Progress Now Action

Breaking:  Statement on 10th Circuit's Ruling on Colorado Christian University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
CONTACT: Michael Huttner, Executive Director
303-931-4547

"We are disappointed by the Court's ruling, we believe that giving public funds to Colorado Christian University is a clear violation of the separation of church and state and urge the state to appeal," stated Michael Huttner, Executive Director of ProgressNow. "That our tax dollars will be given to Colorado Christian University and its President, right-wing activist William Armstrong for his religious crusades should outrage Colorado taxpayers."

Huttner added, "this decision will be cheered by the original proponents of the so-called 'College Opportunity Fund,' who have been trying to starve Colorado's higher education system of revenue for years and likely hoped for this exact result. For everyone who cares about Colorado's most valuable institutions, our public colleges and universities, this ruling is a disaster."

Read the text of the court's ruling here: http://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/07/07-1247.pdf

In 2004, Colorado took a bold, new approach to funding higher education. Rather than state money going directly to public colleges and universities, most would be put in vouchers that students could use for tuition...

Since COF went into place, the low-income college student population statewide has dropped, a trend that runs contrary to a key goal of the program.

Schools say COF is too complicated. While most eligible students get the stipend, more than 3,000 this year didn't apply and needlessly paid up to $2,600 more for their education or defaulted on their bills.

"The bottom line is that COF was a noble goal that met reality," said Tony Kinkel, president of Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs. "It's time to get rid of it."

David Skaggs, a former Democratic congressman and now executive director of the state Department of Higher Education, said he's received only complaints about the funding system.

"There's a consistent theme . . . all in the 'We avoided TABOR but other than that this isn't worth it category.' "

The Colorado Supreme Court today reinstated Amendment 41, the controversial measure that limits and bans gifts to government officials.

The court ruling reversed a Denver District Court preliminary injunction which stopped the ban from being implemented.

"Amendment 41 is back in effect," said Nate Strauch, spokesman for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.

The court ruled the challenge by a group of public officials was premature because the ethics commission meant to enforce the amendment was never put in place.

Strauch said only four of the five commission members have been selected so far.

When the commission is completed, it will start promulgating rules to enforce the amendment and hear cases, he said.

Then, the plaintiffs could file a new lawsuit if they felt the amendment caused them harm, he said...

What many of 41's opponents fear most is the Ethics Commission prescribed by the law being successfully established, since it is likely to shake out the more alarmist hypothetical cases posed by 41's detractors as baseless and establish operating procedures that administer the law fairly. What the Supremes said essentially is that commission has to be established now, and a actual sanction made before the case is "ripe" to be adjudicated. Amendment 41's defenders at Colorado Common "Curse" Cause insist that the commission will demystify the "scare tactics" used by opponents and show that Amendment 41 can work constitutionally, dramatically changing the discussion.

What, you mean the sky won't fall after all? You mean all that nonsense about kids denied scholarships...is going to be proven just that? That the will of an overwhelming majority of Colorado voters...might actually be followed?

Be still my heart.

See also:

District staff members are recommending the board place the seven charter and contract schools that have had academic problems on two-year probation with specific plans for improvement...

Other board members said they are equally frustrated with the lack of progress at Life Skills Center of Denver, an alternative school for chronic dropouts that serves 238 students.

"I've lost my patience with several of those schools," said board member Bruce Hoyt, who would not identify ones he will vote to close.

University of Colorado Regent Cindy Carlisle will not vote for Republican Bruce Benson as the next CU president, she said Saturday, despite having previously endorsed the political activist as the sole finalist for the job.

Carlisle, a Boulder Democrat and state Senate candidate, initially supported Benson as a candidate in the search to replace outgoing CU President Hank Brown, writing a Jan. 8 letter of support to the presidential search panel and later seconding and supporting a motion to have Benson be the sole finalist.

However, Carlisle told the Camera both in a phone interview and through a commentary piece in today's Insight section that she met with Benson last week to say she would not support his bid for the office.

"When the CU Presidential Search Committee met with the regents Jan. 30, I was dismayed Bruce Benson was put forward as the single finalist for the job," Carlisle wrote in her letter to the Camera. "Grudgingly, I voted to move the process to the next phase of evalua-tion of Benson by the university community."

She said while having only a single finalist is a "ridiculous" process, it was outcry from the university community about Benson that changed her mind about supporting him.

"I've heard from a wide variety of people who are unhappy with this choice," Carlisle said Saturday afternoon. "He is not the candidate for this job."

In recent days I learned for the first time that at least two candidates for the CU presidency not only had strong academic credentials but were leaders of large state university systems with more students and more campuses than CU. I have no idea why they were never presented to the board.

Rocky Mountain RootsCamp is coming...

     12/1/07 

          What is Roots Camp?

                   How does it work?

Send a bold message to the city and to progressives that it is alright to support reform of our city's/state's antiquated marijuana laws.

Wednesday, Oct. 24

12pm Noon

In front of the Denver City-County Bldg

1435 Bannock St

This is going to be a big press event with a longtime Denver Police Dept. veteran joining us to voice his support for I-100 and many more official supporters announcing their endorsement.

We expect to have a ton of supporters out there, all wearing red YES on 100 shirts. Come and be among them.

click here to sign up

A prominent Republican lawmaker is crying foul over $66 million of tax savings homeowners would have seen if not for a law passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Ritter this year.

Ritter signed into law Senate Bill 07-199, freezing property tax rates indefinitely at current rates.

The measure eliminates tax cuts that otherwise would have taken place under a 1994 school-finance law - an estimated $48 million for fiscal year 2007-2008.

"It's the fact that we had said - from day one - it's a bottomless pit and that it will be working families and seniors that will be paying it," said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma on Wednesday...

But Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, who sponsored the House version of the school-finance bill, said Gardner doesn't understand how the law works.

"It's not a tax increase," he said. " . . . The money that comes from the school district never leaves the school district."

He said the money was not going to the state budget and that all the local school districts affected by the law had held a vote to exempt themselves from the TABOR limits to keep the property tax revenues.

With a legal challenge imminent for Gov. Bill Ritter's controversial property tax, education-funding plan, a handful of school districts poised to benefit from the measure are making contingency plans in the event the law gets killed...

The additional $6.4 million for the 11 lowest-funded districts across the state, which is separate from the law's property tax rate freeze, will get nixed if the law is ruled unconstitutional.

Independence Institute President Jon Caldara has set his sights on nixing Ritter's mill levy freeze, which drew criticism from Republicans this year as unconstitutional under 1992's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

Caldara has called Ritter's plan "fiscal date rape" because of how it raises property tax revenues without voter consent. He recently confirmed he has hired attorneys from Denver-based Hale-Friesen to work on "the strategy for the case."

According to the Colorado Department of Education, School District 51 had the lowest per-pupil funding level during last fiscal year, which ended Saturday. The department's 2007-08 projections place the district again at the bottom of the funding pile.

James Drew, spokesman for El Paso County's Widefield School District, said his district has decided to not earmark the roughly $485,000 until the district knows the money is on its way.

An anti-abortion group has filed paperwork with the state of Colorado proposing a state constitutional amendment that would define a person as "any human being from the moment of fertilization."

Proponent Mark Meuser, of Colorado for Equal Rights, based in Peyton, said the amendment could be used as a stepping stone to challenge abortion in Colorado.

"This language defines what a person is," he said. "If it challenges (the Roe v. Wade decision that guarantees a woman's right to an abortion), that will be weighed, and it'll be up to the courts to decide at that level."

The ballot initiative is still in its infancy and faces hurdles before it can be placed on the 2008 ballot.

Tammy Cook, director of field operations for Justice for All, said the purpose of the signs and pictures is to "educate people so that they don't choose abortion."

But Wilde said the images were harmful to the student body and the school's reputation.

"You bring stuff like this to our campus, and it brings out the worst in people," Wilde said. "The university just became a circus because of these pictures, and that's sad."

Wilde said people will find a way to have an abortion regardless of laws.

Near the Justice for All displays, students lined up in front of a notebook where they wrote answers to the question, "Should this exhibit come back next year?" Many signed "no." Some said "yes."

"I'm extremely offended by this," Sarah Stern, a CU freshman, said before she responded to the question. "If we were trying to promote safe sex, we wouldn't go around and post pictures of AIDS victims all over. This exhibit is just a little much when you're trying to get to class."