Merrifield's Back, Baby

Colorado Confidential has an article about Colorado Springs State Rep. Mike Merrifield. Merrifield recently underwent treatment for cancer (now he is cancer-free), and got attacked for an email comment that was, to be fair, not fully put in context by the media & political peeps. It was more about the District 11 board debacle, than charter schools in general, but I can understand how folks might not have understood unless they witnessed the vileness of Eric Christen on their news every night like we did.

Read the CC article here.

Merrifield is a great education advocate, and a really nice change from a lot of the bat-shit crazy people who represent our city & county.

Here is a bit from the article:

CoCo: So what is your position on charters?

Merrifield: I have legitimate concerns about that, but there are some charters that are doing a great job helping children who couldn’t be helped any other way.

CoCo: But why weren’t you more aggressive in efforts to correct the record?

Merrifield: Part of the problem was this was hitting at the time when I was at my weakest — I didn’t have the intensity and anger to take it on, and wasn’t able to attack it. It made it difficult for Senator Windels and myself to push some of the legislative stuff — they also went after her for an e-mail message that she had sent with a comment that some kids who take online courses were lazy. But I’m looking forward to picking up the gavel next session. I’ll be back as chair of education committee, strong and full of vim and vigor. I’m really looking forward to working with a lot of people from around the state with real expertise, who are interested in real education reform, with less political bias.

CoCo: What do you mean?

Merrifield: Well, consider the sudden push, especially from the Republicans, demanding a mandated curriculum with math and science — and forgetting other aspects of education, as if that were the silver bullet. Forget about the joy that we have in school — we’re never allowed to talk about the joy and fun of learning. No, everyone is supposed to be in the same curriculum, on the same track and with the same interests. Well, you know? That just won’t work. They have no data and no research to back up this mandatory math and science push, but I’ll tell you, if you get students involved in arts and [social studies], their success rates are much higher.

Peace.