We just received an email from Bobby Clark, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, in which he names this legislative session’s “Winners and Losers.” Clark names state Rep. Max Tyler, D-Lakewood, a winner saying:
Rep. Max Tyler has quickly established himself as one of the most thoughtful and articulate members of the Colorado House.
Funny, last night during debate on the teacher tenure reform bill that lasted past 11 p.m., Rep. Max Tyler made an unfortunate (decidedly inarticulate and thoughtless) metaphor, comparing education to baking and likening children to maggot-infested flour. Although he later apologized, people were shocked nonetheless.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdnEsVq0oo]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdnEsVq0oo
“I’ve also seen a number of stories about, ‘Why can’t we run schools like a business, for crying out loud?’” said Tyler. “Well, if you were running a business baking bread and the flour came in to you full of maggots and worms and you had to use it, that would be kind of the…You would not be able to produce a very good product, would you?”
There was some speculation that the opponents of the teacher tenure reform bill were going to try to extend debate past midnight, which would have effectively killed the legislation, but the vote was taken with less than 45 minutes to go. Apparently the lobby of the House was full of impassioned teachers who could barely hold back their emotions as the vote was called.
WSYS had some fun posts from the session this year.
Rep. Joe Miklosi was haunted by the specter of Karl Rove.
Rep. Jeanne Labuda totally misstated how Colorado appoints judges despite the fact she has passed the Colorado Bar herself.
Sen. Josh Penry tried to limit Colorado’s autopilot spending.
Rep. Dan Kagan gave a hilarious speech to dispense with the reading of the minutes.
Sen. Chris Romer doesn’t “. . . want to do class warfare” but thinks it’s “time to go back to a progressive tax.”
Sen. John Morse posted a video on his blog FREAKING out on Amazon.com.
If you’ve heard the term “Sine die” regularly and always wondered what it meant, we have a WSYS lesson below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aAL2oJqet8]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aAL2oJqet8
