State college tuition could rise 9.5%

Budget bill orders biggest hikes at research schools

By Berny Morson

Rocky Mountain News

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Colorado residents attending state colleges and universities could be socked with tuition increases of up to 9 1/2 percent next fall.

"Colorado universities still a bargain"

How about that for a more accurate headline. Here's how CU's tuition, for instance, compares to similar schools across the country:

The pattern is the same when you compare or other state universities and colleges to their peers in other states.

Our tuition is relatively low despite that fact that Colorado contributes far less funding to its universities than the other states.

And our low tuition buys a better-than-average education. In the U.S. News rankings, CU looks pretty good compared to its peers:

	Rank
	44	University of Texas -- Austin
	75	Indiana University -- Bloomington
	79	University of Colorado -- Boulder
	85	University of Kansas
	85	Iowa State University
	91	University of Missouri -- Columbia
	91	University of Nebraska -- Lincoln
	96	University of Massachusetts -- Amherst
	112	Florida State University

The legislature's Joint Budget Committee included that recommendation Friday in the draft of the annual state spending bill.

Students at the four research schools - the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado and the Colorado School of Mines - would see increases of up to 9 1/2 percent.

Other four-year schools - such as Metropolitan State College - would see increases of up to 71/2 percent, while the increases at the community colleges would be capped at 5 1/2 percent.

But the budget committee recommendation also would cap increases for the neediest students at 5 percent and would add $9 million of additional funds for financial aid and work- study grants.

Increases for graduate students and non-resident undergraduates would not be capped under the proposal.

The six-member JBC could still revise the draft before it is introduced in the House of Representatives on March 24.

The House or the Senate also could make changes.

The increases still would have to be adopted by each school's governing boards, which could raise tuition by lesser amounts.

Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said the tuition increase is needed because the state can't afford to raise direct support for higher education.

Without more money, schools will have to cut programs.

"There's a lot of talk about keeping tuition down," said Pommer, who made the motion to raise tuition. "The question is, keeping tuition for what down?

"If you destroy the university so you're not charging much tuition . . . you're not getting much of an education, either."

Colorado tuition will still fall below the average of comparable institutions in other states, Pommer said.

Gov. Bill Ritter and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education had sought increases that topped out at 9 percent.

Blake Gibson, a leader of Associated Students of Colorado, said he understands the financial bind Colorado universities are in.

But, he warned, students are being priced out of higher education.

Students at many Colorado schools saw double digit tuition increases last year, said Gibson, a CSU sophomore.

"Like anything else, there's kind of a point where it just becomes too much," Gibson said. The increases add to the heavy debt burden many students carry, he said.

Along with the higher tuition, the JBC voted to increase higher education funding by more than $60 million, including the additions to financial aid.

Education costs may go up Here are some sample resident undergraduate tuitions for next year, assuming higher education governing boards take advantage of the full increases allowed under the draft state budget bill:

INSTITUTION THIS YEAR* NEXT YEAR**

* CU Arts & Sciences $5,418 $5,933

* CU Business School $8,632 $9,452

* CU Engineering $7,498 $8,210

* Metro State $2,432 $2,614

* Community Colleges $2,315 $2,442

Group: 'Extreme environmentalists' are harming the poor and minorities

By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 03/08/2008 01:51:12 AM MST

The Congress of Racial Equality is rolling out a new environmental justice campaign that focuses on "extreme environmentalists" such as wilderness advocates, charging them with harming poor people and minority groups.
Niger Innis, CORE's national spokesman, attended a news conference this week at the Utah Capitol to announce the consumers' campaign, which he is taking across the nation.
Innis, son of civil rights leader Roy Innis, said environmental organizations intimidate governments and have a trickle-down effect on minorities.

We're a few paragraphs into this article now, and there's been no mention of that fact that this nothing but an industry-funded front group or that's it's been denounced as "shakedown" gang and fraud by the real founder of CORE.

"You can't have economic development in my community when my community is worrying about paying their gas bill," Innis said.
Innis has a growing reputation as a conservative who questions environmentalists' "pseudoscience" and condemns what he calls the global green movement's oppression of poor people in the Third World.
Earlier in the week, Innis spoke to members of the Colorado Legislature during a news conference held to oppose efforts to restrict energy development there. Colorado news organizations reported the media event was organized with the help of Colorado-based Americans for American Energy.

Americans for American Energy is an oil and gas industry front group that pretends to be "grassroots." It's led by Greg Schnacke, the former head of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. In Colorado its disinformation campaign has been denounced by West Slope mayors and others.

AAE associate Jim Sims accompanied Innis at the news conference in Utah, held on the last day of the legislative session. There, Innis was surrounded by state lawmakers who congratulated the CORE effort.
"I remember his father, Roy Innis, who marched with Martin Luther King [Jr.]," said Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab.
AAE in January circulated a missive linking wilderness supporters with terrorists.
CORE will sue the Bush administration if the polar bear is designated an endangered species, Innis said later.
Innis said CORE receives donations from a wide variety of sources, including energy companies. "Quite frankly, we should be getting more, given our position," he said.

Innis has a point. Given the groups shameless shilling for oil and chemical companies, and its ability to get press, it probably deserves higher pay from the corporations it serves.

Tougher drilling regulations will hurt poor, group says

March 6, 2008

By Joe Hanel | Herald Denver Bureau

DENVER - Gas industry proponents have enlisted a civil-rights group in their fight over Colorado's proposed oil and gas rules, claiming the rules will hurt the poor and minorities.

"We feel that the economic environment that's created by regulations in fact creates a de facto regressive tax on poor consumers," said Niger Innis, spokes-man for the New York-based Congress on Racial Equality. CORE was founded in 1942 and played a part in the struggle against racism and Jim Crow laws in the South. Since then, it has embraced conservative causes.

Innis visited Denver on Tuesday to join Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, and Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, in announcing a resolution questioning the cost of proposed rules by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Innis' group has received steady funding from ExxonMobil, according to Exxon's annual Worldwide Giving Reports. Greenpeace has archived the reports, which show the country's largest oil company has given CORE $275,000 since 1998.

Great reporting! It's refreshing to read a reporter who digs a little to find out what's really going on.

Innis said the true sum is "a fraction" of that amount.

"ExxonMobil has not given us a quarter of a million dollars. That is absolutely not the case," he said. Innis said he'd open his books "when you guys in the press demand that Greenpeace open up their books."

You can read Exxon's giving reports for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Innis also announced the formation of a new local group called Colorado Consumers for Affordable Energy.

"When the energy industry gets a cold from extreme regulation or taxes, my people get the flu," he said.

More pay for RTD board?

Despite FasTracks complaints, bill quadrupling salaries progresses

By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post

Article Last Updated: 03/01/2008 11:05:56 PM MST

Some lawmakers complained about cost overruns, and others fumed about the taking of land for private development, but a bill giving raises to Regional Transportation District board members still won initial House approval Friday.

Senate Bill 46 would increase the salaries for RTD's 15 board members from $3,000 a year to $12,000 a year. But the pay hikes would apply only to those elected in November 2008 and afterward.

Supporters of the pay raises, like Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, noted that the salaries of board members hadn't been increased in 26 years.

But some lawmakers said they were peeved about project cost overruns and the agency's use of eminent domain. RTD is considering building commercial space above one planned parking garage, and the agency used the eminent domain process to acquire land for the site, angering some residents whose homes were in the way.

"I am very concerned that by approving these raises, we are rewarding bad behavior," said Rep. Gwyn Green, D-Golden.

Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, said increasing the salaries for board members might attract better candidates to the elected positions.

Well, to be completely accurate, I said if someone is concerned about the quality of the board, it's worth considering that higher pay could attract better candidates.

It's odd how a quote that's not even much out of context can seem so different in print.

During the floor debate reps were saying that higher pay would just lead to more of what they consider to be bad behavior. I just wanted to mention that being on boards, like the RTD, takes a lot of time and effort and low pay could be a factor when people decide whether to run or not. By any measure, 26 years is a long time to go without a raise. And The RTD is a lot bigger and more complicated that it was a quarter-century ago.

Even though the quote is accurate, by itself, it could suggest that I think the board isn't good. Actually, I think it's a pretty good board. I finished the comment by asking my colleagues to look at what low pay had done to the quality of the legislature. (It was a joke).

The House gave preliminary approval to the measure on a voice vote, and it must approve it once more before it can go to Gov. Bill Ritter.

Plan busts school mold

An overhaul addresses how kids learn, not what courses they take.
By Jennifer Brown
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 02/24/2008

Shayn Herndon, 16, a Loveland High sophomore, adjusts outlet boxes in a house students build to learn geometry. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post )

Loveland High School used to offer watered-down math for students flunking geometry and algebra.

Then the geometry and construction teachers created a course that's all the rage at Loveland High — a house-building class where students learn the slope of a line by determining the pitch of a roof.

The school started with two classes last year and now has six. Enrolled students have outperformed their classmates on state tests. And now Thompson School District is creating an algebra course where students will convert a gas-guzzling car to an electric one.

That creative course design is an illustration of what Gov. Bill Ritter envisions under his new education initiative — a revamping of curricula from preschool to college to produce courses focused more on content than titles.

Details of the governor's initiative are still sketchy, though a 28-page draft of the legislation is likely to become official this week.

The three-year initiative will specify, grade by grade, which skills a student must master, from counting to 25 in preschool to nailing down quadratic equations in high school.

Colorado would overhaul the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests or create new tests to assess a student's skill level, and college admissions staff would use those scores to determine admittance.

The draft calls for an 11-member panel of curriculum and testing experts to recommend new curriculum standards to the state school board, modernize exams to test for those standards and create a tiered diploma system for high school graduates.

The point is to shift the focus from course titles and the number of years a student spent in math or science class to what he or she actually learned.

"Right now, time is the constant and learning is the variable," said Roger Sampson, president of the Education Commission of the States, based in Denver. "Students sit for 180 days every year. Some of them learn a lot of skills, and some of them learn a minimal amount of skills."

A school with no dropouts

A real-life example of Ritter's plan played out in Chugach School District in Alaska, where Sampson was once superintendent.

Chugach students move on when they pass tests on course content — some kids graduate at 15, and others are still in school at 21. The dropout rate is near zero, Sampson said.

"A district with no students" would be a better heading.   Try to find out how well students are learning in this district and you get some interesting results.  For instance 2008 11th grade test scores:
Reading * (1 student tested)
Writing * (3 students tested)
Math * (2 students tested)

* Results cannot be published without releasing personally identifiable information.

It turns out that the Chugach School District has 214 students -- in the entire district.  And those students are spread out over 22,000 square miles, including areas so remote you can only get to them by airplane.  One-on-one teaching is a great idea.  Advancing each child individually and on his or her own schedule is wonderful.  But try doing it in a school district with 30.000 students. 

I applaud what the Chugach District has achieved (even though I can't see the results), but using it as an example for Colorado is a real stretch.  This is a constant problem with so-called education reform: it's often based on "miracle schools" where something amazing happens but it can't be reproduced or, in some cases, measured objectively.

Ritter's initiative assumes every kid is headed to college.

"What we're doing is what every state aspires to do," said Sen. Chris Romer, the Denver Democrat bringing Ritter's plan to the legislature.

All students would have to learn a core curriculum, including English competency, to graduate. Beyond that, they could select courses leading toward job readiness, community college or guaranteed admission to any university in the state.

Students earning the state's top-tier diploma — an "honors diploma" — would have to take an "extremely rigorous" college track that includes advanced math and science, said Sen. Josh Penry, a Grand Junction Republican co-sponsoring the legislation.

"This will be a gold standard," he said. "It's central for me."

Penry and Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, failed to pass legislation last year that would have required every student to take four years of math and three years of science. They introduced the bill again this year but put it on hold while waiting to see whether Ritter's plan is tough enough.

The political notion that every kid is going to college irritates Gerald Keefe, superintendent of the 100-student Kit Carson School District.

Keefe has been an outspoken adversary of the state Department of Higher Education's college entrance requirements, which call for four years of math for the class of 2010. But he supports Ritter's initiative.

"Even if you want to go into welding, you need to know calculus? That may be true, but you don't need a whole calculus course," he said, noting that kids can learn calculus in a shop class. "It doesn't have to be the same environment we're used to."

Local boards retain role

Colorado, with a history of local control in education, is one of only five states without comprehensive graduation requirements. The governor's plan preserves at least some control for local school boards because it will not mandate what courses schools must teach, only curriculum standards.

Colorado first created content standards in 1993 but has not updated them since. Plus the standards cover only third through 10th grade, meaning there are none spelling out what a preschooler should learn or what a 12th-grader must know to graduate.

"There is no overarching vision of what the education system should produce," said Matt Gianneschi, Ritter's education policy adviser. "The state has been silent and left it up to local boards to decide what college readiness is."

The result: About one-third of students have to take remedial, noncredit courses when they get to college, prolonging their graduation and leading to a higher dropout rate.

"We don't want to get them all ready for college to see them drop out," said Ken Turner, deputy education commissioner. "Engaging students in things they find meaningful — that's what it's about. We need to expect more of ourselves and our young people."

Colorado policies now are too "inexact or clumsy" in determining a student's college readiness, said David Skaggs, director of the Higher Education Department. "We need to be more fair early on to alert high school students and families what is expected," he said.

Ritter's goals include cutting the 26 percent high school dropout rate in half and doubling the number of college degrees and certificates by 2017.

Ritter's initiative — called the "Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids" — takes some cues from a national report that had lawmakers buzzing last year.

"Tough Choices, Tough Times" from the National Center on Education and the Economy calls for letting students test out of high school after 10th grade to attend community or technical colleges. Students headed for top universities would study college-track courses through 12th grade.

Similar efforts are happening across the country. But Colorado can move "to the frontier" by allowing more flexibility in how schools teach skills, said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit helping states set education standards.

While some educators have been frustrated by a lack of details on the initiative the governor announced in early January, they are excited about the prospects.

"The governor's idea is right on the mark," said Thompson Valley Superintendent Dan Johnson. "There are various ways in which a student can show competence besides just a number of hours in a seat."

Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com