Left Behind

I hear that Obama wants to review NCLB. I hope it changes for the better. The incessant testing, tying testing to school closure, and teacher salaries has to stop. The curriculum has been narrowed to the point that students learn to take a test. Teachers teach to the test to preserve their jobs and pay. Currently NCLB mandates that school scores have to improve every year to the point that all students are proficient or face closure and conversion into charter schools. No money was ever appropriated by congress to attain this goal. This all has to be done by 2014. Get ready for the end of public education.

Present and Future

Hector contemplates his situation as a teacher of the future. Things haven't changed from present day, they have become worse. Meanwhile young Hector wants to become a teacher, he is full of enthusiasm, wish him luck.

Budget cuts looming

Hickenlooper is elected as Governor. The coming budget woes are on the horizon. Tax revenues are down, Amendment 23 ends in 2011. Get ready Hector and Sally, changes are coming.

This comic was intended to get out the vote for next month's election. Poor Hector and Sally, they can't vote yet and all the adults who should have voted decided to sit this one out. On a side note the comic is now in color!

Ritter passes gas

In this one Colorado outgoing Governor passes a stinky bit of gas in the form of SB191. This supposed reform law was intended to help the state of Colorado secure the Race To The Top funds. Of course the state did not get the funds, but still gets saddled with this travesty. It will likely be struck down or modified in the coming years. It is a shame that the state will have to spend more money to defend a crappy law. Ritter signed it just before he left office. He signed it even though he had put in place a group to study teacher performance pay and was proceeding in a more thoughtful way. But suddenly RTTT comes along and the Colorado Legislators decide to ram though SB191. Co-sponsored by Chris Romer(D) the bill is a thinly veiled attempt to remove due process rights of teachers and inserts student scores on CSAP into teacher evaluations.

This is the editorial for this month. I can't believe that we have to have this fight! The Colorado state senate is totally out of line for trying to take away our due process rights as teachers. This is yet another attack on teachers in the ongoing Republican, conservative effort to ruin public education. Who the hell do they think they are?

This editorial pokes fun at the school district's fear of spending down the rather large rainy day fund they have. Only 50 million of that fund is required by law to be saved, and yet there is nearly three times that much.