UCCS Professor Joshua Dunn can’t help himself. He can’t believe the audacity of Denver District Court Judge Sheila Rappaport’s decision in the epic saga we know as the Lobato case. He’s been sounding the alarm on this ruling ever since it came down last month. If you haven’t heard Professor Dunn’s argument yet, here are a couple great resources. First, you can listen to our iVoices.org podcast featuring Professor Dunn and our Education Policy analyst Ben DeGrow. They hit the airwaves shortly after Judge Rappaport’s ruling came down. Additionally, Joshua wrote an op-ed for us that hit the Colorado Springs Gazette’s opinion pages last night. In both venues, Professor Dunn argues that Judge Rappaport disregarded the totality of our state constitution when deciding the Lobato case. Instead, she chose just the sections that suited her worldview and threw out all the inconvenient stuff. Joshua says her decision was entirely political, not constitutional.

AG John Suthers sat in front of the Joint Budget Committee yesterday to discuss the Lobato case and its potential time frame. He indicated that he believed it could be a full year before we’ve reached any resolution. That seems hardly adequate considering we’re dealing with a large chunk of the state’s budget. How can we plan for the future when Lobato threatens to eat away a majority of our general fund?

Today is the last day that Colorado teachers can get their political union dues back through the “every member option” mechanism. We got word that the CEA refund website was down earlier today, but that it is now back up again. (If you can’t access the electronic form, please send an email to Linda Lutz (llutz@coloradoea.org) with a note that you are requesting the $39 Every Member Option refund.) In addition to the $39 EMO available from CEA, a number of other districts have additional EMO political refund options with additional opt-out requirements. Please see our Independent Teachers website for more information on these other districts.

If you have any questions at all about this process, please don’t hesitate to contact Ben DeGrow – ben@i2i.org or calling 303-279-6536 ext. 113.

This past Friday I had our education policy analyst Ben DeGrow on my TV show. He came on to talk about how teachers can get their political union dues back through what they call the “every member option” refund. If you know anyone that teachers in Colorado, please share this video and information with them. Check out IndependentTeachers.org for more info.

If you had to choose between watching public affairs television on a Friday night or a poke in the eye, which would it be? On this Friday night’s Devil’s Advocate, first I am joined by the outgoing Mike Keefe to talk about his 35 years as editorial cartoonist at the Denver Post. Then the Independence Institute’s Ben DeGrow drops in to explain how teachers can request a refund of their “Every Member Option” union funds that otherwise go to state and local political campaigns. That’s 8:30 PM on Colorado Public Television 12.

I bet you’ve long wondered how Colorado funds its K-12 education. Well, wonder no more my friends. If you’ve got a spare 20 minutes, I encourage to listen to our Education Policy Center’s Ben DeGrow break the whole thing down here. While you’re listening you can follow along with a PowerPoint presentation as well. Audio alone stinks. Visual alone stinks. Put them together and you get an audio/visual awesome sandwich!

By now we’ve had some time to reflect on the beating the Prop 103 tax increase received from Colorado voters a couple weeks ago. It’s pretty amazing isn’t it? We were outspent around 6 to 1 but we managed to destroy the tax hike nearly 2 to 1. Granted, Prop 103 probably would have gone down even if we did nothing, but our side working well together ensured that the beating would resonate for a long time. Like I told Colorado Peak Politics, this tax hike unified us and instead of embarrassing ourselves like we normally do, we worked together to embarrass the enemies of limited government. It proved that we can work together for a common cause. Let Prop 103’s gross failure be our guiding light for the future.

Let’s talk about that future.

Senior Fellow Penn Pfiffner was a guest on the Tax Foundation’s podcast show the other day to talk about Prop 103’s failure and what we need to do to fortify our state against the barrage of calls for bigger and bigger government. Yes, it’s heartening to score such a resounding victory against big government, but it wasn’t the first proposed tax increase and it certainly won’t be the last. It’s a matter of time until we hear about the next government expansion “for the kids.” Likewise, it won’t be long until we hear the next round of sob stories that are designed to pry open our wallets. One victory will not shut down the Left’s super highway into our bank accounts. Penn knows this and does a good job of explaining that we must change our tactics if we are to ensure long-term success. As long as we continue to play only defense, it’s just a matter of time until they break off a big play and dance in our end zone. Even a good defense has holes and weaknesses. Stopping 99% of scoring drives means that 1% are getting through. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to be on offense every now and again. As the old saying goes, sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Just ask Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Colorado’s online schools have been taking a bit of a PR beating lately. This iVoices.org podcast is a response. Here is an excerpt from podcast host Ben DeGrow:

An investigative report and a requested legislative audit have shined a negative light on K-12 online education in Colorado. Michael Horn, executive director of education at the Innosight Institute, makes the case that students will benefit far more from updated funding, accountability and teacher policies than from an additional regulatory burden. Colorado can learn from recent changes made in Utah and from the new Nation’s Digital Learning Report Card that promote blended and full-time online learning options.

Listen to the iVoices podcast here.

There are few times when we at the Independence Institute agree with the Denver Post editorial board. When it happens, our first reaction is… “Check the calendar. Is it April fools?” As far as we can tell, it’s October, so the Denver Post must be completely serious when they wrote this editorial opposing Rollie Heath’s Proposition 103 tax hike. (Side note: I wonder if the Post editorial board is more disturbed by the fact that they agree with us or that they agree with Mike Rosen?)

You can imagine the predicament Rollie Heath finds himself in: he can’t even sell a tax increase (for the children) to the Post editorial board. He must know he has a loser on his hands. Thankfully however, Rollie can always find a friend in Colorado Public Radio. There’s no way CPR would give Rollie a tough appearance.  It would have to be all softballs and sunshine when a Boulder Democrat talks raising taxes on public radio right?

Rollie could not have been more wrong.

Rollie did get his appearance on Colorado Public Radio, just as you’d expect. But unexpectedly, CPR decided to invite our Penn Pfiffner on as the opposition. Sorry Rollie! Take a listen to this CPR audio of the two men debating Rollie’s massive tax increase: $3 billion over the next 5 years. Then after digesting Rollie’s justifications for raising taxes during a recession, take a look at these two research papers by the Independence Institute. The first explains what we all intuitively know: raising taxes kills jobs. Lots of them. Over 11,000 jobs lost in Colorado, that’s the real cost. The second is a quick Issue Backgrounder from Penn Pfiffner himself. It is Penn’s analysis of this huge tax increase.

The writing is on the wall for Proposition 103. Rollie Heath essentially failed to sell fresh chocolate chip cookies to a hungry Cookie Monster. Turns out, Cookie Monster couldn’t stomach what Rollie was selling in this economy. Who knew?

As you may have noticed, we at the Independence Institute don’t like tax increases of any kind. We especially don’t like them during rough economic times. (Side note: Have you heard the good news yet?! Colorado’s unemployment rate is DOWN to 8.3%! Hooray?) The evidence is pretty clear. If Proposition 103 passes and we get a massive tax for the next five years, all of our jobs will be in jeopardy. Just like these falling dominoes over here. Aside from just losing around 11,000 jobs if we tax ourselves into oblivion, there’s also the education side to the argument. Prop 103’s proponents say the tax hike is “for the kids.” (What tax hike isn’t really?) But nowhere does it say that the money raised from Prop 103 must go to education. Remember all that Ref C money and where it went? Yeah, me neither.

Thankfully, Charlie Leonard of the Aspen Times wrote on the education side of Prop 103. He cited two important points: one, that the money isn’t guaranteed to go to education to begin with. And secondly, even if all the money went to education, that doesn’t mean OUTCOMES – the stuff that matters – would improve. Charlie writes,

According to the nonpartisan Independence Institute, “Americans have increased spending on K-12 education by 50 percent over the past 30 years, and doubled spending over the past 40 years. Educational outcomes, as defined by test scores and international comparisons, have barely budged. Some school districts such as those in Washington, D.C., and New York City spend the highest amounts per pupil and have worse outcomes than Colorado’s test scores. The neighboring state of Utah spends $2,700 per pupil less than Colorado and enjoys better outcomes.”

And there you have folks. There is very little connection between money spent and educational outcomes. It’s not as if the more you spend, the more our kids learn. Not even close. So why tax ourselves into despair for the kids nothing?

Last week I wrote:

I want to alert my readers of an event happening this Wednesday, October 5th from 8 to 9:15am. The South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce will be holding a forum on the real world impact school vouchers have on education. On one side will be our Education Policy Analyst Ben DeGrow and on the other side, opposing vouchers, will be someone from the Colorado ACLU. I’ve been told that this event is less a debate and more a public forum.

Here is an idea of the format: Each participant will have approximately 3-4 minutes for some opening remarks, intros, etc. That will be followed by 4-5 questions posed by the moderator. Then it will open up to questions from the audience followed by closing remarks. It will be held at the South Metro Chamber down in Centennial.

So here’s the update: I just found out that the forum will indeed be open to the general public. People can just show up on a first come, first serve basis. The Chamber does not believe that the event will sellout so seating should not be an issue. Please go check this out!