Progress Now Action

Note: I'm a Regent for the University of Colorado three campus system.(the Regents are like the Board of Directors). CU is the largest higher education system in Colorado with an annual operating budget of about $2.1 billion. This post is a bit wonky, but was doing some research and needed to share. This is cross posted at Progress Now Action.)

Colorado's public colleges and universities are massively under funded. Colorado ranks 48th in the nation in support of higher education. Mississippi, that bastion of education devotees, spends more.

Business and political leaders are tossing out ideas to fix the anemic funding. Some concepts to date: using severance tax revenues from gas and mineral leases; selling the state lottery; and -- boldest of them all (and perhaps most difficult) -- changing the state Constitution. More ideas waiting to pass the political smell test are sure to come.

The question remains - how much do state colleges and universities really need?

Complaints about money -- we had more then, we have less now-- sound like whiny teenagers whose allowance has been docked, however legitimate the claim.

If you starve an athlete you expect diminishing returns on the playing field. What is it we expect when we starve higher ed -- better results?

-more below the fold-   Read More »

The debate over HB-1072 is reaching its crescendo and I'm concerned about the level of anti-business rhetoric in the blogosphere from my fellow progressives.

Let me be clear, I'm a supporter of Labor. I'm proud that when running for University of Colorado Regent, I sought and received Labor endorsements: AFL-CIO, CAPE, AFT, CEA and AFSME.

If Labor feels that HB-1072 is critical to their members and is a just reward for all of their work for Democrats over the years, then so be it. To the victor go the spoils.

The business community is being bitchy and Chicken Little is squawking full bore -- HB-1072 is not the doomsday scenario they are making out to be.

As progressives, after years fighting the good fight with little to show for it, we are giddy with our new found majority in Colorado. We must not let that joy turn into revenge and throw business interests under the bus because they have traditionally been aligned with Republicans. Just because Republicans shut out Labor, doesn't mean we should turn around and shut out business.

To be arrogant and think that we don't need partners is the same hubris that cost the Republicans their majority in Congress. In Colorado, Democrats remain the minority party in voter registrations. We just happen to be in power right now.   Read More »

The Atlantic Magazine in May ran a summary of what climate change might mean to the United States in terms of agriculture.
Good news for the East Coast and South Dakota. Bad news for Colorado and California. The change in climate and growing seasons could cost Colorado -$610 million annually.

The full report is here. Link

Bascially, if you think this year is dry...just wait.

A recent cover story by Time magazine, an essay in Newsweek, and an editorial in the British weekly the Economist all reaffirm one thing: America's position as the top of the world economic ladder is not guaranteed.

History is unkind to those who stop top to enjoy the view while on top. Just ask the British, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Romans.

Our economic competitors - China, India, and Europe - look at what makes America such an economic powerhouse and try to duplicate what they can. One area is education.

While America has 18 of the top 20 colleges in the world, this position is not guaranteed as our competitors build colleges and have a clear goal to create world-class institutions to directly compete with us.

Colleges and universities are incubators of new ideas, cutting edge research, and the training ground for professionals of all stripes. A strong higher education system (2-year and 4-year colleges) is critical for economic growth and a strong economy, which, in turn, fuels job development.

In Colorado, we need to focus our priorities on supporting public higher education. The passage of Referendum C is a start, but we have a long way to go.

Those of us who have lived in Colorado for a number of years have been through a few boom and bust cycles. While our economy has diversified to help mitigate the severity of those ups and downs, factors, economic development officials say more investment is needed in infrastructure (roads/mass transit, K-12, higher ed) in order to keep Colorado's economy on an even keel.

While Ward Churchill and the Boulder campus football program get all the attention, policy makers need to focus on:
• attracting and retaining Colorado's best and brightest young minds;
• expanding access to graduate and certificate programs for working adults;
• keeping and attracting world class faculty;
• helping Fitzsimmons become a biotechnology and medical research hub for the country;
• Have higher ed institutions partner with K-12 leaders to help increase Colorado's high school graduate rates.

To do anything less is not serving the people of Colorado.

There is an interesting new essay by Tony Campollo over at the Huffington Post that progressives need to read.

While many of my fellow progressives have nearly written off the Christian Church as a vehicle for the Religious Right, (the recent support of Colorado ministers and ministries for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage immediately comes to mind) the Church, as a whole, is much more nuanced.

Tony Campollo is a Baptist minister and is a liberal Evangelical. From his post:

The word liberal has become a political label of ill-repute among many Evangelicals. But if by social liberal, you mean someone who believes America should guarantee medical coverage for all of its citizens; fund the public schools in poor urban and rural communities at the same level as those in rich suburban neighborhoods; be committed to progressive environmental policies; give more than four-tenths of one percent of its federal budget to help the poor of other countries; and give up its militaristic adventurism--then I embrace the label with enthusiasm.

I just hope his voice gets as much attention as Dobson and his crowd.

The powerful and the privileged mixed with churched and the humble today at New Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta for the memorial service for Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King, Junior.

I was driving to Colorado's State Capitol for a meeting when on NPR's Talk of the Nation they did something strange - the played minutes long experts from speakers at the funeral from President George W. Bush, President Clinton, and Maya Angelou.

That was a gift from NPR to us.

It's the best speech that President Bush has ever given. President Clinton and Angelou were moving.

Listening to these words, I was humbled by this great life remembered; encouraged by the sacrifices she made, the love she gave, the energy and tears she shed; reminded that struggling for the those less fortunate, calling for peace, fighting for justice, challenging power, resisting apathy and cynicism are callings that we need to head if we are to remake the world.

I encourage you to listen to the speeches here. Shut the door, turn off the phone, and just listen…..

A Denver Baptist minister is making national headlines because he is mad a gay actor is playing a missionary in a new movie.

Even closer to voters hearts, Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops - among others - are supporting a state constitutional amendment that says that marriage is between "one man and one woman."

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, Colorado is on the front lines of the so-called "culture war."   Read More »