Five facts about the case of Mike Merrifield

Eliot Spitzer once wrote that the secrets to success are, "Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail." It's a lesson Colorado Representative Mike Merrifield learned too late.

Merrifield has "stepped down as chairman of the House Education Committee." But in the resulting furor, the media lost perspective. Here are five facts that voters would do well to remember.

• Indications are that Merrifield wasn't talking about all charter school advocates, just two former School District 11 board members. [Source]

• The whole thing was uncovered only because of a "fishing expedition into private emails sent prior to session." [Source]

• The mainstream media has sometimes failed to note the biases of the rightwing website that broke the story. [Source]

• The dust-up was absolutely not more embarrassing than the Mark Foley scandal. And it is morally reprehensible to suggest that it is. [Source]

• The case should be considered closed. It's silly to suggest that Senate Education Committee chairwoman Sue Windels - the recipient of Merrifield's email - should also step down. [Source]

UPDATE: CoCo is reporting on who filed the open records request and why. Meanwhile, Jason Bane explains how the GOP managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Objectivity trumps facts in the classroom?

[This diary was cross-posted last night at SquareState - Ed.]

Not too long ago, a group of sixth graders decided that global warming was a hoax. And it seemed sort of cute because sixth graders are young and of course they'll grow up someday.

But yesterday a Longmont paper revealed that the sixth graders' teacher has decided to quit to pursue a career writing books supporting creationism. Some snips from the story:

A science teacher who's spent 10 years with the St. Vrain Valley School District is retiring this spring to write more books on creationism and the dangers of Darwinism. Ken Poppe, 58, made national news last week after his sixth-grade paleontology class debated global warming and decided humans aren't causing it...

Though his students were free to choose as they pleased, Poppe said he too disagrees with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which declared Feb. 2 that it's 90 percent certain human-generated greenhouse gases are to blame for global warming...

"I'd talk about the alternatives to evolution if kids brought it up. But I'd never set out to challenge evolution," Poppe said of his classroom focus.

It appears that Poppe attempted to separate his personal faith from the scientific facts he taught in class. Now that he has reached a point where he feels that his faith is more important than the curriculum, he is honorably retiring. Kudos to him.

But a closer look at the earlier story reveals this worrisome quote:

Ken Poppe said he let students choose which side of the debate to argue. Poppe personally believes global warming is cyclical and not affected by humans, while his Colorado State University student aide David Richards believes the opposite. Both, however, said they presented both sides equally to the students leading up to Thursday's debate.

Presenting "both sides equally" is not the same thing as presenting the facts. And if a teacher decides that opposing views deserve to be heard, they should be given the respect due to them and no more. The IPCC is 90% certain that global warming is manmade, not 50%.

An obession with objectivity has damaged mainstream journalism, which often seems more concerned with presenting both sides to a story than it is with uncovering the truth. This same tendency should not be allowed in the classroom. I can see it now:

"Most mathematicians believe that two and two equal four. But others believe that numbers are an artificial construct designed by their creator to help them grasp the concept on infinity."

And then the teacher will allow the students to debate the subject and dare parents to question their kids' ability to make up their own minds.

A is A, people. It always will be.

Assorted snark, where have I been and congratulations edition

I've been blogging about objectivity in the classroom and Diana DeGette today at SquareState.

Congrats to Drinking Liberally for being bipartisan and popular. And congrats to CoCo, Wash Park Prophet, Progress Now Action, Colorado Media Matters, ColoradoPols and Coyote Gulch for also being very popular.

Bill Ritter, education funding and the schools of New Orleans

Everybody wants something for nothing. For instance, the state education fund will be insolvent by 2010. But Governor Bill Ritter's plans to fund it - first by using federal mineral-lease royalties, then by freezing the mill levy - have met with stiff opposition.

Next up, Ritter follows the President's lead and borrows the money from China.

But what if solutions aren't what the GOP is after? What if it wants to create seemingly unsolvable problems as an excuse to foist charter schools upon the state?

Charter schools certainly seem to be on the agenda of Dr. Barry Fagin, an Independence Institute senior fellow and adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. (A name which ought to raise a red flag for many of you.)

Fagin's column in the Monday, March 19 print edition of The Denver Daily News sang the praises of Daniel Hudson, who Fagin says he first read of in The Atlantic. Fagin lauds Hudson as a "tough disciplinarian" who is fighting "Big Easy bahavior" in the emerging schools of New Orleans. Coincidentally, I also read The Atlantic. So I know the article was ambivalent about Hudson's methods and results:

[Hudson's story] seemed to make no impression on the young man. I couldn't tell whether it was because the student was already too far gone, or because Hudson was so busy talking, and yelling, that he had forgotten how to listen... As Hudson himself knew well, the time he spent in the halls, the endless meetings with parents, meant he knew little of what was happening in the classroom. What was clear, in the time I spent in classes, was how little of the training Jarvis had mandated for teachers seemed to have taken.

Fagin calls the education experiment in New Orleans "unprecedented in American history... Parents have complete freedom to send their child wherever they want. The money follows their child, period. In response, schools are springing up like wildfire." In fact, New Orleans' "experiment" has led to a scary reality - school administrators who want to screen out underachievers and blacks:

Huger would have preferred that his school have selective admissions, by which students are screened on criteria like test scores and grade-point averages. He also would have preferred more of what he delicately called "diversity" - as in white children. But under the guidelines, choice ran only one way: Huger would have to educate any child who chose him.

The same article reports that across America, charter schools are failing to meet academic benchmarks. In Washington, D.C., "the latest numbers showed that only four of thirty-four charter schools had met academic benchmarks. And in Philadelphia, the most recent data showed schools run by educational management companies - which Huger saw as the best bet when run in partnership with local nonprofits like his - lagging behind public schools in improving performance."

As Ritter said at a recent Bell Policy Center event, education is the key to opportunity and economic growth. And there's little doubt that our schools need an overhaul; Democratic leaders like Andrew Romanoff are leading the way. But charter schools are far from the silver bullet the free market fundies make them out to be.

So much going on...

...and so little time. In my case, actually, no time at all. Fortunately, there are a lot of good people following the stories of the day.

• The governor announced his plan to keep the State Education Fund from going bankrupt. Read about it: Post, Ritter, SquareState, Media Matters

• Diana DeGette. She's the most powerful member of Colorado's congressional delegation. She's working to provide healthcare for children. And she's asking for voter's opinions on the Iraq War.

• The Colorado legislature debates a nonbinding resolution opposing the Iraq War: Pols, Post

• Interesting stuff: Wash Park Prophet, Wild Again, Democracy In Progress, Ave Cassandra

And as always, someone's always blogging at SquareState. That's it. I'll see you Monday.

APATTW: Nonpartisanship update

The Denver Post reports on bipartisan education reform. And The Grand Junction Sentinel talks about a bipartisan bill that gives "surface-rights owners recourse against mineral extractors who damage the surface of private land."

What happens when the government falls down entirely? Since 2003, the amount of funding the National Institute of Health, which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has cut funding for Down syndrome research from $23 million to $14 million a year. The Post has an inspiring story about a Colorado woman's efforts to "make Colorado the best place for people with Down syndrome to live."

Ritter dines at the White House

The Ritter-Bush mini-summit I mentioned yesterday only sort of happened. The Denver Post reports:

In the White House's state dining room, Bush toasted Ritter and the nation's other governors, pledging that they could "do big things" together.

With the festivities over, Ritter returned to the White House on Monday with a list of Colorado issues he wanted to discuss. In particular, he wanted to press Bush about funding for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.

He never got the chance. Instead, Ritter experienced the slow pace of working in Washington on issues important to states.

But the assembled governors were able to attempt to communicate their concerns with National Guard deployment and No Child Left Behind.

Bill Ritter recommends funding for UCCS Science and Engineering Building

Ritter goes where Owens feared to tread. A press release states:

Gov. Bill Ritter announced today he is recommending $7 million in capital funding for the new science and engineering complex at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs... "One of the most effective economic-development tools state government can provide is a renewed commitment to higher education," Ritter said. "The UCCS project is a perfect example of how we can make long-term investments that will reap incredible returns in the years to come."

Bill Ritter tackles the state budget

Bill Owens left behind a plan that calls for 1,000 new state employees, and grows the budget by far more than state law allows.

A former prosecutor, Governor Bill Ritter believes that he can save some money by reducing corrections costs. From The Denver Post:

Ritter said reducing fast-growing prison costs would give the state more money for other programs such as higher education and human services, which are vulnerable to budget cuts... Ritter also promised close scrutiny of the budget proposal he inherited from Republican Gov. Bill Owens and state agency heads... Ritter said he has already warned his department heads not to expect too much. "Our communication with our directors is that there is not new money," Ritter said.

Opening day in multimedia

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff gave a speech that was well received by members of both parties. (A welcome change from Joe Stengel's needlessly partisan opening to the 2006 session.) I heard Romanoff handed out copies of the controversial education report I wrote about on SquareState.

My mom attended, sent me some camera phone photos and kept me updated with text messages such as, "Romanoff... not l or r but forward."

Ah, texting. "4score & 7 yrs ago..."

Colorado Confidential has a report. As do the major dailies. And Wash Park Prophet. If you want to listen in yourself, a podcast of Senate president Joan Fitz-Gerald's opening day speech is on clickcaster.

Jon Caldera, John Hickenlooper, and the wisdom of investment

On Fridays, I try to make time to watch Independent Thinking, the show where "hard-pressing conservative host" Jon Caldera hosts "lively - and sometimes heated - debates among elected officials, journalists, activists, concerned citizens." The show is typically littered with distortions and falsehoods. But Caldera is interesting. And it's always good to expose yourself to different points of view.

But I've just about had it with Caldera's insistence that tax dollars spent on transportation, education and healthcare should not be considered investments. This is hogwash. For instance:

1. For every dollar invested in education through the G.I. Bill, "it is estimated that nearly seven dollars was returned to the American public."

2. Money invested in public transportation provides "an economic stimulus far exceeding the original investment - as much as six dollars for every dollar invested."

3. Democratic Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's plan to reduce homelessness may save the city $1.5 million.

The investment meme scares Republicans for the same reason that the Fighting Dems and Western Pragmatists do. They all disprove the assertion that the Democratic Party is made up of dewey-eyed idealists, raising taxes to fund half-baked schemes.

The Democratic Party of the year 2007 is about results. And the GOP can't deny it any longer.

Cross-posted at SquareState.

Romanoff keeps up call for education reform

Not too long ago, I wrote a diary at SquareState that mentioned Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff's support for some of the ideas that came out of the The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. In his newsletter this afternoon, Romanoff kept up the call for education reform:

"Tough Choices or Tough Times" presents a sharp critique of America's economic competitiveness and a bold plan for education reform. States - like ours - that want to succeed in the international marketplace should welcome this report and seriously consider its recommendations... [T]he 2006 report recommends a package of reforms, including universal early childhood education, dramatic increases in teacher compensation, a set of qualifying exams to exit high school, performance contracts for teacher-run schools, and lifelong learning accounts (a "G.I. Bill for our times").

The report also recommended a more controversial idea: Handing public schools over to independent contractors, operating under contracts managed by local school districts.

I'm education policy blogging at SquareState

The report of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce deserves discussion. So I posted my diary on it over at SquareState. Here's the link.