negative factor
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Colo. teachers have a lot to sweat out in 2018 legislature’s final days
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Colorado teachers have a lot riding on the final two weeks of this year’s legislative session, both in policy and politics, from their weekly paycheck to their future pension. The House of Representatives this week is expected to debate and vote on a fix to the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association, a plan to shore…
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Colorado teachers rally for more money for schools, less for corporations
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Hundreds of Colorado teachers left their classrooms and descended on the state Capitol Monday morning to demand lawmakers protect public pensions and put millions of dollars more into K-12 education each year. “You left me no choice, I have to use my teacher voice,” the chanted as they made a loop around the statehouse before…
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Colorado House and Senate leaders continue to duel over transportation solution
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The debate over transportation at the Colorado state Capitol this week has all the feel of an “I was here first!” argument. Leaders of the Colorado House and Senate spoke Monday about their views on transportation, with both claiming it’s their top priority. But on how to get there, they still appear to be miles…
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Noonan: Double deja vu all over again in the state’s world of public education
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Once again, Colorado’s public education system will both re-vision and offer new standardized tests. It’s useful that the two projects happen at the same time, but only if fresh eyes and minds are put to the task. Let’s hold our breath. Colorado Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne will fulfill Gov. John Hickenlooper’s executive order to restart…
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Hickenlooper signs ‘Long Bill,’ applauds bipartisan collaboration on state budget
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Gov. John Hickenlooper on Friday signed the upcoming year’s budget, known as the Long Appropriations Bill, praising legislators on both sides of the aisle for coming together to avert “draconian” cuts while safeguarding spending on health care and schools. Senate Bill 254 sets a $28.7 billion budget for the state for the 2017-18 fiscal year,…
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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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Noonan: Bill envisions high quality education for Colorado … But where’s the money?
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A new bipartisan bill, Achieving a Vision for Education in Colorado, HB17-1287, sets up an advisory board to create a strategic plan for public education, preschool through college, for implementation up to 2030. The bill recognizes that the 21st century world is “fiercely competitive” and that a “world class highly effective twenty-first-century learning system is the…
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State ed funding stable in mid-year adjustment
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For the first time in a decade, the state’s share of education funding in Colorado will not need a mid-year adjustment. However, a drop in enrollment and local revenue will still hit school districts, members of the Joint Budget Committee learned Tuesday, Jan. 24. Committee staff member Craig Harper presented the Department of Education‘s supplemental…
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Noonan: School district mill, bond resolutions cannot resolve state underfunding
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Colorado’s public schools have experienced the short end of the money stick since the 2008 recession. From 2010, annual funding has run about $950 per year per student less than obligated. The state Legislature labels the gap as the “school finance negative factor.” That’s the crisis that many school districts want to mitigate through bond…
