Students raise their hands at West Denver Prep’s Highland Campus on Dec. 7, 2011. (Denver Post file)
Re: “GOP reverses course on academic standards, tests,” Feb. 22 news story.
There is no conflict between getting big government out of our lives and holding the educational establishment accountable for performance and spending. While there is merit in modest local flexibility — statewide standards are appropriate in K-12 education — what Colorado should minimize is federal involvement in our kids’ schools. Federal meddling in education is inappropriate and unconstitutional. The Department of Education, with its $70 billion budget, is the epitome of big government; it should be abolished. But schools will remain a government responsibility for the foreseeable future and therefore it is incumbent on those who control the purse strings to ensure that education is done effectively and efficiently.
Part of maximizing effectiveness is giving teachers the proper incentives through tenure reform and merit pay, two policies that teachers unions — which care only for their own income and power — aggressively oppose.
Having credible state-level regulation of schools is an important job of Colorado’s legislature. Doing that job is not at all contradictory of Republicans’ desire to keep the federal government and its stifling, one-size-fits-all approach as far away from our classrooms as possible.
Ross G. Kaminsky,Nederland
This letter was published in the March 1 edition.
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