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State board of education joins
school-funding appeal
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Fiscal policy
The Denver Post: Colorado board of education joins school-funding appeal
The state board of education will join Gov. John Hickenlooper in an appeal of the Lobato ruling that called school funding in Colorado "unconscionable."
Also: Education News Colorado: SBE appeals Lobato
Health care
Colorado Springs Gazette: Memorial: How we got here, where we're going
On January 9, the City Council will take up the future of Memorial Health System and decide whether to follow a task force recommendation to lease the city-owned hospital to University of Colorado Hospital. It's the latest step in a years-long discussion over Memorial's fate and what the future of health care across the region should look like.
The national scene
The Christian Science Monitor: 'Payroll Tax, The Sequel': Did either side learn any lessons from Part 1?
The impasse over the payroll tax cut sent the public approval rating for Congress to new depths even as it gave Obama a corresponding boost. But as negotiators reopen discussions for a longer deal, all bets are off.
Stateline: Five lessons from overwhelmed agencies
Last week, Stateline took an in-depth look at what's causing growing backlogs of work at state agencies across the country. Here are five lessons gleaned from dozens of interviews with state officials, including those who are currently struggling with a backlog and some who have successfully cleared one up.
Think tanks
Urban Institute: Reaffirming the Work Requirement for Noncustodial Parents as Part of TANF Reauthorization
Research shows that work programs for noncustodial parents can increase employment and child support payments. Yet very few state TANF programs provide these work activities even though the estimated cost of implementing a requirement is zero. Congress needs to reaffirm its intent to impose a work requirement on noncustodial parents through the child support program and clearly state that child support funds may be used to fund the work programs.
Brookings Institution: After the Lost Budget Opportunities of 2011: What Next?
As 2011 ended we should have been celebrating a bipartisan deal to restore the federal government to fiscal sanity. The deal should have included sufficient reductions in spending growth and increases in revenues over the next decade to keep the national debt from rising fasting than the economy can grow. It should have encompassed full-year extension of the payroll tax holiday and unemployment compensation, and possibly other job creation measures. Instead, we are bemoaning the lost opportunities of extreme partisan pig-headedness and hoping that 2012 will bring politicians to their senses before a debt crisis overtakes us.
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