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Youth and Families 2010
Youth-Families_10
A focus in La Plata County on building assets for our children, youth and engaged families.
Click the archive to your left to view 2007-2009 Youth & Family materials.
Upcoming Events.
Youth and Family Positions.
CO Ed Legislation.
La Plata County Actions.
Colorado Actions.
LWVUS-CO Positions.
LWVUS Reference Materials.
Colorado and US News.
Letters.
Past Events.
References.
Upcoming Events
*Fort Lewis College will again host the Common Reading Experience in Fall 2010. Click Enrique Events to view a schedule of this year's CRE events.
Of particular note is the session "Creating a Safer, More Compassionate World III", a panel on immigration. The session is scheduled for October 6, 2010 from 7-9pm in the FLC Ballroom.
Youth and Family Positions
Colorado Education Legislation
*6/14/10 Bell Policy Center:Students and our economy
win by ensuring access
to higher education
We believe that one of the essential functions of government is to support the development of an educated citizenry and workforce, and a key component of this is ensuring access to high-quality, affordable post-secondary education.
Two bills signed by Gov. Bill Ritter last week will, in different ways, serve this important goal. We presented testimony on both bills during the session...
*6/2/10 Bell Policy Center:"Success from the session Three key bills boost post-secondary education"<+
*4/13/10 Denver Post:Colorado renews teacher-tenure debate By Jeremy P. Meyer
A battle began anew Monday as a controversial bill seeking to change teacher-tenure laws was introduced into the legislature -- much to the ire of the powerful teachers union. "Now the fun begins," said Sen. Michael Johnston, D-Denver, the main sponsor of the bill that has been in the making for four months.
The Colorado Education Association -- the state's largest union, which represents 40,000 educators -- is opposed to the bill, calling it "too much, too fast," said CEA president Beverly Ingle...
*LWVCO Legislative Letter 5:38 3/15/10 EDUCATION FUNDING
*1/16/10 Duango Herald:State eyes cuts to FLC Indians
School leader says legislative bill, other proposed cuts 'devastating'
by Joe Hanel
Herald Denver Bureau
DENVER - Legislators are targeting Fort Lewis College's free tuition for Native Americans for a $1.8 million cut.
It comes on top of the nearly $4 million in cuts Gov. Bill Ritter has proposed for the college by 2011 - the deepest percentage cut in the state. Together, the two cuts will have a "devastating, crippling impact" on Fort Lewis, said Steve Schwartz, FLC's vice president for finance and administration...
La Plata County Actions
*3/23/10 Durango Herald:9-R board fills Lynch's seat
Bruce Anderson was appointed also in 2006
by Garrett Andrews
Durango School District 9-R board members voted Monday to appoint radio broadcaster and one-time board member Bruce Anderson to fill a seat vacated by Paddy Lynch, whose tumultuous run on the board ended in February.
The board voted 4-2 to appoint Anderson at a special meeting. Floyd Patterson, Julie Levy, Wendy Rice and Andy Burns voted in favor of approval, and Jeff Schell and Joe Colgan voted against.
* 2/24/10 Durango Herald: 9-R seeks budget busters
Public uses Web to offer ideas to slash $2.9 million
by Chuck Slothower
Herald Staff Writer
Durango School District 9-R asked taxpayers for their budget-cutting ideas, and my, how they have responded.
Some of the ideas, such as increasing admission prices at sports games, would be relatively easy to implement but would save or raise little money. Others, such as closing Sunnyside Elementary School and moving pupils to Florida Mesa Elementary, would be intensely controversial.
The 4,697-student district is looking to cut about $2.9 million from the 2010-11 budget, which goes into effect July 1...
* 2/17/10 Drango Herald:9-R board lays groundwork for layoffs
Durango school district looking to cut $2.9 million from budget
by Chuck Slothower
Herald Staff Writer
Durango school board members declared a "fiscal exigency" Tuesday, a legal step that allows the district to move toward layoffs. Durango School District 9-R must cut nearly $2.9 million from its 2010-11 budget, said Laine Gibson, chief financial officer. The district operates on a general fund of about $40 million.
While board members and administrators are considering a menu of one-year cuts - such as delaying buying buses and computers - those are not nearly enough to fill the budget gap. District officials expect deep drops in state funding paired with rising health-care costs...
* 2/14/10 Durango Herald: Shaping the Future
Planning teams will create a vision of the future for Dunrango High School
by Diane Lashinsky
Over the last several years, Durango High School has undergone significant change. It's now time to reflect on our work, consider next steps, and cast the net forward to meet the needs of a new generation of DHS students...
Recent work at DHS has been feverish - exciting in the possibilities and exhausting in the hours worked - all necessary on behalf of the students we serve and the community that entrusts us with preparing the next generation of citizens. Most parents recognize Small Learning Communities, Big Picture and Advisory as recent school improvements. Such new school designs provide the means through which we form and sustain the important relationships necessary for students to learn...
*1/22/10 Fort Lewis Collge: House Bill 10-1067 to be pulled from consideration in committee on Monday
DURANGO, CO + In a press conference held today, Friday, January 22, Colorado Representative Karen Middleton, one of the sponsors of House Bill 10-1067, said that the bill would be pulled when it went to committee on Monday.
HB 10-1067 would have reduced the amount Fort Lewis College is reimbursed for upholding the state's promise to educate Native Americans. FLC offers all Native Americans the opportunity to earn their degree tuition free.
'Fort Lewis College would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Representative Middleton for her decision to pull HB 10-1067,' FLC President Brad Bartel said. 'We understand that her intent was never to hurt Fort Lewis College. We want to thank her for her advocacy for education and for her commitment to all Native American students. We welcome the opportunity to work with Representative Middleton, the Executive Director of Higher Education Rico Munn, and the Legislature in finding solutions to the higher education funding challenges in Colorado.'
After HB 10-1067 was introduced last week, Fort Lewis College students, alumni and friends, both Native Americans and non-Natives, came together in opposition to the bill. As of Friday, January 22, a Facebook site created by students opposed to HB 10-1067 had more than 3,400 supporters.
Fort Lewis College Native American Tuition Waiver
The reason for Native American students receiving an education at Fort Lewis College tuition-free dates back to an agreement between the state of Colorado and the federal government. When the federal government turned over several thousand acres of land where the federal Fort Lewis Indian school was located to Colorado, the agreement stated that the school "is to be maintained by the State as an institution of learning to which Indian students will be admitted free of tuition and on an equality with white students." (1911 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs)
From that Indian school, Fort Lewis has grown into an exceptional public liberal arts college. As of fall semester 2009, 758 Native American students were enrolled at Fort Lewis College, approximately 20 percent of the total student body.
*1/21/10 Durango Herald:Students organize against cut
American Indians strive to protect free tuition at Fort Lewis College
by Chuck Slothower
Herald Staff Writer
Fort Lewis College students gathered Wednesday to organize against a bill introduced in the Colorado Legislature that would eviscerate $1.8 million from the college's 2011-12 budget. The forum, organized by American Indian students, attracted 200 students and supporters who thronged a small room at the Miller Student Services building on campus. Students set in motion plans to protest in front of the Capitol building in Denver. Navajo Nation Vice President Ben Shelly, who drove on treacherous roads to reach the meeting, spoke in support of the students.
'The Navajo Nation is behind you all', Shelly said.
Colorado Actions
*7/28/10 Denver Post:Taking the right steps in federal education race
Colorado was smart to pass SB 191. The state's application would also benefit greatly from an endorsement by the CEA.
Colorado is one step closer to winning an infusion of federal Race to the Top money, and it couldn't come at a better time. With the state hemorrhaging cash, it would be devastating if further budget cuts to K-12 education derailed Colorado's reform agenda.
The state learned this week that it is one of 19 finalists in the second round of Race to the Top. With the passage this past spring of Senate Bill 191, the teacher-tenure bill, and Colorado's past track record of being ahead of the curve in education reform, we think the state is on strong footing to be one of the dozen or so states that walk away with cash in September...
*5/15/10 Durango Herald: Gov. Bill Ritter signs new legislation to increase children's welfare
by The Associated Press
DENVER - Gov. Bill Ritter signed several measures reforming the state's child welfare system into law on Friday, including the creation of a child protection ombudsman position.
The new laws were largely in response to the deaths of 35 children over the past three years and a scathing federal report that said the state was doing too little to ensure the safety of children in its care. The other two laws strengthen mandatory reporting requirements of child abuse and make it easier for officials to track victims of neglect and abuse across county lines...
*1/20/10 Durango Herald:Colorado angles for $377 million for public schools
by Joe Hanel
Herald Denver Bureau
DENVER - Colorado leaders said schoolchildren are already winners even if the state doesn't win the federal Race to the Top grant. But they would love to have the $377 million for education reform they asked for Tuesday when they sent their grant application to Washington...
The deadline to apply was Tuesday, and Colorado is up against more than 30 states that want a piece of the $4 billion in grants, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Obama announced Tuesday that he is asking Congress for another $1.3 billion for Race to the Top next year.
The money would pay for specific reforms, and it could not be used to restore the $260 million in cuts to schools Ritter has proposed to help close the state budget gap.
Colorado's application hits the four areas the Obama administration wants to see:
- Making teachers and principals better.
- Giving better tests to students.
- Improving data to track how well individual students perform.
- Helping struggling schools...
LWVUS-CO Positions
LWVUS Reference Materials
Colorado and US News
* 8-4-10 Durango Herald; Bill: Feds would aid tuition waiver
Salazar wants FLC reimbursed for out-of-state Native American students by Shane Benjamin
U.S. Rep. John Salazar has introduced legislation that would provide funding for Fort Lewis College's Native American tuition-waiver program.
Passage of the bill would help ease Colorado's budget woes and preserve the tuition waiver in the future, proponents said Tuesday.
"After 100 years, it is time to step up and reverse this unfunded mandate and preserve this valuable program for future generations of students," Salazar, D-Manassa, said in a news release...
*3/29/10 Wall Street Journal:Only Two States Win Race to Top By NEIL KING JR.
The Obama administration delivered a jolt to U.S. public education Monday by selecting just two states, Delaware and Tennessee, to receive $600 million in hard-fought grants designed to help districts overhaul their programs.
The awards are part of the administration's $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition, which has sparked a nationwide scramble among states to prove which of them is championing the most robust changes. Forty states and the District of Columbia applied for the grants...
*3/15/10 Wall Street Journal:Obama Outlines Sweeping Education RevampBy NEIL KING JR. and BARBARA MARTINEZ
WASHINGTON--The Obama administration plans to upend how the government measures and encourages success in the country's public schools as part of a sweeping proposal to rewrite President George W. Bush's signature No Child Left Behind law. The administration's blueprint, which would cast aside many of the core principles of the 2002 Bush law, kicks off what is sure to be months of heated debate in Congress over how to recalibrate the federal government's role in the nation's 98,000 public elementary and high schools. The administration unveiled the plan Saturday, and immediately sparked disagreement over the direction of federal education policy.
At its heart, the Obama approach would set firmer standards for success while lifting nearly all the measures that the Bush law uses to try to prod change at failing schools. Obama aides describe the plan as "tight on goals, loose on means."
* 3/10/10 NY Times:Panel Releases Proposal to Set U.S. Education Standards By SAM DILLON
A panel of educators convened by the nation's governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards on Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation's public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. The new proposals could transform American education, replacing the patchwork of standards ranging from mediocre to world-class that have been written by local educators in every state...
*2/9/10 NY Times: Childhood Obesity Battle Is Taken Up by First LadyBy SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON -- The White House, led by Michelle Obama, announced a sweeping initiative on Tuesday aimed at revamping the way American children eat and play -- reshaping school lunches, playgrounds and even medical checkups -- with the goal of eliminating childhood obesity within a generation.
The "Let's Move" campaign, nearly a year in the making, is Mrs. Obama's official debut in a high-profile policy role, and she has already lined up an array of partners in government, medicine, science, business, education and athletics who are pledging to work together to get children off their couches and consuming fresher, healthier food...
*1/19/10 Washington Post: Obama visits Fairfax school to announce more Race to Top funding By Bill Turque, Michael Birnbaum and Michael Fletcher
President Obama came to a Fairfax County elementary school Tuesday morning to announce that he will seek a $1.35 billion expansion of his signature Race to the Top initiative for improving public education, including provisions that will allow individual school systems to compete for the coveted federal grants...
Letters from our members
Past Events
References
*La Plata County Children, Youth and Family
Thank you for visiting La Plata County's Children, Youth and Family website. Within the pages you will find both our short-and long-term purpose. In the short-term you will learn about the work of hundreds of your fellow citizens who have come together to create La Plata County's first Children Youth and Family Master Plan.
* Architecture for Immigration Reform University of Denver 2009
The measure of a great university is its commitment to the public good, and the manner in which it acts on that commitment to achieve results that have a real and positive impact. At the University of Denver, we believe that one of our roles is to stimulate a rich and informed public discourse on critical issues in the belief that such discourse will contribute to a just, prosperous and sustainable future for Colorado, our home since 1864.
It is with that goal in mind that the University sponsors the Strategic Issues Program. The program brings together concerned citizens from across the state, convening as a strategic issues panel, to examine the many facets of a single complex issue. Previous panels have examined Colorado's economic future, water issues and Colorado's need for constitutional reform. The reports from these panels have stimulated both further debate and positive actions.
The work of the 2008+2009 strategic issues panel confronted one of our nation's thorniest, most complex and politically charged issues--immigration, both legal and illegal. Depending on one's perspective, the issue is driven by considerations of human rights, respect for the law, business/labor relations, the evolution of the U.S. economy, the educational rights of children, separation of authority between the states and the federal government, the fundamental nature of the relationships between the U.S. and its neighboring countries, or the basic attributes of citizenship itself. The panel was comprised of twenty distinguished citizens whose lives, beliefs and political persuasions span a very broad spectrum. Their work was informed by in-depth research and face-to-face interactions with a vast array of experts in all of the areas noted above. As you read this report, you will find that in spite of the many dimensions of the issue and the disparate perspectives brought to the table by the panel members, a thoughtful, fact-based approach did indeed bring consensus.
We hope that the work of this panel and the ideas brought forth in this report will stimulate similarly civil, thoughtful, fact-based debate among the public at large and its representatives in government, such that this broader conversation might lead to a desperately needed consensus for action.
Robert D. Coombe
Chancellor, University of Denver
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Last revised: August 14, 2010 16:18 PDT.
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League of Women Voters of La Plata County, Colorado. All rights reserved.
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