k-12
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Colorado Supreme Court eases path for local governments to sue over state decisions
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday threw out a decades-old rule restricting the ability of local governments to sue over state decisions, finding “confusion has developed” over who can seek judicial review and when. At the same time, in a pair of decisions, the justices concluded Adams County School District 14 could not challenge the state…
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Polis opposes proposed charter school federal grant changes
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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has publicly and loudly opposed proposed changes to federal rules that could make it harder for charter schools to get start-up grants. Polis, a Democrat who founded a charter network in Colorado in 2004, wrote a three-page letter to U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona earlier this month listing several concerns. Polis’…
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Gov. Jared Polis takes aim at COVID misinformation, presents 2022-23 budget
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Gov. Jared Polis on Friday presented his 2022-23 budget to the Joint Budget Committee, whose members quizzed him on why he isn’t putting more money into higher education and how he intends to address a looming structural budget deficit. The governor also took aim at those spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, saying it is causing…
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Bill to prevent 529 savings from being used for K-12 wins first approval in House
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Parents who want to tap into 529 savings accounts to cover K-12 private education – thanks to a change in a federal tax law that would allow it – might face tax headaches in Colorado. House lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been trying to work out how Colorado law handles a change…
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Hamner: 2017 legislative session was a productive one for Colorado
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With the 2017 session of the Colorado General Assembly behind us, I am enjoying being back in my district and having some time to reflect back on the legislative session. From Jan. 11 to May 10, my colleagues and I worked very hard to find compromise on some very important issues, and as a result,…
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Robinson: Haphazardly throwing money at education not the solution
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I was pleased to read Paula Noonan’s education piece, as it provides an excellent illustration of the origin of Colorado’s budget problems. While Ms. Noonan rattles off the shortcomings in Colorado’s educational performance with ease, she is decidedly more vague about her prescription for success. Her solution? Spend another billion dollars a year. An answer…
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Unpaid school library fines in Colorado? "No transcripts for you!" is now a thing of the past
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Believe it or not, plenty of Colorado K-12 students owe fines for overdue library books, damaged or missing textbooks, and the like. If you are a parent, you already know this. Especially for some households of modest means, forking it over can amount to more than just an incidental expense. And even if paying the fines isn’t that…
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YESTERYEAR: Ritter, Caldara face off over School Finance Act
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Twenty Years Ago This Week in The Colorado Statesman … A new welfare law was finally agreed upon and the Legislature narrowly averted a special session. “That’s the art of compromise,” Gov. Roy Romer said. He added that he would sign the latest version of the state’s welfare reform law that had successfully met the…
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Noonan: TABOR is 25 and too alive and too well
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Colorado’s population in 1992 was 3.5 million. Census projections put the state’s population in 2017 at 5.5 million. In 1992, 812,308 citizens – 53.68 percent of voters – said yes to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), and 700,906 citizens – 46.32 percent of voters – said no. Not to make too fine a point,…
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Transportation funding, fix to construction problems top House agenda
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House Democrats and Republicans agree that two matters are likely to dominate discussion in the chamber during the upcoming legislative session, although they disagree about how to refer to one of them. Along with funding the state’s transportation needs, House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle told The Colorado Statesman recently that tackling the…
