Just a few days ago the Denver Post published a great investigative piece on the large amount of wasteful spending our largest three school districts (Denver, Douglas, Jefferson) indulge in year after year. Normally we would shrug at school districts spending thousands of dollars on flip-flops and Starbucks, but these days are anything but normal. With each school district facing budgets cuts in the tens of millions per year, it’s becoming more difficult to justify those taxpayer paid trips to Vegas and that $90,000 tab from Udi’s Food. (What happens in Vegas does not stay in Vegas when you’re spending other people’s money….)

But if you’ve been following the Independence Institute at all in the last couple years, this is old news to you.

Friend of the Institute Natalie Menten has been dredging up credit card receipts and the embarrassing spending habits from school districts and other local governments for the past few years. If transparency is your thing, Natalie’s website will put you in a coma with its information. Colorado Transparency Project Director Amy Oliver’s blog called Colorado Spending Transparency (COST) will also whet your transparency appetite. Those two women have been at the forefront of spending transparency and the folks at the Denver Post owe a lot for their hard work. (You’ll notice Natalie is quoted often in their article).

Just today, the Denver Post wrote an editorial touting school district transparency and using new web technology to get the information out to taxpayers. I am happy they are serious about this issue, as having the influence of the Denver Post now strongly in the corner of taxpayers is a great boon. I hope they continue urging sunlight on how schools and local districts spend our money. Because let’s not forget, the money they are spending is OUR money. It’s ethically and morally required that we see how it is being spent.

If you can’t get enough of the transparency issue, look no further than your favorite free market think tank. Recently, education policy analyst Ben DeGrow went on a transparency rampage as evidenced by his Issue Backgrounder, “What Should School District Financial Transparency Look Like?,” his appearance on my show Independent Thinking – “Can the State be as Transparent as Jeffco?,” and this iVoices.org podcast with Lorie Gillis on Jeffco schools’ transparency leadership. In case you hadn’t seen, Jeffco is the shining example of what transparency looks like. Just take a look at this.

I guess what I’m saying is… if you don’t believe transparency is as sexy an issue as say health care or education, you’re wrong. And here’s why.

Colorado’s largest school district has become a national leader in transparency by posting detailed spending online for citizens to search. Will the state of Colorado and other government agencies follow the example of Jeffco Public Schools? On this week’s Independent Thinking, Jeffco’s chief financial officer Lorie Gillis and Independence Institute policy analyst Ben DeGrow join me to explore the growing trend of governments opening up their checkbooks. Tune in tonight at 8:30 PM on KBDI Channel 12, re-broadcast the following Monday at 1:30 PM.

More sinister than ghoulish goblins on a dark Halloween night. More evil than stealing candy from children. More satanic than Al Pacino’s character in this evil film….

It’s… THE EVERY MEMBER OPTION REFUND OF POLITICAL MONEY! No union goon can dream up something more evil than telling teachers they can receive some of their own money back.

Thus, I present to my readers the most evil podcast ever recorded! After listening to this podcast featuring education policy analyst Ben DeGrow, you’ll know such sinister information as how to: recognize if you are eligible to receive money back and how to receive some of your money back.

If audio isn’t your thing, then check out this quick video that explains the process:

Those of us who are not bleeding heart, emotional hippies are used to being called names: selfish, mean-spirited, angry, malicious, greedy, and sometimes even, Jon Caldara. So it comes as no surprise that the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) president called us “sinister” in this letter to his members.

Dear DCTA member,

BEWARE: You may have gotten a letter from the Independence Institute explaining how you can drop you Every Member Option (EMO) contribution to DCTA/CEA.

It reads like a public service telling you how to save money. But the motives behind the message are much more sinister.

The Independence Institute and the independent teacher organizations they support have a history of backing anti- public education and anti-union causes. They support vouchers and right to work, and just about any other initiative or candidate for office that promises to limit the growth of public education in Colorado. They correctly see DCTA/CEA as the strongest stumbling block to their cause so they want to limit our ability to be involved in school board races and the political process in general.

Turns out, neither the DCTA nor the CEA would like teachers to know about the “Every Member Option” (EMO). The EMO is a refund of the political money that organizations like the CEA and DCTA give back upon teacher’s requests.

Of course, these overly political teacher’s organizations do not want you to know you can get this refund. And surprisingly enough, simply telling teachers they can receive some of their own money back is “sinister.”

Well, I’m sorry unions. I’m a sinister kind of guy. Therefore, I am going to provide some resources to the teachers of Colorado, so that they might learn how to obtain the EMO refund, which can be up to $63.

Along with our Independent Teachers website that houses a boat load of information on the EMO, we made a video and recorded a podcast discussing the finer points of the refund.

A new strategy to increase student achievement in our public schools, portfolio management, has gained traction in several urban school districts. With this approach, local school boards oversee a variety of autonomous school operators to meet the diverse needs and interest of students in the community. On this week’s Independent Thinking, guest host Pam Benigno leads a discussion on the topic of school district portfolio management with special guests Dr. Paul Hill, director of the University of Washington’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, and Jim Weigel, a former school board member and consultant for the Colorado Association of School Boards. Check it out tonight at 8:30 PM on KBDI Channel 12. Re-broadcast the following Monday at 1:30 PM.

From our Education Policy Center analyst, Ben DeGrow:

Last week brought a rare bit of uplifting news from the Colorado Supreme Court: The state’s top justices said they weren’t interested in hearing the Boulder Valley School District’s legal challenge to the Charter School Institute (CSI), the special state authorizer for many Colorado charter schools. As noted on our GoBash blog, this was a good decision. Listen as our Education Policy Center director Pam Benigno and CSI chairman Alex Medler discuss the legal victory for families and charter schools on a new iVoices podcast.

From our education policy analyst Ben DeGrow:

Our Education Policy Center recently co-sponsored an important discussion about a new strategy to promote choice and accountability in our public schools. Last Tuesday’s conference in downtown Denver (also sponsored by the University of Colorado at Denver’s School of Public Affairs, Donnell-Kay Foundation and Piton Foundation) explored how local school boards can adopt a hands-off, “portfolio management” strategy to offer a greater menu of education options to families in their communities. As one of the panelists, Center Director Pam Benigno explained how our School Choice for Kids website is empowering parents to demand more options. On the Schools for Tomorrow blog, our own Ben DeGrow shared some reasons why he thinks the “portfolio management” approach has promise not only in Denver but also in other Colorado school districts.

I’m a little late reporting my weekly wrap-up, but I had some other things going on earlier. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to it.

***The Education Policy Center, Pam Benigno in particular, has been cranking out some quality podcasts lately. Here is everything you wanted to know about charter schools in Colorado, here is the legislative session wrap-up as it pertains to the advancement of charter schools, and here is Pam and Ben DeGrow on the very recent Boulder Valley Schools sick-out, and other labor disputes between school districts and unions.

***Did you hear that state Senator Chris Romer called me a “great American?” No, I’m not making that up.

***Have you been following the never ending battle waged on behalf of transparency? Yeah, it’s difficult. Turns out, state officials really do not want you to know how they are spending YOUR money! However, you’ve got us on your side, and Amy Oliver has been on the front lines fighting to see our government’s check register. Don’t forgot to follow the Colorado Spending Transparency (COST) blog to keep up to date on government transparency and accountability. And if you can, please consider donating $10 or more for transparency, we really could use it!

***Health Care Policy Center director Linda Gorman makes the case against the “public option” when it comes to providing health coverage. Makes me wonder, do people really want their doctors offices to look like the DMV??

***Finally, Barry Poulson is just plain on another level. What happens when two of the most famous economists of our time need some back-up for their Wall Street Journal op-ed? They go to Barry Poulson, that’s what they do! Barry is a bonified rockstar. When are we going to start selling fashionable “WWBPD?” wristbands?

How are we going to pay for career government employees’ gold-plated retirement packages? I don’t know, but the action surrounding this issue sure is heating up here in Colorado.

Last week Dr. Michael Mannino (who wrote a groundbreaking report for us on the value of “deferred retirement compensation” for Denver public school employees … Hint: Think six-digit amounts) made a presentation to state legislators on the education committees about the extensive sums we’re paying out to meet pension promises.

The response from Rep. Michael Merrifield of the committee? Ignore the substance of the report, and opt for a little grandstanding theatrics instead.

But that doesn’t mean the problem is going away. We’re not the only ones sounding the alarm. Alexander Ooms – a founding board member at the successful West Denver Prep charter school – writes at Ed News Colorado that it’s “time to tell teachers the pension truth”.

Mr. Ooms will probably get raked over the coals for me saying this, but he’s right on with his main point: If we don’t fix the public employee pension system, there are quite a few teachers (and other government workers) here in Colorado who won’t be able to count on that promised pot of gold.

Dr. Mannino makes some modest recommendations (like removing early retirement subsidies) that are worth taking a look at. It’s good to see someone else out there defending the need for these commonsense changes.

As students struggle to make tuition payments, public university officials in Colorado are raking in six figure salaries and perks. Given the nation’s current economic woes, and in the aftermath of new salary caps on Wall Street firms taking government money, has the time come to cap salaries of public employees? To discuss the possibility Jessica Corry from the Independence Institute’s Campus Accountability Project and University of Colorado student Kate Melvin join me on Independent Thinking. Airs tonight at 8:30 on Denver’s KBDI Channel 12, repeated the following Tuesday at 5 pm.