Tough love for teachers: Listen 6/3 7pm

Bad teachers beware! Colorado now has a law that ties teacher tenure to student performance, finally. Thursday at 7:00 on 710 KNUS in Denver, I'll explore what it means with "Tough Love for Teachers," the latest in our monthly series of one-hour specials called Freedom University. Listen if you can, and catch up later with the podcast right here.click here

Parents, employers, citizens, and taxpayers can applaud the tenure reform on one hand, and ask on the other hand why it wasn’t done long ago. Public education is the most expensive item in our state and local budgets, and we’re not getting our money’s worth. Maybe this new approach is a step toward real value in the classroom at long last.

On "Tough Love for Teachers" I'll talk with two legislators who were instrumental in making it happen, Sen. Michael Johnston (D-Denver) and Rep. Murray (R-Highlands Ranch). Also joining me will be Dr. Bill Moloney, Centennial Institute fellow and former Colorado Education Commissioner, and a pair of education experts from the Independence Institute, Pam Benigno and Ben DeGrow.

Red or Blue 2010: Hear the Podcast

Here's another in my series of Freedom University specials, educating Coloradans on the political principles that will help us protect our liberty in dangerous times. It aired April 29 and again May 2 on 710 KNUS in Denver. The topicis "Red or Blue 2010." My guests are former state Rep. Rob Witwer, Republican National Committeeman Mark Hillman, and young legislative candidate Mark Barrington.

The podcast is linked here.

Colorado Republicans hope to see state politics tilt back in our direction this year after three election cycles of Democratic dominance since 2004. It’s important not just in partisan terms but the sake of maintaining a competitive two-party system that effectively represents the people and protects limited government.

Rob Witwer’s new book “The Blueprint: How the Democrats Took Colorado,” written with Adam Schrager, is our textbook for this audio classroom.

Lessons from Reagan: Hear the Podcast

Here's the audio from our latest installment of Freedom University your learning source for liberty. It's a new series of monthly specials on 710 KNUS, taking you behind the headlines and back to the founding principles that have made America the freest nation in history. Freedom will be lost if we don’t constantly educate and motivate ourselves to keep it. The study assignment for this month, aired April 1, is called "Lessons from Reagan." Click here for the podcast.

If you're older, you’ll remember the Gipper's great moments of 1976 in the heat of Kansas City, and of 1980 in the snows of New Hampshire. Younger memories will recall his outwitting Mondale in that 1984 debate and his defiance at the Berlin Wall in 1987.

But on this month's program we dig behind those memories to draw out some of the enduring lessons for political victory and policy success from the most important conservative president of the past hundred years, Ronald Reagan – at a time when conservatives really need perspective after the tough losses in 2006 and 2008, then three recent election victories in blue states, and then the body blow of ObamaCare being jammed into law.

I talked for the full hour with veteran political consultant and author Craig Shirley, a leading historian of the Reagan years. Craig wrote what many consider the definitive book on 1976, entitled “Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign that Started It All.” He followed that up with a terrific book on the 1980 race, entitled “Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America.”

Joining the conversation was Greg Schaller, my colleague at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, where he teaches political science and American government.

Contact Craig Shirley here. Or contact Greg Schaller here.

Jihad in Colorado: Hear the Podcast

With the Zazi terrorist plot uncovered in Aurora, suddenly Sept. 11 doesn't seem so long ago and Afghanistan doesn't seem so far away. Gov. Ritter has called on Coloradans to be vigilant. Such Islamic doctrines as jihad and sharia aren't merely religious concepts, they are a political agenda. We dare not ignore the radical Muslim goals of bringing the war to our homeland and ultimately dominating America. Listeners got a sobering closeup of this life-and-death issue from my Oct. 22 issue special on 710 KNUS in Denver. Click to hear the podcast.

"Under the Dome: Jihad Comes to Colorado" is my conversation with David Petteys, chairman of the Denver chapter of Act for America (the citizens lobby led by Brigitte Gabriel) and Centennial Institute policy analyst Susan Brown.

This is the latest edition of a citizens alert we're now doing monthly for Colorado conservatives. Thanks for listening!

Sharf running again in HD-6

Editor: Joshua Sharf, who blogs for us as well as on his own at View from a Height, and who has long helped me on radio, made it official last week: He will take another run next year at the east Denver seat in Colorado's House that eluded him last year when Democrat Lois Court prevailed after Sharf had bested Rima Barakat Sinclair in the GOP primary. Here's his email announcement from today: On Thursday, October 15, I announced my candidacy for State House District 6.

I'm running because I know that Colorado can do better than we have been, and that our district's representation in the State House of Representatives needs to be a part of that improvement.

House District 6 is a relatively prosperous district. But even past success isn't enough to guarantee the future. Coloradoans are worried about losing control over their futures, futures which they have worked hard to build. We can work to give them back that control.

Colorado has the resources – most importantly, our people – that can lead us back out. We need to unleash those resources to their full potential.

I hope you'll be able to join me as I walk the district, knock on doors, and discuss how to get the state moving in the right direction again. Please visit my website at sharfcolorado.com for more information.

The work ahead won't be easy, but together, we can succeed, both as a campaign and more importantly, as a state.

See you on the trail, JOSHUA SHARF