School politics blows cold and hot

September 17, 10:47 AMColorado Education ExaminerTodd Engdahl

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Colorado Education Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

You probably haven't noticed, but it's election season again in Colorado.

Under the state's election calendar, school board seats are on the ballot in November of odd-numbered years such as 2009.

But, those elections often escape voter notice because they are low key and because contests often are non-existent.

Dozens of Colorado's 178 districts have cancelled elections this year because there's no opposition for open seats. Canceling uncontested elections is a good thing because it saves taxpayer money. But, doing so may be a symptom of a larger problem - lack of interest in something very important. More than $5 billion a year is spent on K-12 education in Colorado, and school boards make the decisions about how that money is spent.

Districts without contests include large ones like Cherry Creek and Aurora.

With many Colorado schools struggling, education should be of vital public interest.

One district facing a spirited election this year is the Denver Public Schools. Four of seven seats are on the ballot, and three of those are contested. The election seems to be shaping up as a contest between candidates who favor continuing expansion of charter and innovation schools and those who want greater attention paid to improvement efforts for traditional neighborhood schools.

The union that represents teachers, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, is expected to play an active role and this week made endorsements in the races.

For details on that, and more background on the Denver races and issues, see this Education News Colorado story.