UPDATE: OCT 21 2014 -- Wrote an email to Jame Flanigan the AP U.S. History/ U.S. Government/Ancient Civilizations/U.S. History at Mountain Vista High School - who says that this is not true at his high school, but he can't speak for others. I rechecked the postings I found and they are still active. - hunt continues, still no verification.
UPDATE: I have been unable to verify this alteration to the Douglas County HS offerings. Until I can I'm not going to be moving forward on this: The AP History classes at the HS locations are still showing on the web sites, with teachers assigned to them There is nothing in the Board minutes about the AP US History being dropped .Nothing regarding the course at all as a matter of fact. I hae emails out to teachers and students to see if I can get some type of verification.
October 15th, 2014 -- Douglas County Colorado School Board has shut down access to the AP class offering and brought in CCU which they tout as a viable replacement. The Colorado Christian University (CCU), a private religious school in Lakewood has not returned inquires into the Blaine Amendment conflict at this time.
I'm not going to do much writing on this post. I'm simply going to put the letters and emails into the post and let the facts of the matter crawl across your mind like they did my own.
The first is an email to the Jeffco School Board Watch website members. The author is a parent in nearby Douglas County who wishes to remain anonymous. On first reading I wanted to believe this was a hoax.
DOUGCO LETTER TELLS JEFFCO WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT WITH AP COURSES
While students are rightly concerned about curriculum revisionism in the Jefferson County school district, here in Douglas County we’re already seeing what the next steps may be.
On October 7th, the Douglas County Board of Education in Castle Rock held a working session with no public input allowed. Board member Geddes openly suggested that the standard AP history curriculum may be replaced by that of Colorado Christian University (CCU), a private religious school in Lakewood. Whether this would be done strictly through concurrent enrollment (CE) credits or by adding additional high school classes has been hotly debated in Facebook forums, as the school board members seemed intentionally vague regarding details on a possible implementation plan.
According to CCU’s own documentation, this was already implemented in at least six county public high schools earlier in the school year without notice. They also offer concurrent enrollment credits at several other metro area high schools outside of Douglas County.
It is worth noting that William Armstrong, the president of Colorado Christian University, gave each of the four DCSD reform candidates $1,000.00 in last year’s hotly contested school board election. Now the school board is needlessly responding in kind by allowing CCU to charge $200 per student per CE class for CCU credits that may not even be accepted anywhere else other than CCU itself. While this seems like quite a departure from the methodology of traditional AP credits, it also questions the legality of using public funds to subsidize the recruitment of public high school students by a private religious school that openly discriminates in choosing who to accept for enrollment based on religious identity and sexual orientation.
Here is an example of Chaparral High School, a Douglas County public school, already advertising for CCU courses:
Some parents also reported last week on Facebook that their children received advertising materials for CCU that were distributed at their high school.
Because of the local news media refusal to cover this story, Facebook discussions have been the most useful in trying to understand details from parents who were at the October 7th meeting or have knowledge of what is happening in their children’s local high schools.
Here are some very informative discussions on “SPEAK for DCSD” regarding controversial aspects of the DCSD and CCU partnership:
Here are a couple of similarly useful discussions on the “Involved Douglas County Teachers and Citizens” page:
(This is a closed group, but some JeffCo groups already have access.)
The Douglas County Federation (teachers union) Twitter feed on the night of October 7th recounts how board member Geddes equates the CCU History curriculum with that of the standard AP History one, asking if DCSD public school teachers would qualify to be credentialed by CCU requirements.
You can view some public reactions on Twitter fromTuesday night regarding the CCU class being proposed to replace the AP History class:
There will be a DCSD accountability meeting at the PACE center in Parker on Tuesday night, October 14th, at 7 p.m. This is a rare event to observe and interact with all the major DCSD board opposition and accountability groups participating. This meeting was only announced a few days ago, but if someone from each of the JeffCo groups could attend to make some connections with the parent groups who oppose the school board, it may be mutually well worth our time. If we can stop what is happening in DougCo, perhaps the worst of it will never even reach JeffCo.
More meeting info here:
Grass roots groups opposing the DCSD school board privatization agenda or otherwise generally seeking district accountability:
Strong Schools Coalition
(Video of the October 7th school board meeting can be viewed at http://strongschoolscoalition.org/news-events/video-library/)
Douglas County Parents
Taxpayers for Public Education
Community Accountability Committee for Douglas County School District
Voices for Public Education
It seems logical that the opposition in our two counties is stronger united than separate. For the sake of our children’s education and that of future generations, we must prevail.
DougCo & JeffCo Stand United
(Anonymous Douglas County Parent)
Deciding that someone needed to instigate some action I wrote an email to the ACLU. I can't file a law suite, since I'm not in Colorado and not a citizen of that state.
Dear Sirs,
Thiis is in regards to the letter you sent to Jeffco, the subject being AP History
A disturbing event has occured in Colorado. Douglas County reports that their School Board has closed their AP History class, and has said will only offer CCU classes "allowing CCU to charge $200 per student per CE class for CCU credits that may not even be accepted anywhere else other than CCU itself."
CCU being Colorado Christian University.
Iit is my understanding that the Blaine law protects students from this sort of hijacking into Religious studies where the school is private, discriminates against Gays, and presses a Christian dogma on the classes.
Colorado Constitution Section 7 (The Blaine Amendment)
Section 7. Aid to private schools, churches, sectarian purpose, forbidden. Neither the general assembly, nor any county, city, town, township, school district or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation, or pay from any public fund or moneys whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian society, or for any sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatsoever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money or other personal property, ever be made by the state, or any such public corporation to any church, or for any sectarian purpose.
Anything in aid seems to cover the School Board making this change, supporting the CCU by directing the students to them while closing their Advance Placement courses so as not to be in competition, as well as allowing them to charge the students a fee.There also appears to be a matter of conflicting interest -- CCU donated to the Republican members of the School board $1000 each as political campaign money when they were running for election.
I hope you can help the students and parents of Douglas County, and by doing so, keep Jefferson County (Jeffco) from having to go through the same actions
Contact with someone who will know details can be made through this email address [email address give]
[END]
