If elected governor, businessman Noel Ginsburg says he would work to expand apprenticeship programs, raise teacher salaries, send more money to schools – and repeal a signature legislative achievement of one of his Democratic primary rivals.
Ginsburg, who is running for elected office for the first time, currently runs CareerWise Colorado, an apprenticeship program that Gov. John Hickenlooper considers one of the chief accomplishments of his administration.
In its second year, it’s still a long way from reaching its goal of serving 20,000 students statewide. Ginsburg is also the founder and CEO of Intertech Plastics, a company that does custom injection molding, and the co-founder, with his wife Leslie, of the I Have A Dream Foundation, which works to increase the state’s high school graduation rate.
Ginsburg released an education platform this week that calls for putting a lot more money into education and giving teachers more of a voice in policy decisions. Teachers unions have already endorsed former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy.
Ginsburg told Chalkbeat he wouldn’t have minded getting their endorsement, but he understands that as a newcomer to politics, he needs to work hard to “claw my way to viability.”
“The teachers union, whether they support me or not, they will be my partners,” he said. “I don’t believe the unions have all the answers, but boy, do they deserve a seat at the table.”
Ginsburg’s education platform calls for:
- Expanding high-quality apprenticeship programs
- Filling the skills gap so that more students graduate into good-paying jobs
- Convincing voters to approve changes to the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights to let the state keep more money
- Convincing voters to approve tax increases for education
- Restoring trust in government when it comes to education
- Improving teacher pay
- Repealing 2010 legislation that requires teachers to demonstrate effectiveness and ties teacher pay to student performance
Former state Sen. Mike Johnston, now a Democratic candidate for governor, was the author of that legislation, Senate Bill 191. A former teacher and school principal, Johnston stood behind the law in a 2016 Chalkbeat interview.
But Ginsburg said that in his view, the law had been used as a “club” against teachers and students.
“You need those measurements, but if you are measured by the measures in 191, you are measured by a system that is flawed,” he said. “It was well-intentioned at the time, but I don’t think it’s met the objectives.”
Kennedy’s education plan does not call for the abolition of Senate Bill 191, but supports giving more weight to teachers’ “perspectives and expertise” in evaluations.
Ginsburg has criticized other candidates in the Democratic primary for making promises that will be hard to deliver, particularly around education. U.S. Rep. Jared Polis wants to provide universal access to preschool, and Johnston wants to provide debt-free college in exchange for community service. Ginsburg said he would love to see both those things, but first the state needs to adequately fund the existing K-12 education system.
To do that, Ginsburg says he would lead a coalition to reform TABOR so that Coloradans keep the ability to vote on tax increases but the state gets to keep more of the money generated by a booming economy.
TABOR reform – a premise on which Kennedy’s education platform also depends – might seem just as unlikely if you look at Colorado history. But Ginsburg said he believes that with the right leadership, voters can be persuaded.
Ginsburg also is pledging to lead a campaign for a tax increase to fund education. Colorado voters have twice before rejected such measures, and a coalition of state and local school leaders want to put a tax increase for education on the ballot again this year. Ginsburg said he supports the general idea, but he’s not sure it’s the right proposal.
TABOR reform and tax increases for education don’t seem unrealistic or undoable to Ginsburg.
“If we cannot raise more dollars for education, it would ultimately leave me speechless,” he said. “We can either say we’re not going to make the investment, and we’re okay with declining opportunity for our students or … I cannot fathom a continuation of the current trends because I think it leads to a Colorado none of us can be proud of.”
Ginsburg sees apprenticeships as key to addressing income inequality and preserving the middle class.
Ginsburg said that as governor, he would use his “bully pulpit” to get more businesses involved in apprenticeship programs and to explain the value of these programs to students. He stressed that CareerWise largely does not depend on taxpayer dollars, nor is it a substitute for a four-year college degree for those who want to pursue one. CareerWise apprenticeships allow students to earn money and college credit as they learn work skills.
He described business and industry as missing players in the education world. Teachers are doing their job, he said, but they can’t possibly show students every way that math, science, reading, and writing will be applied in the work world.
“We put all the burden on K-12 and act as the consumer of the final product, and that’s not right,” he said. “We can share the burden.”
Read more about Cary Kennedy’s education platform here.
Read more about Jared Polis’ plan for universal preschool here.
Read about Mike Johnston’s plan for free college in exchange for community service here.
And read our take-aways from the first gubernatorial forum with an education focus here.
Promises. Promises.
I guess the new guy has to fall somewhere on the continuum of positions.
At least he says he’s pro Union.
Keep unions strong, Colorado. It’s the only way.
Mike Johnston served a couple years as a principal and teacher with teach for America, The system that puts inexperienced, non Union teachers in the roughest schools. That way they burn out soon. But that’s OK, because that’s TFA’s model–train some new B teacher to last a couple years, but that’s OK we’re going to replace them with some new teachers to last a couple years but that’s OK because were going to replace him with a couple of new teachers who will last just a couple of years, and that’s OK
He is a DFER, which is a privatizer Democrat in name only. Know what I mean? Gets his cash from the Koch network.
Polis? Psh. Corporate Charter school ex exec/owner/investor. No question he’ll urge policy that pads his pockets.