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.

Let me get this straight.  Government is using my money to patronize me…

I am so sick of patronizing elitist from “institutions of higher learning” who think that women need their help to succeed.  I’ll cut to the quick; I don’t want your money, your pity or your help.  And my daughters don’t want it either.  (And since I’m their mother I can say that) They will succeed or fail on their own merits.

The Denver Business Journal  just reported that the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), my alma mater for my graduate degree,  will get nearly $1.2 million in taxpayer money  “to lead a nationwide program to improve promotion and retention of female college faculty members in science, technology, engineering and math.”

UNC said in a prepared statement:

infuse gender equity content into its existing professional development programs with the goal of cultivating academic leaders who are more knowledgeable about STEM gender equity issues, more able and motivated to address those issues, and thus better positioned to effect positive and transformational change in their own colleges and departments.

I don’t even know what ”STEM gender equity issues” mean.  Since when did science, technology, engineering and math become issues of estrogen and testosterone– other than in biology? But I’m sure that somewhere is an affirmative action grant to set me straight. 

Does it occur to anyone that women make their own choices? Women who want to go into science, technology, engineering and math will do so.  Those who don’t, won’t. 

If we are in search of “gender equity,” why not have affirmative action for men who want to be runway models? 

Memo to elitist: Stop trying to enable me and my daughters simply because of our double X chromosome.  And stop discriminating against my son simply because he was born without it.

According to the Denver Post , “Speaker Terrance Carroll, a Denver Democrat, issued a memo Friday demanding “all lobbyists, governor’s staff, executive staff, visitors, Capitol staff and press” show some respect by use representatives’ proper titles.”

I agree with with Speaker Carroll.  As a society we have lost respect.   And I’m as guilty of it as the next person.  Yet,  I hate it when my kids’ friends think they can call me by my first name.   Unless I say specifically call me “Amy,” I expect them to call me Mrs. Cooke.   Some of my kids’ teachers have asked their students to call them by their first names.  That’s ridiculous.  I believe in respect for authority, age, rank and privledge. 

So I’m going to honor Speaker Carroll’s request and show lawmakers some “respect.”  As a taxpayer, I expect the same in return from the Colorado General Assembly.  I expect legislators to show me some “respect” by not wasting my hard earned money.  I expect legislators to show me some “respect” by showing me how they spend every dime of my money.  I expect legislators to show me some respect by not making it more expensive for me to do everyday things like drive my car.   Seriously, in the words of Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, “If we can’t fix 126 bridges, what in the world are we doing here?”  I’ll answer that, disrepecting me and my fellow taxpayers.

Please Speaker Carroll and all Colorado lawmakers, show me some respect.  Stop abusing my pocketbook.  Stop treating it as a trough for your pet programs and then forcing me, via state statute (CORA) , to shell out even more money  just to find out how government spent my money.  

The best response came from State Representative Cory Gardner (R-Yuma), “Does this mean the governor has to stop calling me jerk?”

My response is “Does this mean the Colorado General Assembly has to stop thinking of taxpayers as their meal tickets?”

I doubt it (to answer both responses), but I’m hoping for change.