Free Republic

Would you trade one year of high school for two years of college? Lawmakers are proposing a plan that would grant students an associate's degree after completing a 13th grade in high school. A charter school known as Southwest Early College started a similar program last year. Working in conjunction with the Community College of Denver, SEC will give its students a diploma and associate's degree when they are done. An associate's degree is usually earned after two years at junior college or community college. "This school and schools like us are literally turning lives around," said SEC Principal Chris...

Former University of Colorado President Betsy Hoffman "thought long and hard" before hiring a car last year to wait outside a donor dinner in Seattle for several hours, she said this week. The $534 charge criticized by state auditors Tuesday was an unusual circumstance, Hoffman said. The house was hard to find, it was dark and she didn't want to be late. But a Rocky Mountain News review of CU payments to limousine services shows hired drivers idled outside at least 10 events Hoffman attended, from a dinner at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science to the funeral of...