Note: A version of this posting appeared in Colorado Politics on January 22, 2019. For over three decades, the debate over education policy in our state and nation has been primarily waged on three fronts: accountability, school choice, and funding. Colorado created an elaborate accountability system of tests and ranking systems in step with federal […]
Read More The Education Reform We Have Versus the Education Reform We NeedAt the first district all-leadership meeting for 2019, we discussed what is on a lot of people’s minds in our schools right now – budget and construction! While these topics are definitely of great importance, I also wanted to draw the attention of our leaders back to what we call “the main thing” in Jeffco, […]
Read More A Challenge for the New YearLate political scientist David Easton once defined politics as “the authoritative allocation of values.” More precisely, politics (in a representative democracy) is the system where one group or another gets to determine how society will operate and can compel adherence to their set of preferred values through laws, sanctions, and rewards. This authoritative allocation of […]
Read More “The Authoritative Allocation of Values”Ballots have now dropped in Jeffco, including questions 5A (a $33 million mill levy override) and 5B (a $567 million bond). In the last edition of Chalk Talk, we looked at the bond, question 5B. In this edition, we’ll take a look at the mill levy override, question 5A. A quick disclaimer – as a […]
Read More Digging Into Jeffco Ballot Questions Part II: A Look at the Mill LevyOver this spring and summer, Jeffco Public Schools has been working to engage the community on possible ballot questions for this November’s election. I’d like to take a moment to explain how Jeffco would use potential funds from a statewide effort called Amendment 73, and my recommendation to the Board of Education for local ballot […]
Read More Jeffco Election Questions Take Shape
