Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Education

Student safety advocacy group offers summertime tips for relationships with teachers
No Comments
Approved, kdvr.com, Local

Student safety advocacy group offers summertime tips for relationships with teachers

By Greg Nieto | Fox31 News JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — The founder of one of the most prominent student safety groups in Colorado is offering tips for parents this summer regarding safeguarding relationships with their teachers. Lindsay Datko is the founder and head of Jeffco Kids First, which goes by the motto, “Restore, Repair and Rebuild.”   Datko founded the organization in July 2020, during the pandemic. READ THE FULL STORY AT FOX31 NEWS
Read More
State bill rewrites how Colorado decides school vaccine mandates
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

State bill rewrites how Colorado decides school vaccine mandates

By John Ingold | Colorado Sun An amendment slipped into a bill by Democrats would shift reliance away from a key federal committee in determining which vaccines Colorado schoolkids are required to get Colorado lawmakers have quietly moved to shift the state’s school immunization requirements away from the recommendations of a prominent federal committee, in response to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking over the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The move comes in an amendment to a bill, House Bill 1027, currently awaiting Gov. Jared Polis’ signature. The amendment makes a change to how Colorado decides which vaccines to require. Colorado’s Board of Health sets the rules for which vaccines schoolkids need to receive or to have a valid exemption for. The current law sa...
Read More
Ballooning Medicaid costs, TABOR limits expose flaws in Colorado’s big government spending spree
No Comments
Approved, Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Ballooning Medicaid costs, TABOR limits expose flaws in Colorado’s big government spending spree

By Rocky Mountain Voice Editorial Board After years of overreach and unchecked government growth, Colorado lawmakers are now scrambling to plug a $1.2 billion hole in the state budget — a crisis largely of their own making.  Colorado budget writers voted Wednesday night to finalize a 2025–26 budget plan that slashes transportation funding, eliminates programs, and kicks key decisions down the road — all while Medicaid spending surges out of control. Despite the so-called “cuts,” the budget still grows to over $16 billion. But massive increases in Medicaid — particularly long-term care for seniors and the disabled — are eating up the budget at an unsustainable pace. Democrat lawmakers admit the problem is only getting worse. “Next year, I see our fiscal challenges compounding,...
Read More
Fort Collins school district fires 10 track coaches in sudden personnel shake-up
No Comments
Approved, kdvr.com, Local

Fort Collins school district fires 10 track coaches in sudden personnel shake-up

By Jacob Factor | Fox31 News DENVER (KDVR) — Ten track and field coaches at a high school in Fort Collins were terminated on Tuesday, barely a month into the spring season, after a “violation of district policy,” a Poudre School District spokesperson confirmed Thursday. In a message to families of track students at Rocky Mountain High School, located at 1300 W. Swallow Road, district officials said, “Due to a personnel matter involving a violation of district policy, some of the individuals previously serving as coaches are no longer employed with the district.” The district added that no students were involved in the situation. “We know this news may come as a surprise, and we understand that your students may have questions or concerns,” officials said in the letter sent...
Read More
Pielke Jr: How To Get Rid of a Tenured Professor
No Comments
Approved, Commentary, Reason

Pielke Jr: How To Get Rid of a Tenured Professor

By Roger Pielke Jr. | Reason I was a tenured full professor at the University of Colorado Boulder for almost 24 years. At the end of 2024, I left. Officially, it was a voluntary departure. But I sure felt like I'd been pushed out. My story started in 2015, when Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D–Ariz.) asked the university to investigate me. He alleged that I may have been secretly taking money from Exxon in exchange for the substance of my congressional testimonies, in which I reported on the consensus scientific findings of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—that while heat waves and extreme precipitation had increased, there was vanishingly little evidence to support claims that hurricanes, floods, and drought have become more common or intense. I was not taking E...
Read More
Thousands of Colorado teachers, parents and kids protest education cuts
No Comments
Approved, State, Westword

Thousands of Colorado teachers, parents and kids protest education cuts

By Bennito L. Kelty | Westword Thousands of Colorado teachers, parents and kids gathered at the Colorado State Capitol on Thursday, March 20, to demand more funding for public schools and protest possible cuts as the state deals with a $1 billion budget shortfall. "Kids need a chance to do their best," said Siobhan Holland, a teacher for twenty years in the Adams 12 Five Star School District who came out to protest against cuts. "They need the funds and resources that will help them be successful."  Donning red shirts and sweaters printed with words "Red for Ed," an estimated 4,000 protesters amassed at the Capitol's west lawn to support public education funding on Thursday, according to the Colorado State Patrol, with signs reading "fully fund public education" and...
Read More
Sengenberger: An ‘erosion of trust’ in Jeffco schools leadership
No Comments
Approved, Colorado Springs Gazette, Commentary, Local

Sengenberger: An ‘erosion of trust’ in Jeffco schools leadership

By Jimmy Sengenberger | Colorado Springs Gazette When Jefferson County Schools fired Chief of Schools David Weiss in December after learning he was being investigated for child pornography, the district spiraled into crisis mode. The situation deteriorated after Weiss died by suicide over New Year’s, with families learning about the allegations through media reports. Recently obtained text messages now reveal a district in disarray — defensive, self-focused, and scrambling behind the scenes while keeping parents in the dark. Dozens of pages of text exchanges, uncovered by the parent group Jeffco Kids First through open records requests, expose frantic damage control after Weiss’s termination — skirting open meetings laws by often grouping two board members with district leaders. T...
Read More
Ganahl: Smears and fearmongering—The fight for John Adams Academy and school choice in Douglas County
No Comments
Approved, Commentary, Local, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Ganahl: Smears and fearmongering—The fight for John Adams Academy and school choice in Douglas County

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice In Douglas County, Colorado, a battle over education choice is brewing as efforts to open a new classical charter school, the John Adams Academy, face fierce opposition. Spearheading the initiative is Ellie Reynolds, a Sterling Ranch resident and mom, and Kim Gilmartin, a seasoned advocate for school choice, who has helped launch multiple classical charter schools across the state.   However, the journey to establish this school in Sterling Ranch, a rapidly growing community with no existing school, has been met with aggressive and, at times, deeply personal hostility. The John Adams Academy, modeled after three successful classical charter schools in California, aims to provide an American classical leadership education...
Read More
“Education desert” bill would let charters open without school board approval in underperforming areas
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun, Top Stories

“Education desert” bill would let charters open without school board approval in underperforming areas

By Erica Breunlin | The Colorado Sun New charter schools authorized by the Colorado Charter School Institute would be allowed to open in communities with low-performing schools — possibly without approval from local school boards — under legislation that Colorado Senate President James Coleman is considering introducing at the Capitol this year. Coleman, a Denver Democrat, is also exploring the prospect of giving Colorado school districts “the option to solicit proposals from their communities for new quality schools,” including traditional public schools, charter schools, magnet schools, innovation schools or “other innovative education models.” The key factor in opening new schools in areas with struggling schools, Coleman said, would be “demonstrated community demand from acros...
Read More
Colorado education groups ask lawmakers to devise plan to boost school funding, eye 2026 ballot measure
No Comments
Approved, State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado education groups ask lawmakers to devise plan to boost school funding, eye 2026 ballot measure

By Erica Breunlin | The Colorado Sun Colorado education advocacy groups are banding together to call on lawmakers to begin more seriously examining how to close the gap between the amount Colorado spends on public education and the amount necessary to fully fund schools.  Following the results of two recent adequacy studies that indicate Colorado is underfunding education by billions of dollars, the organizations say the time to start figuring out how to steer more funding toward schools is now, even as Colorado faces a particularly tight budget year. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE COLORADO SUN
Read More