Author: Paula Noonan

Déja-vu for 10 years. In 2015-2016, state standardized testing was fully integrated into teacher performance evaluation. The tests comprised 50% of teacher “performance.” The idea was to follow the General Electric “rank-and-yank” human resources model. At GE, the model went like this: top 20% of employees got raises and bonuses; the middle 70% got to…

Falcon School District 49, aka El Paso County School District 49, has finally cut bait, thrown the fishing pole into the lake and sunk the canoe. The longtime enabler of the Education Reenvisioned BOCES’ (ERBOCES) schemes to fund private Christian religious schools using state-authorized public education dollars has come to an ignominious funding stop. D49…

Colorado’s legislature used to be a place where neither party was dominant. Dozens of seats were competitive and House and Senate majorities switched regularly. From 2010 to 2020, the House was predominantly Democratic with one two-year assembly under Republicans. The Senate had two assemblies from 2015 to 2018 under Republicans. John Hickenlooper was governor and…

Colorado’s political future will go the way of this election. Historically, the state has not had both chambers controlled by a supermajority. This election may change that. The primaries suggest how the general election may play out. Democrats had solid voter turnout and unaffiliated voters leaned toward Dems. The party pulled in 404,132 unaffiliateds to…

Elected school boards and the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) have hit the headlines with fired superintendents, superintendent resignations, failures of oversight, and misdirected dollars. Cherry Creek School District’s superintendent was fired. Jefferson County Schools’ superintendent found a less stressful job. CDE let $100 million fly out the door to Education reEnvisioned BOCES (ERBOCES) for faux…

To catch you up, campaign committees from this 2026 election cycle already collected and shoveled out a lot of cash: $102.64 million. That’s contributions in all forms — dollars, in kind, loans, etc. — from December 2024 to now. Total expenditures just for advertising amount to $32.94 million. More to come for the general election.…

Dick Wadhams, well known GOP strategist who put Bill Owens in the governor’s mansion, will turn over in his political grave if Victor Marx wins the Republican nomination for governor. The GOP will bury its conservative principles for good if Republican voters elect Marx over state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer. A Marx win will finish any…

Let’s be clear about how Colorado’s primaries arrived at these unexpected results. The most significant voting cohorts on both the Democratic and Republican sides were women from 65 to 75-plus. These senior women voters selected Phil Weiser and have given Barb Kirkmeyer a chance. They may be on the farther side of their lives, but…