Rep. Merrifield's e-mail rips charter school supporters 

By April M. Washington, Rocky Mountain News
March 30, 2007

An e-mail written by the House Education Committee chairman saying there must be "a special place in hell" for charter school supporters has some top lawmakers hopping mad.

A political Web site called Face the State touched off a firestorm Thursday when it posted an e-mail written by Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-El Paso, to Sen. Sue Windels, D-Arvada.

"There must be a special place in hell for these Privatizers, Charterizers and Voucherziers. They deserve it!" he wrote.

Merrifield made his comments during an e-mail exchange in which he and Windels, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, discussed whether to push for a full repeal of the State Charter School Institute, provided they could get Gov. Bill Ritter's backing.

"It shows there's absolutely no good faith on the Rep. Merrifield's part, who is clearly more concerned with defending a crippled and ineffective status-quo public education system then creating opportunities for all kids," said Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver.

Merrifield made no apologies Thursday for the e-mail. He said his public stance against charter schools, which he contends are stripping scarce resources from public schools, isn't a secret.

"My record on charter schools has been pretty clear for a long time," he said. "It's not new news I have frustrations with the direction charter schools have gone."

Merrifield said that in the e-mail, he was venting his frustrations about the recall election of two charter school board members whom he called "evil twins" out to destroy public schools.

The e-mail revelation comes as the Senate is set to reconsider a bill by Windels and Merrifield designed to restore public school districts' authority over most charter schools in the state. Senate Bill 61 would require the state board of education to grant exclusive chartering authority to local school boards.

Critics say that the e-mail shows that Merrifield and Windels have conspired all along to gut charter schools, despite packaging their bill as a way to foster better relations between traditional public schools and the state charter school board.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5452414,00.html  

MIKE ROSEN DISCUSSES REP. MERRIFIELD'S EMAIL WITH BRAD JONES OF FACE THE STATE

Mike Rosen on 850 KOA discussed the emails from Rep. Merrifield to Sen.  Windels on his morning radio program on Friday, March 30, 2007, from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m.  Mike's guest was Brad Jones of a new website called "Face the State" which revealed the emails this week.  Face the State has also requested all of Rep. Merrifield's and Sen. Windel's emails from their legislative email accounts under the Colorado freedom of information statute.

To hear the entire broadcast, go to www.850koa.com/rosen and click on Rosen Replay to hear the broadcast.  You'll need to register for their site if you aren't already, then go to March 30, first hour, 9 - 10.  (Registration is free.)

To see the original email from Rep. Merrifield to Sen. Windels, go to www.facethestate.com

Overkill for online ed - Bill could suffocate future innovation

Rocky Mountain News editiorial, March 30, 2007

Yes, online charter schools need more oversight. Nearly everyone agrees with that proposition, especially in the wake of disturbing reports of sloppy oversight at Hope Co-op Online Learning academy.

But most true friends of education should also agree that online learning has tremendous potential. It must not be suffocated or confined to a single model by punitive legislation dictating every aspect of online schooling.

Unfortunately, Senate Bill 215 appears to be an overly prescriptive measure; legislators should work to amend it before final passage.

To its credit, SB 215 establishes a needed framework for oversight of online charter schools. Online enrollments have grown faster than almost anyone expected, and neither the state Board of Education nor the state Department of Education has had enough rules or policies in place to regulate them.

This bill creates a division of online learning within the department. It also requires the state board to set rules for online charter schools that draw students from two or more districts. That appears to be directed at Hope, which is chartered by the Vilas School District but operates 79 "learning centers" in 16 districts, most of them along the Front Range.

The bill passed 5-2 in the Senate Education Committee last week, with several amendments, and more amendments are expected.

As introduced, however, the bill seems intended to hold online charters to a higher standard than other charter schools, to give them more limited resources and to give local districts too much influence over where learning centers can be established.

If the state board writes rules for multi-district online charters in the expectation that Hope's model will be the principal one, it may become very difficult for other innovators who develop a different model - and it seems likely that some will - to get their plan certified by the online division.

The bill contains pages of educational boilerplate describing all the things an online program has to do to meet quality standards - and never mind that there is precious little evidence that any other kind of school accomplishes these things successfully for all or even most students.

For instance, one quality standard is that "the online program uses learning activities that engage students in active learning; provide students with multiple learning paths to master the content based on student needs; reflect multicultural education; are accurate, current, and free of bias; and provide ample opportunities for interaction and student-to-student, student-to-instructor, and instructor-to-student communication."

That's part (f) of a list that goes from (a) to (n). As a list of aspirations, we suppose, it may be helpful. But as a list of statutory mandates, it is ridiculously detailed and inflexible.

A bill regulating online education is likely to pass in some form, since the idea has at least some bipartisan support. But SB 215 still needs a lot of work, with less concern with making life difficult for schools such as Hope.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/editorials/article/0,2777,DRMN_23964_5451809,00.html

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