Legislative Narrative
January 30 – February 3, 2012
Overview
The legislature decided to call a snow day on Friday, February 3, shortening a week that was filled with more bills being laid over than heard. The General Assembly is quickly approaching bill passage deadlines. Each week in February brings another deadline for passage of bills introduced at various points in session to be passed out of committee or on the floor of the House where the bill was introduced. Committee calendars will be full with four or five bills on the schedule. This week the FY11-12 budget supplementals were introduced and will be in committee as early as this Monday morning.
House Majority in Question – Representative Laura Bradford Issue
Last week the House of Representatives was distracted with the controversy of Rep. Laura Bradford (R). Rep. Bradford was pulled over by Denver Police for suspicion of driving while intoxicated when she performed an illegal left turn. When questioned by police, she also informed them that she was legally carrying a concealed weapon in her vehicle. Rep. Bradford was not charged because of a decades old law in Colorado, which states that ‘legislators cannot be arrested or detained during the legislative session in order to make sure they can perform their duties during the short 120 days of convening.’ The origin of this law was to avoid a legislator being detained and possibly missing an important vote. Police called her a cab, parked her car, and left the firearm in the car.
It was initially reported by the press that Rep. Bradford invoked the legislative privilege. The Denver Police quickly released a statement indicating that they had given Rep. Bradford ‘special treatment,’ and she hadn’t directly asked to have the privilege invoked.
At this point, House leadership had already called for an ethics investigation of the incident and removed Rep. Bradford from her committee chair position. Representative Bradford insisted she did not invoke the privilege and stated her dissatisfaction with the Republican Party for the way the had treated her in the past and for the way they handled this situation. She is contemplating changing her party affiliation to Independent - throwing the 33 Republican v. 32 Democrat majority into question. Rep. Bradford indicated she was taking the weekend to make a final decision.
2011-12 Budget Supplementals
At the time that the Long Bill Appropriation for School Finance is established, the information is based on estimates of funded pupil count, the number of at-risk students, and available property and specific ownership tax revenue. Subsequently, school districts have the October count, county assessors and the State Board of Equalization certify the total valuation for assessment of all taxable property, and school district boards certify the district's mill levy for school finance. By early January within the fiscal year, these data have been finalized by school districts and compiled by the Colorado Department of Education. CDE then annually submits a supplemental request to make mid-year appropriation adjustments based on the actual data.
Introduced this Week:
- SB12-106 Statutory Changes Related to Education (Sen. K. King / none)
o Adds a fourth performance indicator for school and workforce readiness to reflect the number of students who, upon enrollment in an institution of higher education, require remediation course work.
o Early colleges are added to those institutions that have a guaranteed transfer of core course credits to public institutions of higher education, provided they meet the requirements established by CDHE.
o Early colleges that have been accredited by CDHE are granted the authority to award degrees.
o Hearing: Thursday 2/9 in Senate Education.
Upcoming Hearings:
- Monday 2/6
o House Appropriations, 7:30am LSB-A
§ All departmental and FY11-12 supplementals will be heard at this time
o Ethics Panel, Upon Adjournment HCR0112
§ Rep. Laura Bradford Incident
o House Education, 1:30pm HCR0112
§ HB12-1212 (Rep. Becker) - BOCES Multi-district On-line Education Programs
§ HB12-1149 (Rep. Beezley) - Parents Request Action On Low-performing Schools
§ HB12-1218 (Rep. Peniston) - Early Childhood & School Readiness Commission
- Wednesday 2/8
o Joint Education, 7:30am HCR0112
§ Presentation on Blended Learning by the Donnell Kay Foundation and CDE
o House Education, 1:30pm HCR0112
§ HB12-1043 (Rep. Conti) - Concurrent Enrollment For Early High School Grads
§ HB12-1072 (Reps. Massey & Fields) - Higher Ed Prior Learning Assessments
§ Committee will develop and approve strategic plan recommendations for CDE and CDHE
o Senate Education, 1:30pm SCR354
§ SB12-145 (Sen. Steadman) - Cap 2011-12 School Land Revenues Transfers
§ SB12-061 (Sen. K. King) - Charter School Applying Authorizing Revoking
§ HB12-1001 (Sens. Johnston and Spence) - Rule Review Evaluation Of Educator Effectiveness
- Thursday 2/9
o Senate Education, 1:30pm SCR356
§ SB12-036 (Sen. Mitchell) - Parental Consent For Surveys In K-12 Schools
§ SB12-045 (Sens. Hudak & K. King) - Higher Education Associate Degree Transfer Students
§ SB12-067 (Sen. Hudak) - For-profit And Nonprofit Charter Schools
§ SB12-106 (Sen. K. King) - Statutory Changes Related To Education