President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
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CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
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(D) Trisha Calvarese
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CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
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(D) B. Pettersen
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
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State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
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State House Majority
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December 14, 2010 03:15 AM UTC
56 Comments
Since you are both sympatico on the education reform issue…
I will offer some questions later. Take ’em or leave ’em. I won’t be offended.
how he thinks diminishing k-12 funding might effect the implementation of reform efforts, specifically SB191. Per pupil funding has kept on going down and even Ritter’s ’11-’12 budget recommendations acknowledge they can’t comply with Amendment 23.
And asked him about how to fund in the present environment. He basically said they are left trying to save what they can. I did not go into reform specific items because the problem we face is so much bigger than that one part (I think).
Is it 70% or 90% of the students that came in that were pushed out, giving him a 10% graduation rate from the kids that were left?
Ask him also about his association with Democrats for Education Reform, a group with a board member, Van Schoales, who pushes vouchers.
Ask him about his association with union-busting groups like Stand for Children and whether they actually penned the SB191 legislation for him.
I am a PCP in HD7 and one of the vacancy committee members who voted for Michael who won in a very liberal district on the first ballot at that election. At times I am a bit torn by some of his policies as both my parents are long time public educators and union members. That said our public schools are failing we must do things differently. I graduated from Manual and I find it hillarious that most of the critics of Bennet shutting down Manual probably have no idea where it even is, let alone spent 4 years there. In a conversation with Michael Hancock who graduated the year before me he summed it nicely, “It was the right decision because niether one of us would have sent our kid’s there.” This is the common theme amongst many Manual Grads. My boys go to DPS but to DSST Charter. An extremely economically and racially diverse school. We love it. Quit mud slinging at Micahel and suggest some solutions. What you are advocating for is failing. Doing the same thing and expecting different results.
why union stooges like “vandie” spend millions of dollars each election cycle, in a failing effort to keep poor minority kids in crappy government schools?
I’m pro kid and pro teacher. Big difference.
so quit bullshitting about it.
from either of them. That isn’t a legitimate question and giving you crap for bringing it up isn’t a crime
why the right-wing stooges like “hikingtheappalachiantrail” think that a solution to educating our citizens is to have poor minority kids forced into a new generation of crappy, economicially-segregated schools?
Why is giving poor kids the choice and opportunity to leave a government union controlled school a bad thing?
They can choose to stay, if they like.
“government union controlled school”
$6K vouchers that are only good towards a $12K purchase (redeemable somewhere in Douglas County) that has me thinking it isn’t the good students from poor families that are going to see the benefit, or that are the ones you’re so deeply concerned about.
a fully funded statewide effort.
I want to see everyone of our public schools in this state fully funded, properly equipped, and adequately staffed.
That’s why I oppose a voucher scheme skimming needed public funds away so that well-to-do families can lower their tuition payments at their private and parochial schools.
But I would add competently staffed as even more important than what you listed.
In political science they teach how the spectrum of poltical views is not a straight line from left to right. It is a circle where the left and right extremes ultimately join by way of tactics. I think Vandie, Diogendesemar and Hikingtheappalachiantrail should have a coffee togheter.
Say what you want about 191, but this is a chance to hold Sen. Johnston accountable for the implementation of this law. Any question that is irrelevant or a personal attack is a chance missed to change our debate around education reform.
It is worse for all of us if legitimate questions aren’t asked about Sen. Johnston’s positions.
But keep in mind who’s doing the interviewing. Not exactly a whole lot of holding people accountable in David’s brand of sitdowns.
I ask questions, they answer. I don’t tell them they’re wrong and make them change their answer.
You’re just someone who likes to talk to powerful people and the post what they said (along with your $0.02, naturally) without really asking them anything at all.
That’s not what journalists–or bloggers who do interviews–do. They ask tough questions, let their subjects answer, and then ask them follow-up questions if the answers they gave were vague or fallacious. They leave it up to the reader to decide if the answer they gave was wrong or right. If you don’t want to take the suggestions for questions, then don’t post a diary asking for questions; just do the interview and post it FCOL.
Even you have admitted that these interviews aren’t tough. That’s pretty much all I was saying.
If you really want to show me how wrong I am, and how little I know about interviews, ask some of the questions that RedGreen asked below. I think they were excellent, and hardly traps for Johnston. No need to answer me now. I’ll know the answer when you post it.
You went into more detail, but I think we were saying the same thing.
And if you would do what I described in my reply, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
You said holding people accountable amounts to telling people they’re wrong and asking them to rephrase what they said. That’s not it at all. It’s what I described, and it’s something you don’t do.
I ask them questions and where I think more detail is needed, I ask follow-up questions. And out of that comes specifics on the topic at hand.
I got Tom Tancredo to spend 40 minutes discussing issues other than immigration about running for Governor – I think that was pretty good. I got Greg Brophy to discuss how it was a good thing Ref C passed – I think that was getting in to the detail.
Not every question leads to a revelation. Not every line can be asked in full detail (as time is limited). But I think I’ve been able to get people to discuss issues in specifics. And I think I’ve been able to do it in a way that is cooperative.
With that said, I’ll agree I don’t look for tough questions. I look for questions that illustrate who the person is and what they are trying to accomplish.
If you’d like to critique them, or even join me, I think that would be a worthwhile addition to this site.
1. Would you rather be governor or senator?
2. You’ve endorsed Michael Hancock for mayor, which means you’re not endorsing your fellow state senator. Do you know something about Chris Romer the voters should know?
3. Do you side with Udall or Bennet when it comes to the Obama-GOP tax deal?
4. Who is your favorite Republican state senator, the one whose arguments you respect and whose co-sponsorship you’d seek out first?
5. On the other hand, which Democratic state senator is most blinded by partisan ideology and makes the least persuasive arguments?
1. I asked him about the job he has and what next as I thought the bigger picture was more illustrative.
2. Didn’t have time.
3. Asked – he is in favor of it.
4. Asked – Penry, Brophy, & Spense.
5. Asked – but he wasn’t willing to self-destruct 🙂
I don’t see you asking a lot of hard-hitting questions about environment, transportation, and energy policy, which are very important to me–and I don’t see you getting very far, since those aren’t likely to be central to his district’s concerns, which are probably jobs, education, and healthcare if I had to guess.
But I think a good question would be to ask him where he’s looking for leadership, in terms of other people and other institutions, and what big ideas he’s open to, on three separate but related issues:
environment
transportation
energy
I see it as sort of a ‘what magazines are you reading’ question that any serious candidate should be able to get a base hit out of on any issue, and a real policy wonk and reformer should hit out of the park nine times out of ten. (I’m not expecting him to pull a Sarah Palin and come up blank and then cry gotcha journalism, but I’m interested to see if he hits these out of the park, or just come off credible.)
I asked him what he’s going to work on this year – and got some good specifics on environment & energy. The fact that transportation didn’t come up I think also speaks to the fact that it’s not on his radar screen.
1. Why does he think he can rationalize away an extraordinary complex problem into a slogan like “Improve teacher performance”?
2. Does he have any longitudinal studies that show how much better students fare over the course of an educational career in different modes of education?
3. Does he have any studies that show how the kids who were accepted to four year schools from MESA compared with kids from other schools as far as graduation rates from four year colleges and universities?
4. What else besides teacher performance are contributing factors to poor school performance? Does he think there are other factors? How would he improve these?
http://www.davidthielen.info/p…
I didn’t see one of those questions or any answers to them in the
puff piecestrong interview you did last time. Not surprised you’d say otherwise though because it might upset your view of what effective reform might look like.But that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
1. I think the entire interview shows he did not reduce the solution to a single slogan.
2.
4.
really deep. I don’t know how I missed those gems.
But it does remind me that if you use flowery language, you can pretty much say anything and people will swallow it hook, line and sinker. At least some people…
Although I support your education policies, you did not return my email on an issue related to unemployment insurance a few months back. Will you do a better job of returning CONSTITUENT emails and/or phone calls in the future?
1) How does he/the senate tackle the 3 major challenges facing a split,bitter(Kopp)and provacative (McNulty) legislature this session?(these are the ones I see that have to be done)
a) Redistricting
b) Implementing Healthcare Reform
c) Balancing the Budget
2) How are Democrats going to effectively communicate to the people that they actually get things done and govern? What is the message? How do you overcome the Republican noise of spitting and hissing like cats in heat?
3) How do you get your hair so bouncy?
And he apologized and asked me to ask you to please re-email the question to him.
…where did you buy it?”
This guy is a rising star.
Just look at the interest in this versus the vacancy for the Romer seat
Why would the best teachers from around the country want to come to Colorado when they get higher pay, professional benefits like tenure, and more respect from state legislators in other states? Not all of them can move on to bigger and better things like politics after a brief flirtation with teaching, after all.
Oh, and do you LOVE your family or just kind of LIKE them?
I think I’m missing something (shocker!)…
Just that David used to feature “and he loves his family!” in many interviews with politicians in order to demonstrate that they’re not bad people, and he’d always make it seem like this was some kind of revelation.
I just wanted to put in one question that would be guaranteed to make it into the interview, so I could feel like I helped!
kisses dogs too? Really old-school pols then huh?
0, 1, or infinity.
is kind of a lot for that kind of quote IMHO…
After the interview he asked me why I didn’t ask that question – and gave me a great answer.
So not asked, yet still answered. (I did not put it in the interview because you guys made it clear you think items like that don’t belong in the interview.)