One of our own is about to became a U.S. Senator!

STOP THE PRESSES -- this is HUGE!  One of our own is about to became a U.S. Senator!  Michael Bennet, the Superintendent of Denver Public Schools and a genuine reformer, has been tapped by the governor of Colorado to replace Ken Salazar, who Obama has nominated to be Secretary of the Interior.  This is TOTALLY unexpected and is AMAZING news for reformers.  Bennet, like Arne Duncan, has been low key so he hasn't gotten as much press (or as much coverage on my blog) as he deserves, but he's done great things to improve Denver's schools, including getting passed one of the nation's first pay-for-performance plan for teachers.  The results are telling: "Last July, for example, Denver posted the biggest increases in math and reading proficiency among the state’s largest districts."  Note that he also supported the Educational Equality Project: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2008/09/urging-democratic-party-to-view-nations.html

 

This also further cements Colorado as a hotbed of up-and-coming education reformers, including:

• Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hickenlooper)
• State Senate President Peter Groff (the highest-ranking African-American elected official in Colorado history; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Groff)
• State House Speaker Terrance Carroll (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrance_Carroll; key excerpt: "Carroll is known for his support of education reform. In 2008 Carroll along with Senate President Peter Groff sponsored SB130, a bill that would allow Colorado schools the power to control their budgets and make their own decisions on hiring, curriculum, length of the school day and teacher compensation. He has sponsored bills to charter new schools and to standardize the calculation of high school graduation rates.")
• Internet entreprenuer Jaris Polis, who was just elected to the House (at the age of 33!) after founding two charter schools and being Chairman of the Colorado Board of Education (see his bio here: www.jaredpolis.com/bio; an interesting bit of trivia: he is the first openly gay man elected to the House as a freshman; the only other openly gay man in Congress is Barney Frank, who came out after he was elected)
• Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien (www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/LeftLtGov/LLG/Page/1187340344156/1187340344163), who is one of the strongest school choice supporters in the country
• Former CO Gov. Roy Romer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Romer)
• And last but not least, the folks who are in the process of rolling out Democrats for Education Reform in Colorado.