CO State Board of Ed rules threatening the ability of some to get the education they want? An update on legislators voting to give themselves a raise. Know who gets your tax money to give to renters.
Colorado State Board of Education Rulemaking Threatening Homeschooling and/or Concurrent (Dual) Enrollment?
The Colorado State Board of Education is (or has) undertaken a rulemaking that will change some rules around how students are counted in certain programs.
Seems a minor change and easy to fly under the radar, but counting has a big impact because it translates to money. Obviously schools need and want money, but without schools, kids don't have the same opportunities.
Let's back up a little bit here and talk some prerequisite material. I will gloss over a fair bit of detail, but to help you fill in the subtleties if you'd like, I put an article by Complete Colorado first below and then a letter (mentioned in the article) written by Colorado Early Colleges (CEC) to the State Board of Education.
It's long been the case that people that homeschool can enroll their kids in programs at their local schools (both academic and social like sports). Although more recent, It's also been the case that various schools are offering dual or concurrent enrollment: programs where students can take college-level courses at the same time as they take their regular high school classes.**
Colorado Early Colleges is a school (actually applied to teach at one about a thousand years ago that was in or near Englewood) that offers online enrichment and concurrent enrollment classes to homeschool kids and a proposed rule by the State Board of Ed jeopardizes their ability to do so.
Well, it jeopardizes their ability to count some of those kids, which jeopardizes their money for those kids, which jeopardizes their ability to offer the programs to homeschool kids.
There is speculation about the legality of this maneuver by a lawyer in the Complete Colorado article, but whether or not it's actually illegal I would say it's definitely unfair.
I especially say so for students that are headed toward a field involving lots of math and science; it's a challenge for an everyday parent to provide that student the level of instruction that would be an appropriate challenge and a motivation.
I am not sure where the rulemaking is in the process right now, but I think I may shoot an email over to the State Board anyway. If you'd like to follow suit, you'll find the board's site linked last below.
If choose to do so, better hurry. Think the meeting was already past (2/14) and the board may be in the deciding process right now.
**I continue to marvel at the kids I have seen leave high school with an associate's degree and a HS diploma. And we're not talking about easy classes either. These kids are doing engineering pre-reqs. When I was their age, I was still getting in trouble for writing dirt words in other kids' yearbooks.
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2024/02/13/providers-say-proposed-state-education-board-rules-threaten-homeschool-learning-programs/
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/wp-content/uploads/2023-12-02-Letter-to-State-Brd-Finance-Rules-signed.pdf
https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeboard
Related:
A report from the conservative leaning Common Sense Institute about a skills and attainment gap in Colorado.
Let me set up its relevance to the post above with this quote (from the link below):
"Adapting an inflexible education system to better align with the rapidly evolving nature of the modern workforce, however, is no easy task."
We should be seeking out ways to help and encourage ALL Colorado students to et some form of post-secondary education or training, not making it harder.
More in the report below.
https://commonsenseinstituteco.org/supply-and-demand-diagnosing-colorados-skills-and-attainment-gap/
An update on HB24-1059, the bill where legislators are voting themselves more money.
And, surprising no one, the bill is out of its first committee.
How could it not? If you didn't have to sacrifice in some way and were able to decide, wouldn't you vote the same?
Keep this one in your pocket for when politicians talk about not being able to fund things, and when they talk about being "laser focused" on affordability.
Linked below is a Colorado Politics article for more context if you want it.
https://www.coloradopolitics.com/legislature/colorado-lawmakers-vote-to-give-themselves-a-pay-raise-beginning-in-2025/article_3a81fdf2-d1cd-11ee-af37-37acff56e88a.html
Know who is getting your tax money to give to renters.
Back in last November's special session, a bill was passed to provide what lawmakers termed "emergency" assistance to renters. See the first link and/or the screenshot at the top. It's right there in the title.
Emergency must be a kind of relative term, though, because the Division of Housing, housed within the Department of Local Affairs, took from that point until just last week to get the process started.
It works like this. Money comes from you. It goes to the government. This money is then given to a series of nonprofits. Renters who fit the criteria apply to the nonprofits for assistance, are evaluated, and then the taxpayer money goes to them.
I have this program on my watchlist because how and where my money goes matters to me: the expansion of taxpayer money going to nonprofits around this state raises real concerns regarding how that money is spent and accountability for what it's used on (Connect for Health Colorado, I'm looking in your direction).
After multiple check in emails to see if and when this process would start (I think I finally exhausted the DOLA press contact to the point where in her last email she threw some links at me and ran), I noted that a couple of weeks ago it was announced that the grantees, the nonprofits who would dole out the cash were announced.
I sent in a CORA request asking to see the contracts and asking which groups were awarded grants. I got the list and contracts back. I thought I would share. After all, as I say above, this is our money.
First, the groups that will manage the money are: Brothers Redevelopment, Community Economic Defense Project, La Puente Home, Neighbor to Neighbor and Total Concept
The contracts I saw were pretty much all the same. I didn't go through with a fine tooth comb, but didn't see any major differences. As such, I chose the contract between the state and Neighbor to Neighbor because it was the first file attached to my CORA request email. A copy is linked below.
I would also say that the contracts themselves don't really point to anything untoward (it is reasonable to question the wisdom and efficacy of taking money from some to give to others in this regard, however).
If you look through the contract, you'll see a ton of boilerplate, but you will also see a fair bit of compliance checks and oversight, two things I was glad to see. You'll also note a cap on administrative costs, another good thing. I attached sample screenshots from the contract below to give you specific looks at what I mean.
Now, there's the contract and there's enforcement and that can often be where mischief has the chance to sneak in. Still too early for that, however, so I will leave it here for now.
I know these sorts of things can be a bit dry, particularly if there's nothing scandalous that's easy to find. I urge you to look through them anyway, even if in passing. You will, if nothing else, pick up some familiarity with how your government is spending your money and have a basis for comparison so you can pick out things that are scandalous in the future.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb23b-1001
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10DTAElBTMf_Da8QmYqkHYof7V4GBNSS9/view?usp=sharing