Comments on: Education, Education, Education

By: Sean Ness

Sean Ness — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 07:24:53 +0000

Colorado's Arapahoe HS has a highly thought of staff blog - http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/. Check out their three presentations in the right toolbar.

By: Dave Jilk

Dave Jilk — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:37:45 +0000

One bright spot is the Health Sciences Center. Have you seen what they’re putting together down there? Pretty impressive.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:36:20 +0000

I have to agree with your point that Colorado doesn’t seem to be putting much effort into furthering education in a way that will help the economy. It seems that now a days most people living in Colorado just moved here, and are working for home for companies out of state. I think if the government could put more effort into starting education programs that can help raise the economy here, and keep people employed in this state we would be much better off.

By: Blaine Berger

Blaine Berger — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:38:49 +0000

While higher education is certainly important to any economic engine, it’s unclear how much impact Governor Ritter can have in light of the 1992 TABOR ammendment’s restriction on state spending everywhere.

Of course, simply increasing funding for higher education doesn’t automatically lead to those institutions promoting innovation and growth.

However, when you ask “How can state government help”, do you expect any other answer than “First, we need to increase funding” ?

I suspect the Governor will need concrete examples of what changes actually lead to the promotion of innovation and growth so that any hard-fought investment increases will result in progress.

By: Chris Kerns

Chris Kerns — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:54:58 +0000

I lived in Colorado Springs for about two years (99-2001) and found the state to be very different, primarily because it seems that almost no one that lives in CO is actually FROM CO.

Although the locals didn’t care much for it, Colorado seems to have the opposite problem that many other states face, that being the “brain drain”. I currently live in Wisconsin where the “brain drain” is perceived as a big problem. I.e., after investing a lot of tax payer dollars into the state university system, how do you realize the returns if the graduates have to leave the state to find good work? And why would you increase spending/taxes if you can’t capitalize on it? It’s a bit of a Catch-22, I guess.

Colorado benefits in that they can lure graduates from other locales. Having said that, one of the most competent coworkers I have is a UC-Boulder grad (CS major).

CO has some pretty good state schools, yet it was my education from a non-CO school that went a long way towards securing my job in Colo Spgs. My boss was simply not pleased with the in-state engineering grads he was seeing.

Tax payer funded higher education is always intersing politics. Quality education is obviously critical to a region’s economy, but only if you can capitalize on the product. I wonder if Colorado tax dollars are best served by trying to steal talent from other states? After living in the tax-heavy state of WI for a few years, I miss the lower taxes of CO, even if it meant that the state couldn’t aford to paing the lines of roads with paint that lasted more than a week….

Perhaps Colorado should set up a business office in Cambridge?

Sorry…didn’t mean to ramble on your blog…