Senator Michael F. Bennet? Why?

I don't know much about Michael F. Bennett, Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, Governor Bill Ritter's pick for US Senator to replace Ken Salazar. However, Gov. Ritter knows America is only as strong as her schools. We cannot compete financially in a global economy if we do not compete educationally. We need someone with experience pruning budgets who will protect public education at all levels at the same time. With the economy in dire straits, it is tempting to turn our nation's schools over to corporate America to fund them. Appointing DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet is a bold statement that Democrats can solve both our education and economic problems without resorting to corporate schemes to fund public education.

What is the threat to America's education system that Michael Bennet may be strong enough to face? The anti-public education movement in CO, spearheaded by CU President Bruce Benson, associated with the "Trailhead group" behind the anti-Ritter election attack ads, is an example. An article in Friday's Denver Post ("Free Us or Fund Us, Say Colleges", 1/2/09) tells of CU's Bruce Benson convincing other CO state college Presidents of the need to substantially raise tuition, pricing out lower-income students. From the article: "At least one lawmaker on the Joint Budget Committee agrees with the colleges. Rep. Don Marostica says the state's public institutions should be privatized and set free from legislative rules. This also means that, eventually, the schools would get no state funding."

For those of you who have not observed or spoken with CU President Bruce Benson, you cannot possibly know how dangerous this man is to public education at all levels, and how effective he is at political fundraising, networking and persuasion. Years ago, when Benson was appointed Chair of the Commission for Higher Education in Colorado by then-Governor Bill Owens, I spoke with him at length on the telephone (for 2-3 hours!) about my concerns as a parent. At that time, the Commission was considering narrowing the field of academic majors for teaching students to a few basic core disciplines, which would mean preventing students in the arts and social sciences from becoming teachers. In our telephone conversation, Mr. Benson's view of education scared the living daylights out of me.

Bruce Benson told me very clearly he did not value a well-rounded public education. He said the sole purpose of educating students was to prepare them for their careers in business. Any education beyond business was of no value to him. He thought teachers could easily be replaced with business leaders (with no specific training in the field of education). He literally called teachers who majored in the social sciences "airy-fairy hippies". He discounted the value of teachers who spoke languages other than English, and said minority teachers had "nothing extra to offer" just because of their minority status. He said teacher's pay should be tied directly to their student's test scores, said teachers should be punished for low-performing students, and said that the schools should literally be taken over by corporations, since they knew best which kind of workers they would need. He told me teachers at all levels were paid more than enough money, and referenced an article stating job fulfillment is not related to pay. Benson was ignorant of a study I referenced which stated one dollar invested in Early Childhood Education prevented at least seven dollars later spent on remedial education and criminal justice (one study said $12). There was absolutely no concern for the holistic needs of a student as a human being, nor for being an informed citizen of the world. Educating thoughtful, creative adults who can think for themselves did not even appear to be on Bruce Benson's radar.

After our lengthy and infuriating phone call, I called Jared Polis's office. At that time, Jared was on the CO State Board of Education. When I said Benson was a "piece of work", he said something like, "Now, you know what we are up against in this state in the area of education".

That was a number of years ago. The extreme right-wing corporate goals of this man scared me then, and they scare me now. Today, not only is Benson the President of CU, but he has convinced many other state college Presidents to line up behind him in "re-forming" education. Benson was not selected as CU's President because he had student's best interests at heart, but because he is an impressive fundraiser at a time when Colorado's colleges are suffering financially. Bruce Benson is not alone in his views. If given the opportunity, corporate America will take over our schools. We must not let them.

Denver Public School Superintendent Michael F. Bennet may be an "anti-Benson". His background indicates success in cutting costs in education without compromising quality, and without turning our children's minds over to opportunistic, soul-less, large corporations. Bennet clearly thinks outside of the box, and may have effective solutions for other economic dilemmas, as well. For these reasons, I support him for the position of US Senator. If he can address national economic issues while safeguarding our country's public schools at all levels, he might be a wonderful Senator.

This is just my humble opinion. What's yours?