DENVER | State Sen. Nancy Todd, D-Aurora, was 1-for-2 at the Capitol Thursday in her attempts to pass a pair of education bills out of the Senate Education Committee.
Todd, who was the lead sponsor on both of the bills that went to a vote Thursday, was able to reach a favorable agreement with her lawmaking colleagues on the first of the two measures discussed. Senate Bill 79, which aims to better align the coursework of high school students receiving technical training with community college curricula, passed out of the education committee on a vote of 7-2.
“We have historically, down here under the golden dome, given the message: A four-year college degree is the pathway you should follow,” Todd said. “What this bill does, is it says, ‘there are other pathways.’”
The measure lives on, for now, to be considered on the Senate floor at a future date.
Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, and Committee Vice Chair Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, cast the two dissenting votes on the measure.
Sen. Laura Woods, R-Arvada, won an amendment intended to bolster student privacy by explicitly barring school districts from sharing student data. Woods said that the amendment was brought at the behest of parents who were concerned that the measure would endanger student’s academic data.
“When the bill was introduced last week we began to hear from the stakeholders…in truth it’s parents…that they had some serious concerns, not just about this bill, but the bigger plan at the state level to connect education, the Department of Labor, implementing digital badging and collecting the data on our kids and our grandkids,” Woods said. “This (amendment) just says, the data that’s collected, can’t be shared outside the school district.”
The amendment passed on a vote of 8-1. Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, cast the lone dissenting vote.
The second measure the education committee voted on Thursday didn’t fare as well. Senate Bill 45, which would have added information on student loan debt and retirement planning to the state’s academic standards, was killed on a party-line vote of 5-4.
Todd had repeatedly identified the nation’s ballooning outstanding loan debt as her primary reason for sponsoring SB 45.
Republican committee members who voted against the measure cited a desire to draw back on fattening an already dense collection of state standards and curricula.
“No more mandates,” Marble said. “Schools are already overloaded with them and the way that things are set up, if we have the right curriculum, this should already be covered. We have to look at the content of the curriculum that we already have before we start heaping more things on top of it.”
Committee Chairman Sen. Owen Hill, R-Colorado Springs, added that the state already requires schools to provide financial literacy information.
“While I share your goals, I’m very concerned if we keep going down this path,” he said. “We have financial literacy standards. It already encompasses the opportunity for our schools to do this.”
After tallying a legislative victory and a defeat in committee on Thursday, Todd is now gearing up to champion a separate education measure. Senate Bill 104 aims to lure teachers to rural schools across the state by offering a slew of financial incentives. Co-sponsored by Rep. Jon Becker, R-Fort Morgan, and Rep. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, in the House and a quintet of other Democratic state senators, the measure shows promise to fare well.
SB 104 is on the agenda for the next regular meeting of the senate education committee on Feb. 17.