorado from adequately funding its public schools. This will be the catalyst for funding reform that has been needed for years.

“Constitutional restrictions” is a code phrase for TABOR.  What the education/industrial complex and those who make their living off it find most annoying is having to ask taxpayers for more money. They would rather just lobby the legislature, where they enjoy a lot of influence, to raise taxes.

Learn more on Monday, when Brad Jones, managing editor of Face the State joins me at 9:30 am on the Amy Oliver Show on News Talk 1310 KFKA.

Voters stood up to school bullies with a resounding NO VOTE on 3A, the massive, forever property tax increase.  The results: 66 percent NO; 34 percent YES. 

Taxpayers sent a strong message to the big spending school bullies.  Live within your means like the rest of Colorado working families, and show taxpayers some respect by opening your books.  Be transparent.  Colorado Spending Transparency predicted the tax increase would be a tough sell without it.

Despite the bullies’ establishment support and the ridiculous amount of money they raised, Citizens Against School Bullies and taxpayers beat them!  Bullies raised over $90,000 (monetary and in-kind) in contributions.  We raised $1100.  Bullies spent $55,000.  We spent $900.

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who supported us.

I just reviewed the campaign finance reports for the school bullies, a.k.a. Yes on 3A.  The largest single contributor to the campaign for 3A, the massive, forever property tax increase — the Greeley Tribune.  Our local newspaper donated $20,000 in advertising.  I wonder if they included all the opinion editorials posing as “news” stories on the front page of the paper.

Other contributors to school bullies include:

Wells Fargo: $5,000
RR Donley: $5,000
Phelps-Tointon: $10,000
Realtor Issues Political Action Committee: $7,000
Ernie Martin: $1,000
Hensel-Phelps: $7,500
Flood & Peterson: $7,500
Conquest Holdings: $1,000
Cache Bank: $7,500
Bank of Choice: $7,500
Holly Ehrlich: $2,500

Readers are welcome to see how Citizens Against School Bullies, the opposition to 3A, spent its money.  On the Colorado Secretary of State’s Web site, you’ll see we raised $1100 total, and have spent about $900.  We were out raised almost 90 to 1, outspent 55 to 1, and they still stole our signs.  We’ll find out on Tuesday, who had a better message.

Following my opinion editorial,  school bullies asked me to prove my facts and figures.  I warned them to be prepared to read because I brought hundreds of pages of documents and studies to back up my position.  Below are links to information that I routinely use to make my points about this disasterous tax increase that voters are being bullied into supporting.

Counting Cash: The Facts about Per-Pupil Spending in Colorado

Heritage Foundation: Does Spending More on Education Improve Academic Achievement?

Separation of Degrees: State-By-State Analysis of Teachers’ Compensation for Master’s Degrees

Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights: National Teachers Union and the Struggle Over School Reform

Remedial education in Colorado higher education:  Page 25 shows Greeley Evans District 6 percentage of first time undergraduates that require remedial education in higher education.

Colorado per-pupil statisics including funding by school district.

Using this intellectual ammunition, we can stand up to school bullies. Vote NO on 3A!  And join Citizens Against School Bullies.

One of the things I find disingenuous about the school bullies’ campaign for 3A is their sudden embrace of charter schools.  In April 2008, Greeley Evans District 6 blamed charter schools for the district’s financial woes.  The Greeley Tribune reported Chief Operations Officer Wayne Eads take on charter schools in the district:

But he [Eads] said much of the crunch was because of the district’s growing charter school student population.

 

Though charter schools, like University Schools and Union Colony Preparatory School, are in District 6, the district’s only role is to pass along the money from state, federal and local levels to the charter schools, keeping about 2.4 percent for administration costs.

 

In the past eight years, while the district’s own student population increased by 9 percent, it saw charter schools grow 79 percent. In the past seven years, the district has seen its charter school allocation increase from $6.8 million to an expected $15.1 million. Each pupil equates to about $6,500 each.

 

“During that time, we have not eliminated a classroom, school or bus route despite loss of revenue,” Eads said.

 

The district makes the argument the growth in charter schools is chipping away at its budget because of fixed operational costs, such as teaching, administration and building costs.

 

The article reveals that students are little more than cash cows for the district.  Less students mean less money.  Charter schools siphon off students so therefore they siphon off cash from the district.  Rather than finding out what it is about charter schools that so many parents find attractive, the district criticizes them for “chipping away at its budget.”

Fast forward to summer 2009 and the start of the push for 3A the massive tax increase.  Now the district is courting, not criticizing, charter schools.  Why?  Because charter school parents are involved, and they vote.  The district wants them to vote yes on 3A so it has included charter schools along with the traditional schools as beneficiaries of mill levy override.

And Wayne Eads is singing a different tune on charter schools.  He recently told a leader in the business community, “I am personally a strong supporter of charters as an expansion of choice for our parents and as competition for the old style model of educational delivery…”

Not surprising that business leader is a actively involved in charter schools in district 6.  Sounds more like campaigning.  Don’t let them BS or bully you.  Vote no on 3A. 

Join our “modest” campaign Citizens Against School Bullies.

The school bullies who are threatening to take away student programs and text books unless  District 6 taxpayers pony up more money are whining.  Apparently some members of the campaign want “equal time” on KFKA because I am helping to organize the opposition to 3A, their massive tax increase.  

What the bullies don’t realize is that the equal time rule pertains only to candidates, not issues. 

My question: why aren’t the series of daily op-eds and a plethora of completely bias “news” articles in the Greeley Tribune enough?  Are they that worried about our new committee Citizens Against School Bullies?  They should be.

Those of us in Greeley Evans School District 6 get daily doses of scare tactics if the massive Mill Levy Override (3A MLO) doesn’t pass.  The real problem is not how much but how the district spends taxpayer dollars.   Check out this great piece in the Wall Street Journal  that explains how teachers’ unions are opposing reforms that lead to greater student achievement among minorities and low income students. 

Throwing more money won’t lead to better educated students; reform will.   We must tie teacher and administrator pay to student achievement and graduation rates.  If we don’t, then parents and students will continue to suffer in the same failing system. Technology, security cameras, new buses, similar starting times may be nice things to have but just having them won’t lead to better educated students.  District 6 must change how it spends taxpayer dollars not just how much it spends. 

Those opposed to 3A please join us at Citizens Against School Bullies.

A few things about growing opposition to Greeley District 6 3A MLO ballot measure.

First, check out Facebook page Citizens Against School Bullies.

Second, it’s been two weeks since I submitted a CORA request for specifics on 27 Greeley Evans District 6 administrators’ total compensation package.  No information yet.  Tomorrow (Monday) I will contact District 6’s attorney for a reason why I can’t get the information I requested. 

And remember Tribune publisher Bart Smith’s naive dig towards those of us who want transparency:

Others who say they want more transparency show their lack of knowledge of how a public institution operates. School financing is an open book. Anyone who chooses can dive into the records and see how every cent is spent.

The district is not quite as cooperative as Smith suggests.

I will say that District 6 did provide teacher compensation information quickly.  But it was to the district’s benefit to do so because the district and the Greeley teachers’ union went to mediation the day after I made the information public — a transparent PR move on the part of District 6.

Finally, an update about teachers’ salaries in District 6.  While testifying in front of the Long Term Fiscal Stability Commission on Thursday, the Colorado Department of Education provided commissioners with various statistics about all school districts in Colorado.

Greeley District 6 ranks 11th in the state in average teacher salary at $49,905 (this does not include benefits such as health insurance and retirement both of which are quite lucrative).  Districts ahead of us include Aspen, Summit County, Cherry Creek, Littleton, Englewood, Boulder Valley, Westminster, Arapahoe 26 J, Adams 12 Five Star and Mapleton.  All of these are either from the Denver/Boulder metro area or wealthy mountain communities with much higher costs of living than Greeley.

I would be happy to pay a great teacher a six figure salary but it must be based on performance and product (student achievement) not longevity nor their own educational advancement.  I’m not the only one who thinks K-12 is past due for compensation reform.  Check out Separation of Degrees from the Center for American Progress run by John Podesta, Chief of Staff for former President Bill Clinton.

We cannot continue funding a dysfunctional system that serves the adults not the consumers, a.k.a. parents and students.