Is Your School Racist? Some Dems Seem to Think So. CFOIC's 2022 Year in Review. How Has the Colordo Option Fared?
A bill on school discipline.
I saw the bill below when I was looking up on of Sen Moreno's other bills.
I was pretty startled at a couple things:
1. The accusation leveled against schools, i.e. that some may be discriminating.
2. The takeover of some aspects of school discipline and it's moving from local control to more centralized, state-level control.
First, take a look at screenshot 1 attached. First, start with the bit boxed in blue. I will take up the section labeled (I) at bottom, but I wanted you to see the legislative declaration because what is described there is a disparity. A difference in number. Disparities have lots of causes, and, no, not all of them need be discrimination.
Now look at the part boxed in red. The sponsors make the GIANT leap from disparity to discrimination and point the dirty end of the stick at schools. Clearly if a disparity exists, it's because schools discriminate.
I.e. Schools set up policies which discriminate and are pushing some of our children into prison.
This is quite an accusation and one that I would hope more educators notice and speak up about. I'm right now trying to decide whether or not I want to testify if for no other reason than to tell Sen Moreno and Rep Lindsay what I think of their smear.
Lastly, I want you to look at the part boxed in black. Maybe it was a mistake putting things in the order shown, but this one is the only one that could possibly be called "discrimination" if true.
And It very well could be true. I don't know. I'm not here to argue that it isn't, but I am a skeptic. As such I'd like to see the evidence. I'm not a fan of "research demonstrates ..." (or shows, or proves, or whatever other verb you want to toss out while making claims without citing how you arrived at them.
So what do we do about such wanton and horrible discrimination? Get the state government involved and require schools that have a disparity in their discipline numbers to report to the state about what they intend to do to "fix" the problem. Starting in the bill text, go to section 3(a) on page 4 for details.
Any school with a DISPARITY in its discipline numbers must create a plan, file it with the state, have meetings, have trainings about fixing the disparity, and etc.
We all know exactly what this will look like in practice. Quotas. Discipline based on ratios and not on individual behavior. This is a bad idea.
Return now with me to the section labeled (I) in screenshot 1. Re-read if necessary. Fixing things like this would be a much, much, MUCH better use of our state's, schools', and educators' limited time and money. It's achievable and would have a far better effect than imputing what will amount to a quota system of discipline.
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb23-029
CFOIC's 2022 Year In Review for freedom of information fans.
I'm normally a fan of as much transparency as possible, but there are a couple exceptions that show up in this year in review:
--Kyle Clark's lawsuit
--The Crested Butte News' suit to get the name and etc. of a person asking for a banned book.
In both cases, I see a distinction between what the law should allow and what's right. Those are not always the same and I depart from CFOIC on their support of both.
Nonethless, I present the Year In Review.
https://coloradofoic.org/cfoics-2022-year-in-review-club-q-mcclain-autopsy-serial-meetings-secret-ballots-book-banning-teacher-sick-days-and-casa-bonita/
When Polis et. al. say that their priority is to continue to push for and work on affordability, do you suppose they mean things like the Colorado Option which either don't provide lower prices or work as planned?
God I hope not. I don't know how much more "Democrat affordability" this state can take!
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/27/health-care-costs-public-option-00075150