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!

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.

At the moment we are unsure how open to the public this forum will be. The event language makes it clear that Chamber of Commerce business leaders get first priority. But I will write another post updating the status of public participation if and when I find out. For now though, I just wanted to let everyone know this forum is happening.

My representative up in Boulder and proponent of the latest big tax hike in our state, Rollie Heath, was kind enough to come on my TV show and talk about it. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the show, you can check it out here:

Additionally, last week our complaint against Rollie’s tax hike went public with this Denver Post article. Why would we file a complaint against this $3 billion tax hike “for the children?” Well, watch this video from blogger Kelly Maher and you’ll see why:

Evidently, there are lies, damn lies, and petition gatherers.

[Copyright Ben Hummel at PolitixCartoons.com]

Education Policy Analyst Ben DeGrow was featured on Channel 9’s Your Show last week in a debate with Senator Rollie Heath. They went head to head on Rollie’s proposed tax increase for education. Below is the debate in two parts. Before watching the debate, keep these facts in mind:

1. Colorado already spends more than $9,000 per student
2. Per pupil spending has been increasing for decades with no results, as studies show
3. Senator Heath’s proposal doesn’t solve the problem but does kill jobs
4. It’s time for school districts to pursue innovation and spend dollars more wisely

PART 1:

PART 2: