Colorado voters will decide next month whether to raise taxes on recreational marijuana to help fund a new state program aimed at providing Colorado students with out-of-school learning opportunities. The program, called Learning Enrichment and Academic Progress, or LEAP, would pay service providers, like private tutoring companies or even public school teachers looking for extra […]
Ready Colorado
Posted inCOVID, Education, News, Politics and Government
How Colorado is changing standardized tests for elementary and middle school students this year — and why
The Colorado Measures of Academic Success, which is administered to students in grades three through eight, will look a lot different this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s thanks to House Bill 1161, which is the result of a legislative compromise reached between testing opponents and proponents at the Colorado Capitol. Gov. Jared Polis […]
Posted inEducation, News
Access to high-quality Colorado schools varies by ZIP code, report says
Access to high-quality schools varies significantly across Colorado, a new report has found, with low-income families and people in rural areas less likely to have a school with high test scores within reasonable driving distance. The report from Ready Colorado, a conservative education advocacy group that supports school choice, puts numbers to education disparities and […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Wealthy Colorado parents are hiring teachers for private learning pods, leaving low-income students behind
Coronavirus shutdowns and delays have created so many unknowns for Colorado parents with school-age kids just weeks before most classes are slated to start that some are creating their own certainties by starting “pods” of like-minded families and hiring private teachers. The flight from ambiguity — over when school will actually start, whether it will […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Nonprofit cash being spent in Colorado campaigns still impossible to trace despite 2019 law
Outside groups spent nearly $1.7 million on eight highly contested Colorado legislative primary races. But it isn’t always easy to figure out where the money came from, despite a 2019 law touted as bringing more transparency to a system that includes cash from dark-money funded nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors. In other instances, discerning […]
Posted inPolitics and Government
“Brutal” and “nasty” only begin to describe the GOP battles in Weld County ahead of the primary
First, came the allegations about vote-rigging in the March caucuses. Then, a website made bogus accusations that a conservative Republican candidate is actually a Democrat. Now, an email is the subject of a complaint to police and consumer protection authorities for using a false address. The result: The Colorado attorney general’s office is looking into […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
2020 battle for power at the Capitol starts with these big-money Colorado legislative primaries
Colorado’s legislative primaries are coming down to a battle of partisanship: Is one Republican more conservative than another? Which Democrat will hold the party line? The ideological tests — which mirror the party purity tests in th U.S. Senate race and at the national level — could significantly influence the conversation at the Capitol next […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government
A bill is coming that would change enrollment rules for Colorado charter schools. Could it also deter more from opening?
A lawmaker worried that charter schools aren’t offering kids with disabilities the same opportunities as traditional public schools wants to change the rules. But education advocates say Rep. Shannon Bird’s proposed changes unfairly target charter schools and are trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Through legislation she plans to introduce next week, Bird, […]