Dave Chandler

Featherbrained Colorado Legislature

Here's my critique on a couple of topics being discussed at the state capitol ...

ITEM: Local school boards and principals in the schools should all just quit -- and let the state legislature take over. My goodness, state senators Chris Romer and Paula Sandoval want to set the standard for schools from Lamar to Meeker on what goes into any vending machines stationed in the buildings.

Apparently, we are all idiots and don't know what is best for us, so the Colorado legislature needs to step in and tell every school in the state what qualifies as a snack, when safety drills must take place, impose cat-dog equality on us ... what's next?

ITEM: Meat packers never exploit illegal immigrant labor do they?

Ahem.

We read in the newspapers everyday about the money crunch impacting higher education in Colorado; tuition costs for native born residents is already pricing potential students out of attending college at all right now.

Nevertheless, Rockies owner and famous meat packer, Dick Monfort, thinks that the state should offer in-state tuition for non-Americans. A typical corporatist ploy to use a taxpayer subsidy to make working-for-less attractive.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that chief legislative nanny, Chris Romer, is the sponsor of this legislation. The legislature should be working harder at lowering the cost college tuition for Colorado and United States citizens before it spends anytime figuring out how to provide taxpayer-subsidized perks for exploited immigrant labor.

It is becoming increasingly obvious to me that the Colorado state legislature meets for way too long. Those folks should be able to get the important, necessary work done in about sixty days, if not less ... because they clearly have way, way too much time on their hands.

School Snack Bill Hits a Nerve | Rocky Mountain News

Lawmakers last year banned soda pop in schools.

This year, sugary snacks are in their sights.

"Shame on us for what we're doing to kids," said Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, a reference to childhood obesity, at a hearing Thursday on Senate Bill 46.

The bill would eliminate the sale of snacks in schools that do not meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommended nutritional intake for kids.

Lawmakers say the bill is spurring more talk than just about any other this session.

It has no shortage of critics.

"There's more pop machines and vending machines in this building than there are in most rural schools," said Strasburg School District 31-J Superintendent Dave VanSant.

VanSant and other said the bill is an example of the state interfering with local operations and potentially taking revenue from groups like the band and National Honor Society. ...

In-State Tuition Bill Gets Support | Rocky Mountain News

A prominent Republican businessman has thrown his support behind a bill that would grant in-state college tuition to high school students regardless of their immigration status.

Dick Monfort, a Weld County cattleman and chairman of the University of Northern Colorado Board of Trustees, said tough economic times require a "forward-thinking" education policy.

"Opening educational opportunity for more of our high school graduates means our state will have a more developed work force down the road, and will be able to attract more high-growth industries," he said in a statement.

To be eligible for the reduced tuition, undocumented students would have to have graduated from a Colorado high school or received their GED within the past five years. They also must have been enrolled in a Colorado public or private high school for at least three years.

The bill, by Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, is scheduled to be introduced today amid heated debate. Lawmakers have argued about immigrant tuition since at least 2003, with a number of Republican lawmakers opposing the measures. ...

Colorado Legislator With Not Enough To Do

All I can figure is that there must be incredible pressure on each and every Colorado state legislator to introduce and have their name attached to some new law.

Or else these elected politicians really have way too much time to waste down at the state capitol building.

We've already witnessed the crazy cat lady who wants "dog-cat equality" and the fellow from Grand Junction who wants to schedule the safety drills in all the state's schools.

Now, there is a second term state representative who wants to make his 9-11 obsession a holiday. We want to remember and commemorate that George W. Bush utterly failed in his duty as commander-in-chief to protect this nation on that day? ("Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S.") Or, we want to celebrate the horrible tragedy that resulted in seven years of assaults on the Constitution, of political fearmongering, of an unprovoked attack by our country on another nation -- all in the name of "September the eleventh." What is this guy thinking?

All Americans will carry in their hearts the grief and horror of what happened on September 11, 2001 -- we will always honor and respect the innocent that were killed and the police, fire fighters and other selfless folks who died, sacrificed and contributed on that day and the days that followed.

But holidays are generally meant to be reaffirming and positive events -- 9-11 is simply not in that category.

This state legislator needs to spend more time concerning himself with the budget crunch -- or find something else to do.

Lawmaker Determined to Make 9/11 a State Holiday | Denver Post

As he always does on Sept. 11, state Rep. Edward Casso, D-Thornton, spent much of the day in his living room watching the solemn memorials on television.

It had been seven years since terrorists hijacked commercial jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"Every year there's a little less coverage," Casso said. "Every year there's a little less feeling."

At the beginning of his second term, Casso decided to take action. As the Colorado General Assembly began its session, he introduced a bill to make Sept. 11 a state holiday.

Several lawmakers across the nation have made similar recommendations, but no state has been willing to commemorate the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil.

Even the legislature in New York, where the worst casualties occurred, balked at making Sept. 11 a holiday. In 2002, that state's Assembly called for a holiday, but the Senate objected. The day officially is a day of remembrance, state offices open.

The reason is, in large part, money.

Casso, 34, said he was warned that a new holiday could cost Colorado $3 million. ... MORE

Local Control?

Colorado Republicans like to posture as proponents of less government, local control, opposers of unfunded mandates ... so on and so forth.

In the state legislature, however, that rhetoric is empty. I haven't done a study (and I will gladly be corrected if I am wrong), but when it comes to public education, Republican legislators are enthusiastic micro-managers. As I recall, it was Bush-buddy Gov. Owens and a Republican legislature that institutionalized and expanded the most egregious centralization mandate ever on our schools: the CSAP regimen. I remember suburban Denver GOP legislators deciding that they knew best how every school in the state should teach American history and when to say the Pledge of Allegiance (you never know, there might be closet Communists lurking on school boards out on the eastern plains).

Now we have a Republican legislator from Grand Junction who believes he (and hopefully the state government) knows better than local school boards, principals and teachers when and how to conduct safety drills.

Frankly, I do not believe that local school boards and school principals in Colorado are purposefully neglecting "life-saving protocols". What then is the point of mandating the kind of legislation described in the Rocky Mountain News report today?

Measure Would Require Safety Drills for Schools | Rocky Mountain News - January 21, 2009

Educators, parents and emergency workers on Thursday will debate a bill requiring schools to conduct special safety drills - including lockdowns - nearly a decade after the Columbine High School shootings.

House Bill 1009, which will go before the House Education Committee, defines a range of drills to test how well schools respond to simulated intruders, gunmen, bomb threats, explosions, hazardous materials releases, severe weather and other life-threatening emergencies.

"Basically, what it does is it puts in place over the next two years life-saving protocols for Colorado's schools, from K-12 all the way through higher education," said Rep. Steve King, R- Grand Junction, the bill's sponsor.

Life-saving protocols include reverse evacuation drills, he said.

"If there's a threat outside, how do we get kids back inside?" King said.

King, a former police officer and investigator who owns American National Protective Services Inc., said the Columbine anniversary is only indirectly responsible for the bill's timing. ... MORE

It may be hard for legislators to resist passing "mandatory, life-saving procedures." In fact, this ia an example of Republican hypocrisy and a rather cheap political maneuver designed to show how much an elected official 'cares' about kids.

As a proponent of more local control of education, let's hope that this bit of unnecessary micro-management from the state assembly dies a quiet legislative death. If I am worried about the safety of my high school student, I'll call my principal or school board member and talk to them, okay?

MORE-Jeffco Schools Budget Cuts

I could hardly believe this when I read it yesterday -- from 'YourHub.com' Arvada, Wheat Ridge; Thursday, January 15, 2009 (no link found to this story):

Jeffco Public Schools budget cuts coming

Jefferson County School board member Sue Marinelli wasted no time Jan. 10 getting down to the nitty gritty of the state's largest school district's budget woes.

"We need to reduce our budget by $36 million over the next three years," Marinelli told an overflow crowd at Evergreen Library, 5000 County Road 73, Evergreen. ...

... One suggestion that gained favor was to cut five schools days from the school year. Teachers in the crowd said it would still meet the state-required number of hours. ...

You've really got to wonder what folks are thinking if they believe less time in class for students is a good idea. If this suggestion were adopted a person could reasonably ask if the Jeffco public schools were moving towards getting out of the teaching business altogether.

Consider this -- take the children out of school for a week as suggested above, realize that CSAP testing results in little learning for three weeks (include test-prep, pre-testing, CSAP pep rallies, etc.), count up all the early-release and student non-conduct days -- we might as well shut down the schools from Thanksgiving till New Year's Day.

There is an old joke that goes:

I wish I had been born a thousand years ago.
Why is that?
Just think of all the history I wouldn't have to learn.

The message we can derive from this jest is that there is a lot for our children to learn if they are to have a worthwhile quality life in the twenty-first century. Yet in the Jeffco school district it seems to be a rare couple of weeks that isn't interrupted by time-off from the classroom.

Of all the bad ideas to help cut money from the budget, decreasing learning time for our kids has got to be one of the worst. In fact, I would suggest the opposite. If class sizes are to rise because of teacher cut-backs, then time in the seats for students should be increased! Let so-called "in-service training' take place in the summer; at the very least make CSAP one, one hour test per subject; abolish the 'fall break'; add to the maximum number of school days (teachers and administrators are salaried, right?).

It is a tradition for kids to complain about school and proclaim their love of holidays and time off. As adults and parents, however, we know that learning is the most valuable, meaningful thing that will ever happen to them -- but they won't get that if they are not seated at a desk experiencing a teacher teaching. How much more basic can you get than that?

Jeffco Schools Budget Meetings

This past Saturday, January 10, 2009, at the Arvada Library in Olde Town, my wife and I (our daughter goes to Pomona High School) attended one of five public meetings hosted by Jeffco school board members to discuss proposed district budget cuts. The gathering we went to was led by board member Scott Benefield.

In November 2008, Jefferson County voters said no to two tax increases asked for by the school board. 3A, a mill levy measure, and 3B, a bond issue, were rejected in spite of zero organized opposition to the proposals. (Pssst, there is a recession going on.)

I also was against these measure for reasons that can be seen here.

The Jeffco school board and administration is now telling us that $35 million must be cut from the school district budget over the next three years because revenues will not now meet what previously was predicted needed to be spent.

Here are a few of my observations from the Saturday morning meeting.

I will commend the school board for having these meetings for the public -- input from the taxpayers and users of government services is always a good idea in a representative democracy. However, I hope that the board is seeking out such communication from the public in other venues as well. Of a group of about thirty or forty people who attended this event, probably over half were folks and or family members dependent upon the Jeffco school district for their livelihood. It is natural that employees are especially interested in how the budget is cut -- but it needs to be recognized that there is a self-interest involved in the opinions of these citizens -- as opposed to those who have students attending the schools and/or just foot the bill for them.

As a consequences of the make-up of the audience, most of the offerings were about items that should not be cut from the budget. One revealing remark noted that 'gifted and talented' programs were important because without that curriculum those student would "be at risk." But, of course, is there any demographic of students that is not "at risk" from someone's perspective?

Sports shouldn't be cut or teacher's wages shouldn't be cut or special needs programs shouldn't be cut ... you get the picture. Inevitably with a room full of district employees towards the end of this meeting the charge obliquely was uttered that if a person voted against tax increases for school they must be against kids and education. Not unexpected, but not helpful.

During the course of a little discussion about federal and state mandates on the school system, I asked why didn't we just stop doing some of those costly requirements, what would happen then? This suggestion was scoffed at with the education professionals in the group proclaiming that "we'd lose federal funding!" And, Benefield noting that if the district didn't perform these mandates the district might be "taken over" -- to which I replied that that might not be a bad idea and then let the Feds or the state pay for their imposed programs.

Frankly, I think that some revolutionary thinking is in order if our Jeffco and Colorado schools are going to actually improve and give taxpayers their money's worth. I'd suggest that Jeffco cut every single dollar that comes from the county's taxpayers going for preparation and administering the CSAP testing. If the state government or the federal government wants the tests done, they can spend their own money and come in here and do it. I think this is even worth going to court over or even risking the unthinkable -- losing federal funds. But if a bold stand in defense of fiscal responsibility and teaching children isn't taken, then the spiral down is just going to continue anyway.

However, we all know that risk averse politicians (elected school board members) and bureaucratic school administrators will never stand-up to the powerful people holding the purse strings -- local control of education is pretty much dead, except when it comes to being taxed.

Consequently, while I applaud the intention of seeking public comment, the meeting was not particularly helpful. If the school board and administration want to build some public support for the cuts they are going to be making, perhaps concerted outreach to non-employee citizens might be more productive ... it certainly would be better public relations.

Finally, though the amount of money that must be cut will require impacting a significant part of the budget like wages and benefits, I think for the purposes of letting the tax paying public know that the district is serious, some symbolic measures should be taken. I don't know who pays for the police officers in the middle and high schools, but if it is the district, then let's save some money by defunding that -- schools really are some of the safest places there are, we don't need to cater to fear. I certainly hope that administrators are not driving district owned or leased cars -- if bus service is going to be reduced ... well. How about no district supplied cell phone service? Could there be savings by eliminating computer training in the grade schools -- maintenance, equipment, internet service?

My last word is a reminder to the school board and all the employees of the Jeffco school district -- there is an increasingly severe recession taking place -- there isn't going to be money available for tax increases. This round of cuts is probably just the beginning.

Colorado Cat Craziness

It looks like Colorado elected representatives may be getting more daft and out-of-touch ... believe it or not.

In today's Rocky Mountain News we learn that a state house Dimocrat from Westminster thinks that Fluffy asleep on the window sill is worthy of being subject to state law.

First of all, pet control like this is clearly a local issue. Second, there is evidence that RFID implants in pets may cause cancer. Third, cats are not dogs, they don't wander around in the same manner -- I don't need Rep. Peniston telling me what to do with my cat. Fourth, is Peniston so desperate to introduce a bill that she has to become the nanny to every tabby in Colorado?

And politicians wonder why the electorate has contempt for so many of them.

Bills Already Proposed Cover Cats, Slow Drivers | Rocky Mountain News

Yes, Colorado legislators will be knee-deep in job-creation and road-funding bills by mid-session. But they also will have to decide whether all of Colorado's urban cats need identification.

Rep. Cherylin Peniston, D-Westminster, submitted a bill this week that would require owners of any cat four months or older to put a name tag on the feline or an ID chip in it. She authored House Bill 1019 after learning that lost dogs, which typically are tagged, are returned at a much higher rate to owners than lost cats.

"This is to say to pet owners that we value our cats just as much as we value our dogs," Peniston said of the bill that would apply to cats in areas where the population is more than 100,000.

Her measure is one of several among the 146 bills submitted during the first two days of the legislative session on subjects that haven't dominated water-cooler talk but tug at peoples' passions.

Colorado's Gov. Ritter Disappoints

First below is the news that explains why the few hopes and expectations I had for the federal government under the Dimocrats is declining daily.

There isn't anything bold or daring or inspiring about another middle-aged white guy in the U.S. Senate (or in the New York case, if/when Caroline Kennedy is chosen for that vacant Senate seat -- another 'legacy' officeholder).

The Obama presidential campaign was all about change ... the American people want genuine reform and change ... so far all we are hearing and seeing from the Dimocrats is what might have been expected from an entrenched political party that is more obligated towards its campaign contributors than to the people.

So, the Bennet and Kennedy picks are a snooze and portray a party that is out of energy and new ideas -- even as they prepare to take power during some of what could be the most precarious times in our history.

Then find a follow-up to the news about the French vanilla pick by Colorado's governor for U.S. Senator Salazar's replacement.

The subtitle in the print edition of the Rocky Mountain News is: 'Bennet grew up in Capitol with Democratic elite'.

Yup. An unexpected pick by Gov. Ritter, perhaps ... but you couldn't hardly find a more elite, insider, safe, conventional, wealthy man than Michael Bennet.

Quite disappointing -- the Dimocrats have again shown themselves to be very, very comfortable with enabling and promoting the corporate,establishment. No "Change we can believe in" in Colorado.

Sources: Bennet Will be Colorado's New Senator | Rocky Mountain News

Denver Public Schools superintendent Michael Bennet is expected to be named Saturday as the future U.S. Senate replacement for Interior Secretary nominee Ken Salazar, according to two Democratic sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to name his U.S. Senate replacement pick on Saturday, ending a brief but frenzied period of speculation about who will take Salazar's seat.

Since Salazar's nomination by President-elect Barack Obama, speculation has swirled about potential replacements .

The selection would be preliminary, since Salazar is not expected to resign his U.S. Senate seat until sometime after Jan. 15, when he faces a confirmation hearing — and later vote — to become President-elect Barack Obama's first Interior Secretary.

Salazar is expected to be confirmed relatively easily, due to the deference Senators usually give to their colleagues when facing such nominations. But by announcing a potential replacement early, there is at least a theoretical risk of an embarrassment for the governor if Salazar's cabinet nomination is derailed and he needs to keep his current job.

Still, various analysts and political insiders said in recent days that Ritter was trying to put the decision behind him before the start of the new state legislative session — and before the already long list of would-be replacements grows even further.

An early announcement also could help Colorado avoid the sort of protracted replacement dramas taking place in Illinois and New York state, where jockeying for the seats of Obama and Secretary of State nominee Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has proven to be a major distraction — to put it mildly.

The list of potential replacements grew rapidly after Salazar's nomination last month. Some early contenders, like former Denver Mayor Federico Peña and Rep. Diana DeGette, withdrew their names from consideration. But other names have been joining the list of those interested, including past U.S. Senate candidates Tom Strickland and Mike Miles, among others.

Heading Back to the Beltway | Rocky Mountain News

Michael Bennet is heading back to the place where he grew up on dinner table conversations about politics and public policy.

It's unclear how long Bennet will be staying in Washington, D.C., in his new job, but one thing is clear: Denver Public Schools' chief - and Colorado's next U.S. senator - knows his way around the Beltway.

Born in New Delhi, where his father, Douglas Bennet, served as an aide to the U.S. ambassador to India, Bennet grew up mostly in D.C. with the Democratic Party elite - and a family history of public service.

His father served as an aide to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, among others, and was president of National Public Radio from 1983 to 1992.

His mother, Susanne Bennet, taught English as a second language for a Washington nonprofit.

Bennet, 44, grew up attending prestigious East Coast private schools and then graduated from Yale Law School.

Twelve years ago, he came West with wife Susan Daggett, who went to work for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund in Denver.

The Senate appointment is for two years, the remainder of Salazar's term, and Bennet is expected to keep his home in Curtis Park and enroll the third of his three daughters in DPS.

Some question whether Bennet, with his liberal big-city leanings, can get elected statewide in 2010.

"I think he'd be a good senator," said Van Schoales, urban education officer for the Denver-based Piton Foundation, "but the one thing he's missing is a pair of cowboy boots."

Actually, Bennet does own a pair of boots, and they may get more use over the next couple of years. ... MORE