Senate Bill 186: School Report Cards Doing It Right
Senate Bill 186 mandates state report cards for the public schools. Each school will be given a letter grade for academic achievement and a letter grade for school safety. Other information such as teacher qualifications and use of taxpayer funds will be included on the report card. Synopsis: To grade schools on safety when it is difficult to ensure fair measurement, may do more harm than good. Grading schools student academic performance is a positive step towards greater accountability, resulting in higher levels of student achievement. Unfortunately, SB 186 requires some fine-tuning because it requires grading the schools on a curve rather than assigning the grade based on the percentage of students who have met the state standards.
Refunding the Surplus: Welfare, Whiskey, and Car Keys
Author P.J. O’Rourke says that “giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” With proposals to spend millions on everything from treating the “disease” of obesity to funding 12 day care centers that will determine the “best” way to raise pre-schoolers littering the current legislative session, it is clearly past time for Colorado’s government to take the cure and start a healthy program of diet and exercise. We’ve got MADD to dry out the teenagers. Now we need TADS–Taxpayers Against Drunken Spending–to dry out state government.
Back To Basics For Tax Reform In Colorado
It is difficult to explain the 60 odd tax bills before the Colorado Legislature this year. Every interest group in the state seems to be clamoring for tax refunds, tax cuts, or expenditures of surplus revenue to benefit their interest group. If the legislature responds to these special interests this year, as they did last year, we will end up with more loopholes and more complexity in our tax system. We seem to have forgotten the lessons learned from the tax reforms launched by the Reagan revolution, and it is time for Colorado legislators to return to these basic principles of tax reform. I will discuss first the principles that should guide tax reform in Colorado, and then some of the proposed tax bills.
Student Fees: Buy the Education, Skip the Brainwash
A recent letter to the Colorado Daily [1] illustrated the vast philosophical chasm separating those who believe in individual liberty from those who believe in Big Brother.
The letter opposed House Bill 1127. The bill would make it illegal for state colleges and universities to require students to pay fees to support politically active student groups. The letter writer claimed that “student fees do not fund any groups that endanger public peace, health or safety. Our groups are only working to enhance campus life and to make our world a better placeWithout BSA [the Black Student Alliance] and other community interest groups such as Amnesty International, the Women’s Resource Center, and Stop Hate on Campus, our students might not be as peaceful, healthy or safeour ideas would be held silent without proper fund-raising.”[1]
HB 1131: Seat Belt Law Endangers Innocents
This bill is identical to HB 99-1212 which was voted down last year. It would make failing to wear a seat belt a more serious offense. At present, drivers are not cited for failure to wear a seat belt unless they are stopped for some other reason. This bill would make failing to wear seat belts a primary offense, meaning that police officers could stop vehicles and write citations whenever they see the seat belt law being violated. The bill makes the driver responsible for a Class B traffic infraction unless he, and all front seat passengers, are wearing seat belts.
HB 1131: Seat Belt Law Endangers Innocents
Synopsis: This bill is identical to HB 99-1212 which was voted down last year.nbsp; It would make failing to wear a seat belt a more serious offense.nbsp; At present, drivers are not cited for failure to wear a seat belt unless they are stopped for some other reason.nbsp; This bill would make failing to wear […]
Five Ways to Improve Teacher Education, Without Spending More Money
A variety of solutions, including, but not limited to, reducing class size, requiring merit pay for teachers, increasing professional requirements, changing the calendar to accommodate year-round schools, and a host of other changes have been advocated as avenues to improving the performance of public school pupils. Even the undergraduate curriculum for teacher-education students has been modified in the hope that improved public school teaching would result in increased achievement of public school pupils. One possible solution that has not received much attention, however, is the re-examination and revision of policies in teacher-education programs.
Money for Nothing: Increased School Spending
Reader Steve Woznia does not buy the claim that the huge increases in spending on public schools are out of line. In a February 4, 2000, letter-to-the-editor in the Colorado Daily, Mr. Woozier wrote that “The needs of a modern school are much greater than the needs of a school from 100 years ago (or even 20 years ago). Transportation costs, building costs, facility maintenance costs, extra curricular activity costs, and administrative costs have all dramatically increased the cost of a modern school.” So have immigration and special education. Mr. Woznia believes that “Claiming the population of a low-income inner city school is similar to the population of a parochial schools is beyond erroneous; it is naively deceptive.”
Medicare Reform Must Precede A Prescription Drug Benefit
Usually the Independence Institute only publishes documents written by Independence Institute authors. We made an exception here because this material is an excellent explanation of the tremendous public health problems that would be created by President Clinton’s proposal for price controls on prescription medicines. Thus, even though we have no position on the author’s proposal to expand Medicare to include out-patients, we think that the author’s description of disaster that price caps would create is very much worth reading.
Initiative #45
Article II of the Constitution of the State of Colorado is amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read:
Section 32. Right to Health care choice.
Initiative #40 2nd Submission Final
Author: The People of the State of Colorado PDF of full Paper Scribd version of full Paper Article II of the Constitution of the State of Colorado is amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read: Section 32. Right to health care choice. (1) ALL PERSONS SHALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE […]
Fraud Related Questions Response
Author: Independence Institute PDF of full Paper Scribd version of full Paper Source – Information received from 45 counties and data from the Child Care Automated Tracking System (CHATS) 1) How many child-care providers have ever been charged with fraud since 2000? Response: Counties have charged 11 providers with Fraud since 2000. 2) How many […]
