Station:   KOA, 850 AM

Show:      Colorado’s Afternoon News

Guests:    Bob Beauprez

Link:        http://www.850koa.com/media/

Date:       September 30, 2014

Topics:     Advanced Placement (AP) United States History Course (APUSH), Jefferson County, School Board, Taxes, Teachers’ Union, Merit Pay, Curriculum Review Committee, Local Control, Counting of Students, Sick-Out, Protest, Count Day, Walk-Out, Board Meeting

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MALE ANNOUNCER/INTERVIEWER:  […] evaluations and talk about creating a committee to review the AP History course.  Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bob Beauprez joining Colorado’s Afternoon News to talk about the trouble in Jefferson County.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:  Thanks for joining us, sir. What message do you have to parents, students, teachers, and administrators in the Jefferson County school district?  [static, pause, technical difficulties]  We seem to be having a problem with getting candidate Bob Beauprez on. We’re a little bit of delay difficulty, here. Some Technical issues here, on Colorado’s Afternoon News, at 5:22

MALE ANNOUNCER/INTERVIEWER:  This is an important — you know, an important subject for folks out there in Jefferson County.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:  Mm-hmmm.

MALE ANNOUNCER/INTERVIEWER:  Uh, the school board making some big decision. Of course, they’re going to be talking about this again on Thursday night.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:  Okay, I think we have him now, and I’ll repeat my message, just in case you didn’t hear me.  What message do you have to students, parents, teachers, and administrators in the Jefferson County school district, sir?

BOB BEAUPREZ:  Well, get back to the task at hand, and that’s instructing the kids.  And that’s what people pay their taxes for.  That’s what parents expect. That’s what children deserve.  And frankly, that’s what, I know, that teachers took the job for.  They want [to teach] children, or else they wouldn’t be there.  This has been an on-going dispute, I think, between the teachers’ union and the school board over the merit pay schedule and particularly the pay as it relates to teachers that might find  — might be found not quite measuring up to the standards that the school board expects them to achieve.  Now, let me be clear.  I’d like not to have to take sides on this one, but I do believe that the school board — an elected school board, any elected school board — they have a proxy from the voters and particularly the parents who send them there, to make sure that they’re speaking out and exercising judgment on their behalf.  And that would include, from time to time, reviewing curriculum.   This supposedly was about curriculum.  But I think it’s a long ways removed from curriculum.  I think it’s really just a manifestation of the ongoing battle between the school board and the teachers’ union over pay, and in this case, merit pay.  The curriculum is a very secondary issue.  When it crosses the line, is when instruction of children –uh, the students– starts being impacted, and clearly it is.  You know, when you’ve got to close the high schools because of a supposed sick-out — we all get that joke — there’s something seriously wrong.

MALE ANNOUNCER/INTERVIEWER:  So what roll, if any, does the governor have in a situation like this?

BOB BEAUPREZ:  Well, I’d like to leave it to local control as long as you possibly can. Uh, but we’re right up against now that the counting of students for the sake of reimbursing on a per capita basis, the amount of money that the state reimburses –sends back — to the school districts to fund education.  That’s always an issue, and there never seems to be enough.  But if we’ve got a sick-out, if we’ve got schools closed because teachers don’t show up, or we’ve got a whole lot of students missing because they’ve decided to walk out and join in the teacher-encouraged protest, that’s a whole different matter.  So, at some point, I don’t know where that line is– I think a governor would know it when he sees it, but you’re starting to get, in my opinion, very close to that moment in time when the legitimate requests –needs–of the parents and the students are not being met, and teachers are not meeting their contractual obligation to be in that classroom teaching kids.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:  Thank you for your time, sir.  That’s Bob Beauprez, candidate for governor. As for the count day tomorrow, across the state, the state department of education’s website show that there is a count day window that extends from 5 days before count day to 5 days after count day.

MALE ANNOUNCER/INTERVIEWER:  And it’s important, because each student brings with them about seven thousand dollars.  And so, [if] you lose the count — maybe even ten kids — you’re looking at a lot of money, there.

FEMALE INTERVIEWER:  Yeah.  Yeah.  […]