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December 03

No Stimulus "Equity" for Jeffco Charters?
Now that the ARRA (American Reinvestment and Recovery Act) funds are out, it's important for everyone to track their usage. Jeffco Public Schools has detailed the planned usage of their funds at http://www.jeffcopublicschools.org/finance/stimulus_summary.php

Of consternation, it has been reported that Jeffco charter schools are not going to receive stimulus funds. Although no charter schools would likely meet the Title I/low income category, it's hard to imagine the $9 million in state stabilization funds may not be "equitably" applied.

4:02 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

Education Funding -- Federal Funds/Stimulus Update

The federal dollars for Colorado K-12 will include $448 million in annual funding for 2009, up 9.4% from 2008, PLUS, over $1 BILLION from the Recovery Act.

Of the BILLION DOLLARS plus, $760 million is allocated for "stabilization funds," which are meant to offset decreased state revenues available for education. Much of the $400 million balance will be program specific, targeting disadvantaged and special education programs.

The legislative intent for the stimulus funds specifies that they be used for one-time purchases and programming. Because the Democrats on the House Education committee acquiesced to education lobbyists' positions against transparency, it will be up to citizens on a district-by-district basis, to demand full accounting by their district boards such that these one-time funds don't become budgeted "essential programming" that will need to be funded by mill levies in the future.

JEFFCO BRINGS PUBLIC PARTICIPATION TO FACILITIES

Jeffco Public Schools has launched an initiative to expand community outreach and participation in public school facility planning, a welcome measure for strengthening its partnership with the community.

According to Jeffco's Key communique:

The purpose of the district wide Facilities Master Plan is two-fold: to support the JeffCo Strategic Plan and ensure

-facilities meet the needs of students & staff
- safe learning and working environments
- facilities are maintained, and to prepare for a long range Capital Improvement Plan to assess and determine:
• new school construction
• campus consolidation
• school by school renovation budgets
• alternative delivery strategies

District Wide Facilities Master Plan Community Meetings are scheduled as follows:
May 4, 2009 from 6-7:30 pm in the cafeteria at Ralston Valley High School and Dakota Ridge High School
May 5, 2009 from 6-7:30 pm in the cafeteria at Wheat Ridge High School and Evergreen High School

More information on the Facilities Usage Committee and meeting notes is available at the Jeffco website.

Senate Passes Watered Down State SpendingTransparency

One step forward, two steps back...after an amendment mirroring Governor Ritter's executive order to include a provision allowing discretionary information aggregation, the full Senate, as anticipated, passed the amended version of HB 1288. The amendment (from the Lakewood Edge recent post) provides, "where access to each individual transaction is likely to hinder, rather than foster this goal (accountability), the system may provide access to aggregated information.”

It will remain to be seen how the intent of the measure, accountability, will be interpreted by state agencies, including higher education. The ability of citizens to review actual spending, not just lump sum aggregates, is an integral part of the cost efficiencies other entities have experienced with full transparency, and moves the electorate back to its proper role, as the "boss."

The amended version of State Spending Transparency is notably the only measure addressing transparency to receive approval by the legislature -- Public School Spending Transparency was passed by the Senate and killed in the House Education Committee, New School Construction Transparency never made it out of the Senate Education Committee.

We applaud all the transparency proponents fighting for full disclosure, and the citizens taking the time to make their voices heard. The value of participation in the process, and advocacy for important causes, can't be over-emphasized!

April 15th, 2009 Tea Party, from the Capitol steps

TRANSPARENCY IN EDUCATION