Let's have an intervention: speak up against RTD's "geographic" cure. Meditations on alternative licensure for teachers. In case you thought becoming a mechanic just meant turning wrenches...
Let's have an intervention: speak up against RTD's "geographic" cure.
This one is coming up soon, so don't wait: RTD will be having a meeting to debate whether or not to ask voters to let them go beyond the TABOR limits.
In other words, RTD wants to ask to be able to keep any revenue they collect above the limits that TABOR imposes on the growth of government revenue. Quoting the CPR article posted first below:
"RTD’s full board will vote in late June on whether to send the question to voters. The agency currently has two different exemptions from TABOR for different parts of its budget; one expires later this year, the other in 2050. The ballot measure would ask voters to spare RTD’s entire budget from TABOR limits permanently."
That meeting is coming up soon, 6/25--next Tuesday--and it gives you a chance to stand up not only for your rights under TABOR, but also for common sense.
RTD is like that relative that cannot seem to get their life in order. They can't seem to finish what they start (FasTracks) and they can't even make what they have now work (nor really explain when it will get fixed)--see links two and three below for an example of the latter.
Yet, even with all that, they are back on the doorstep, hat in hand, asking for more money. Clearly, like a drunk moving to "fix" their alcoholism, RTD thinks that more money than they are already taking will make them run better.
I disagree. Just like with that relative who needs to get their life in order I say (and will try to testify at the meeting so I can say it to the board) that RTD needs to show some form of progress, some actual ability to manage what they have now before they ask for more.
I urge you to join me in speaking up to the board and telling them to fix their house before thinking about asking for more.
Toward that end, I put a video with Natalie Menten fourth below with some extra info that also details how to speak up and a link to RTD's Board of Director's calendar fifth below.
At some point today (Thurs 6/20), a link to the agenda for the 6/25 meeting should appear. In that agenda, you'll find a link to sign up to speak at the board meeting. See the attached screenshot.
If you want to speak up but can't make the meeting, you can always email the board:
rtd.boardoffice@rtd-denver.com
Speak up for TABOR lest you find it's gone. Speak up for common sense. Speak up for your wallet.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/06/12/voters-rtd-tabor-limits-november-2024-ballot/
https://www.cpr.org/2024/06/13/frustrations-grow-over-denver-area-rtd-light-rail/
https://www.cpr.org/2024/06/17/state-safety-regulator-says-rtd-failed-to-head-off-preventable-light-rail-disruptions/
https://rtd.iqm2.com/Citizens/calendar.aspx
Alternative Licensure for Teachers
The article below is from my local paper and details how my school district RE-1 Valley is (like many others throughout the state) struggling to find people who want to teach.
I will leave it to you to read the article if you are interested. What I want to touch on relates to the extended quote from the article that I attached as a screenshot due to its length.
In particular, I want to take up what Dr. Foster (the superintended of RE-1 Valley) says about alternative licensure candidates and long term subs, that their hire is not "best practice".
First, before digging in on that quote, I want to make sure my meaning is clear. I have emailed and spoken with Dr. Foster. I find him to be a thoughtful leader and genuinely interested in openness about his school; he has been conscientious and diligent in answering my questions (for example, about their budget). I respect him for that.
I also want to note explicitly that, while he characterizes hiring long term subs as not "best practice", he later goes on to express his gratitude for those teachers.
I suppose the best way to characterize what I want to discuss here is that I'm not entirely disagreeing with Dr. Foster, I just want to make sure that (as someone who did become a teacher via an alternative licensure program) no one gets discouraged from trying such programs by words like these.
Insofar as long term substitutes do not know the content and/or create more teacher turnover in the classroom (two things that lead to poor educational outcomes), I agree that this is not best practice. On this Dr. Foster and I likely agree.
What I want everyone reading to take home from this is that there is nothing inherently bad, wrong, or worse when comparing someone who set out to get an education degree and become a teacher and someone who got a different degree and learned by an alternative teaching program.
I've taught long enough now to have a feel for what good teaching is and what it isn't. I've also observed enough classrooms to have seen multiple teachers who got degrees in education and those who didn't.
All other things being equal, e.g. equal motivation to learn the craft of teaching, there is no difference at all between someone who got an education degree and someone who started down a different path and then found teaching.
Both groups are terrible at teaching for about a year and a half, both get better. Both end up being good if they pay attention and work at it.
If you are doing something else right now and teaching keeps intruding on your thoughts, look into an alternative licensure program. Go talk to someone who's done it.
You may find that teaching was the right move for you, that despite the difficulties in the work, that you found your place (like I did).
https://www.journal-advocate.com/2024/06/04/staffing-shortage-has-re-1-valley-hiring-more-alternative-licensure-teachers-long-term-subs/
In case you thought becoming a mechanic just meant turning wrenches...
I know it's not Friday, but this will be the last post til Sunday (I'll be helping work on my dad's 8V-71 Detroit). That means something for fun and not related to politics.
I teach math and physics, but a good bit of my course load involves teaching those subjects to people going into trades. In fact, I have a class that is unique in the state's community college system: a trades physics class.
The auto instructor approached me a few years ago to propose this class, saying that he wanted someone to teach the future techs the basic physics in vehicle systems so that he could focus on things like, you know, how to fix them.
I was over at the shop last semester and was looking over one of the school's newest demonstrators, a disassembled hybrid.**
I won't go into huge detail here, but what I wanted to communicate to you was a sense of how complicated these things are--lest you had the misapprehension that being a mechanic meant only turning wrenches.
Picture 1 shows the two electric motor/generators that spin the wheels when the car is running on electricity. When the car freewheels, they turn into generators and help refill the battery (a motor and generator are related but this is a whole other post). The bright orange wires are the high voltage wiring for the vehicle's motive system. There is also a 12 V system with different wires which runs things like the radio and wipers.
Picture 2 shows some of the guts from the motor housings. I don't want to get bogged down with detail here, but I hope you can appreciate the fine machining, fit, and complexity involved in a gear train that is designed to smoothly transition among and between running off a gas engine, electric motors, and generating electrical energy. Even ignoring that complexity, a cursory look at the gears should give a sense of the care involved in simply taking out and replacing these parts!
Everything, every single thing involved in being a mechanic on one of these cars involves care that goes beyond that of a regular car (which is already plenty complex). To give you a sense, take a look at picture 3. This comes from the first link below and it is the special glove kit you use to work on high voltage EV systems safely(I don't endorse this company, just used their picture and link). These are reminiscent of the gloves that linemen wear--and for the same reason.
Now take a look at a previous newsletter linked second below where I talk about how even mundane things like the refrigerant in the AC system have to be special for hybrids and EVs.
Being a mechanic, on an EV or regular vehicle, is not for people that can't cut it in college. I hope I've given you the barest sense here of how complex cars are, and thus how much thought and intelligence goes into repairing them.
If you know a young person that's mechanically minded and not so sure about 4 year college, tell them to go to their local community college and inquire about auto or diesel tech programs.
And tell them to be prepared for an intellectual challenge easily on par with any 4 year degree. Tell them to be prepared to be proud of the accomplishment that graduating from one of these programs is.
That's it til Sunday! Have a good end to the workweek.
**Ended up having to add to my curriculum because of this new toy. Things like explaining what the prefix "micro" means and what capacitors are and do. Both figure largely in the controls and operation of hybrids and EV's.
https://eintac.com/kits/glove-kit/
https://open.substack.com/pub/coloradoaccountabilityproject/p/you-cannot-just-slot-evs-in-where?r=15ij6n&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web