From The Colorado Independent:  Jon Caldara, the controversial president of the Independence Institute free-market think tank in Colorado, has succeeded in doing what many might see as the impossible. With his latest ballot initiative, he has pushed teachers unions and school board administrators into the same camp. The thinking on both sides of the traditional divide seems to be that, whatever Caldara is up to with Proposition 104, which aims to open school board-teacher union contract negotiations to the public, it can’t be good.

Caldara says he was forced to take his proposition to the ballot because similar measures have been shot down consistently in the legislature. He argues it’s a good-government proposal that makes sense given what’s at stake.

“Teacher contracts are the largest expenditure in school budgets,” he told the Independent. “Why shouldn’t the public be able to watch what’s going on in those smoky rooms? This is about our kids’ lives. Why oppose open meetings unless you’re doing something you don’t want people to see?”

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