Gov. John Hickenlooper was flanked by second graders from Aurora's Kenton Elementary as he signed the Colorado READ Act on May 17, 2012.

“It’s really a great day for young people in Colorado,” said Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia, the administration’s point man on education. “”But we’re not done. We have a long way to go.”

The law, nearly a year in the making, is the most significant piece of education legislation to emerge from the just-completed 2012 regular session. It also has the distinction of being one of the few recent Colorado education reform laws to come with significant funding.

Several speakers at the signing ceremony referred to the long process it took to get to the final product.

“It certainly takes a village to write a bill to help raise a child,” joked Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver and a prime sponsor of the bill.

Here are the key features of the READ Act:

• Next school year districts will report to the Department of Education the number of K-3 students with significant reading deficiencies. The State Board of Education the will define what constitutes a significant reading deficiency for the purposes of the law. SBE has until March 31, 2013, to adopt the rules for the new program.

• The law is expected to cover up to 24,000 students. An estimated quarter of Colorado third graders don’t read at grade level.

• Starting in 2013-14 districts will annually assess K-3 students’ reading abilities with CDE-approved tests. The department is required to create a list of approved instructional programs and professional development programs that districts can use.

• Individual READ plans have to be created for students with significant deficiencies. The law also creates a process for parent, teacher and administrator consultation to determine each year if students should advance to the next grade. Parents have the final say for K-2 students. Superintendents (or designated administrators) will review the cases of third graders recommended for advancement and can decide to retain a student. Special services must be provided for third graders who are held back.

• The law contains protections and exemptions for students with disabilities, limited English proficiency or who have already been retained.

• The program will divert interest revenue from the state school lands permanent fund to provide about $16 million in per-pupil funding (about $700 per student) to districts working with students who have significant reading deficiencies. The law also includes some $5 million in funding to be used for CDE administration costs ($1 million) and for professional development grants to districts. So total funding in 2012-13 will be about $21 million.

• Districts receiving the per-pupil funding will be required to use specific interventions, such as enrollment in full-day kindergarten, summer school or tutoring.

• The law abolishes the existing Read-to-Achieve grant program and uses its remaining funding for the new grant program.

Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs / File photo

The original concept called for mandatory retention of lagging third graders, but that plan was quickly dropped in the face of widespread opposition.

As passed by the House, HB 12-1238 had a “preference” for retention, contained only $5 million in funding and also would have required services for a second group of students, those with just “reading deficiencies.”

Low funding and some of the bill’s language didn’t sit well with Senate Democratic leaders, and the bill was significantly amended. More funding was added, the bill was refocused on a smaller group of students, some of the more detailed requirements for parent consultation and notification were streamlined and retention language was softened.

Democratic Sens. Rollie Heath of Boulder and Bob Bacon of Fort Collins were key figures in crafting the Senate compromise, in consultation with Massey.

Several speakers at the ceremony highlighted Heath’s role in the bill. Garcia said Heath “reall helped keep us on track … and come up with a bill we all could fully support.”

The Senate sponsors were Johnston and Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial. Hickenlooper advisors also were heavily involved with the READ Act from the beginning.

Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton

The READ Act is the swansong for some lawmakers who have been key players on education legislation for years. Massey, Bacon, Spence and Solano all are leaving the Capitol because of term limits.

Rep. Tom Massey said, “There’s no question” that improving state revenues made the early childhood literacy bill and a no-cuts school finance act possible. Massey, a Poncha Springs Republican and chair of the House Education Committee, was at the center of most education debates this year. His name was on 38 measures, most of them related to schools or higher education.

Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins and chair of Senate Education, also cited a cooperative spirit among lawmakers, interest groups and others as key to the session: “Time after time, we came together.” Bacon was a key figure in Senate debates on the literacy bill.

What the session means to you

As a legislative session unfolds, it’s often hard to translate the legalistic language of bills into impacts on real people. And, as with most legislation, the effects of many 2012 bills won’t be felt until after state bureaucrats, school administrators and college leaders have worked out the details of implementing the new laws.

But here a high-level look at what this year’s education legislation will mean for parents and students, teachers and administrators, bureaucrats and others:

Young learners, parents and teachers – More than 20,000 K-3 students who struggle with reading will get additional, structured help – and a few of them may find themselves repeating third grade. Schools will be required to involve parents more closely in efforts to improve reading skills. Teachers in the early grades will have to learn some new skills for teaching literacy. All of this will flow from the early literacy bill, House Bill 12-1238 – see summary.

Counselors and troubled kids – An easing of zero-tolerance discipline laws will mean teachers, counselors and vice principals will have more flexibility in school discipline and will have to brush up on new techniques. Some students who otherwise would have been expelled or suspended likely will find themselves staying in school. And some administrators will have more paperwork to file tracking the impact of new policies. The original discipline bill, Senate Bill 12-046, had to be folded into another measure because of a parliamentary screw-up; read the summary here.

High school students – There may be more tests to take in the state’s high schools, given passage of a bill providing $1 million in state aid for districts to give Accuplacer skills assessment tests. The hope is the tests will give early indications of student deficiencies that can be fixed before kids get to college. This plan, originally Senate Bill 12-047, also had to be merged into another bill. See the summary.

Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs

Future students – There are still lots of hurdles to be jumped before Colorado has permanent replacements for the TCAP tests, but a bill requiring the State Board of Education to commit to one of two groups developing multi-state tests is one step down that road.

College students – Some students at state colleges and universities will be freed from the current system of having to take remedial classes before they can take for-credit courses. House Bill 12-1155 (see summary) will allow more targeted remediation for specific skill gaps while student take regular classes.

Future college students – In future years, graduates of Adams, Metro and Western state colleges will have the word “university” on their sheepskins, thanks to three name-change bills passed this year.

Adults who want degrees – The state is making a push to increase the number of Coloradans with degrees or certificates. Senate Bill 12-045 is supposed to make it easier for adults with some community college credits and some four-year credits to combine them and earn an associate’s degree. And House Bill 12-1072 is intended to create easier ways for adults to earn college credit for such “life experiences” as professional and military training.

Parents – There may be a bit more school paperwork to fill out because of Senate Bill 12-036, which tightens requirements for parent consent before students can fill out various surveys and questionnaires. Parents won’t have to worry when the Oct. 1 enrollment count day falls on a religious holiday; count day will be moved. But parents won’t be able to opt kids out of achievement tests, get a sales-tax break on back-to-school purchases, petition for conversion of low-performing schools or sit in on district-union bargaining sessions. Bills proposing all those things didn’t make it. And a State Board rule requiring parents be notified when school employees are arrested will expire because the legislature didn’t ratify it.

Teachers – Teachers with national board certifications will receive $4,800 stipends for working at high-needs schools via House Bill 12-1261. Two sets of regulations intended to implement the new educator evaluation system were ratified by the legislature, meaning that system as designed by the Colorado Department of Education is moving ahead. The legislature also provided CDE with some extra funding for implementation work.

Higher ed policymakers – A new law on regulation of for-profit colleges will enable the state Department of Higher Education to gather more information about enrollment, degrees granted and other data from those institutions. That in turn will provide a fuller picture of higher education in the state as policymakers try to increase the number of degrees and certificates granted. This was yet one more bill that had to be folded into another measure; read the summary here.

Charter school administrators – A bill setting uniform minimum standards for charter school applications and authorization (Senate Bill 12-061) passed, but a measure that would have encouraged districts to follow “model” standards of authorizing didn’t (House Bill 12-1225). And some charters may have an easier time qualifying for Building Excellent Schools Today grants because of Senate Bill 12-121.

Lunch ladies – If they haven’t done so already, kitchen administrators will have to get rid of foods with added trans fats under the terms of Senate Bill 12-068. But the measure is riddled with exceptions; get the details in this summary.

One issue is big every year

The state provides about two-thirds of K-12 operating funds every year, and the legislature sets the combination of state and local revenue used to pay for schools.

The recession and resulting state revenue drops forced the 2009, 2010 and 2011 legislative sessions to cut school funding. This year was a different story because improving revenues allowed the legislature to keep school funding stable at about $5.3 billion in 2012-13, an average of $6,474.24 per student.

“School finance was one of the victories,” said Bacon, a view Massey shares.

That doesn’t mean rising costs, such as for pensions, aren’t going to force individual districts to make cuts. But at the statehouse, there definitely was less tension around school finance this year.

Improved revenues also allowed lawmakers to keep higher education budget cuts to “only” about $7 million below current levels.

Get more information on school finance in the Education News Colorado archive and in this legislative staff document. And find out how much funding is allocated to individual districts in our database.

What didn’t get done

There was a lot of speculation early in the session that online schools and the BEST construction program would be big education issues. As it turned out, neither was.

Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, promised a bill to better regulate online schools but ended up not touching the issue, partly because of his focus on a jobs bills. Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, considered online legislation but ended up not introducing any. He had plenty on his plate, including membership on the Joint Budget Committee and sponsorship of the civil unions bill.

There also was chatter about legislation to tighten up the BEST program and perhaps cap its income from state lands revenues. A funding bill never got introduced, and a bill to change structural review procedures for BEST projects and to change the board was killed.

There also were predictions that the December 2011 court decision in the Lobato v. State lawsuit would hang over the 2012 session. But “Lobato” was a word that didn’t get uttered much. An amendment to fund a study of the cost of Lobato compliance was withdrawn, and a resolution urging legislative legal intervention in the case was killed. The case, of course, is on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Dead for this year

The most prominent education bill that failed was Senate Bill 12-015, the so-called ASSET bill intended to reduce college tuition rates for undocumented students. This year marked the sixth time such legislation has been attempted. Backers promise a new version next year.

In addition to bills mentioned above, here are some other education bills that were killed or hadn’t been considered by the time the adjournment deadline came.

• House Bill 12-1067 – Contribution limits in school board campaigns
• House Bill 12-1235 – Requirements for energy efficiency in new school buildings
• House Bill 12-1252 – Online posting of college and university financial information
• House Bill 12-1280 – Establishment of a Western Slope gaming hall with video gambling machines, partly to fund community colleges and scholarships
• Senate Bill 12-098 – Requiring CPR for high school graduation

Seven bills proposing significant changes in the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, which covers all Colorado teachers and many other public employees, either were killed or didn’t make it out of committee.

A lot of farewells

Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins

Here’s who’s leaving the two committees:

House Education (13 members)

• Massey (term-limited)
• Don Beezley, R-Broomfield (chose not to run)
• Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood (running for Senate against Summers)
• Judy Solano, D-Brighton (term-limited)
• Ken Summers, R- Lakewood (running for Senate against Kerr)
• Nancy Todd, D-Aurora (term-limited but running for Senate)

Senate Education (7 members)

• Bacon (term-limited)
• King, R-Colorado Springs (district changed by redistricting; chose not to run)
• Spence, R-Centennial (term-limited)

And several other members of both committees are running for reelection, so some may or may not be back.

See the full archive of EdNews’ 2012 legislative stories.

A somber Gov. John Hickenlooper announced he'll call a special session of the legislature to consider civil unions.

Also Wednesday, the House accepted the significant Senate amendments to House Bill 12-1238, the sweeping early childhood literacy program, and re-passed it 58-7.

And Senate Bill 12-068, the measure that bans use of industrially produced trans fats in school foods, passed 36-29 in House and 18-17 in Senate. The much-amended bill survived repeated efforts to kill it but was significantly watered down, containing exceptions for food programs that use federal guidelines, for smaller school districts and for food provided at fundraisers.

Here are the bills that missed a key deadline and were effectively killed as standalone measures because of Tuesday night’s House stalemate:

Senate Bill 12-172, which would require the State Board of Education to commit Colorado to one of two groups developing multistate achievement tests in language arts and math.

Senate Bill 12-046, which would eliminate most zero-tolerance school discipline requirements, give school districts more flexibility in discipline and encourage schools to reduce use of expulsions, suspensions and referrals to police.

Senate Bill 12-047, which would provide state funding to districts that chose to administer basic skills testing such as the Accuplacer to high school students.

Senate Bill 12-164, which would modernize state regulation of for-profit colleges that offer bachelors and graduate degrees and add some consumer protections for students.

Here’s what the Senate did to save them:

• The texts of the discipline and Accuplacer bills were added to House Bill 12-1345, the 2012-13 school funding bill, which then got 27-8 final Senate approval. The House agreed and re-passed it 65-0.
• The content of the multistate testing bill was added to House Bill 12-1240, an omnibus cleanup bill of various education laws. This bill went to a conference committee to change one letter in the bill (honestly, but it’s too complicated to explain). The conference committee report was accepted by both houses and re-passed late in the evening. This bill has gone through lots of ups and downs and caused lots of heartburn for the Department of Education. Little noticed in all the debate is the fact that the bill delays some Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids deadlines, such as that for creation of specialized diplomas. And the testing provisions added to the bill are potentially important.
• And the text of the higher education regulation bill was added to House Bill 12-1155, another higher ed measure that originally dealt with remediation procedures. It passed 35-0 in the Senate and 65-0 in the House.

The amendments were offered by various members of the Senate Education Committee from both parties. There was no significant debate on any of the changes in either House.

Colorado has relatively strict rules that restrict bill content to the subject listed in a bill’s title. But lawmakers and staff members determined that the titles of the three bills were broad enough to accommodate the orphan measures.

In a related development, an emotional Gov. John Hickenlooper announced Wednesday afternoon that he will call a special session of the legislature to reconsider civil unions and some other orphan bills. (With Wednesday’s rescue of the four education bills, no education issues are expected to be part of the special session.)

Tuesday night’s House problems were keyed to the fact that the state constitution requires bills receive preliminary and final floor consideration on different days. All of the orphan bills were scheduled for preliminary consideration Tuesday, meaning they had to pass by midnight in order to receive final votes Wednesday.

House Republican leaders didn’t want to bring the civil unions bill to the floor, where it was expected to pass. The game of political chicken with Democrats lead to a recess that kept representatives off the floor for much of Tuesday evening, running out the clock for civil unions and 30 other bills.

For the record

Here are other education bills of note that crossed the finish line on the last day of 2012 session:

• House Bill 12-1261 – $4,800 stipends for nationally board certified teachers who work in high-need schools
• House Bill 12-1350 – Resident tuition eligibility for some military dependents
• Senate Bill 12-051 – Suggested contracting procedures for school districts
• House Bill 12-1043 – Updating of concurrent enrollment law

Also receiving final approval was House Bill 12-1086, which ratifies a large number of new state agency rules, including teacher evaluation appeals but not including parent notification of teacher arrests.

Rumors were rife at the Capitol this morning that Senate Democrats might try to graft dead bills onto other measures that are still alive. Possible maneuvers include attaching the school discipline bill onto an education laws cleanup measure. The school finance act also could be target of otherwise-unlikely amendments.

The dead bills include:

Senate Bill 12-172, which would have required the State Board of Education to commit Colorado to one of two groups developing multi-state achievement tests in language arts and math.

Senate Bill 12-046, which would have eliminated most zero-tolerance school discipline requirements, given school districts more flexibility in discipline and encouraged schools to reduce use of expulsions, suspensions and referrals to police.

Senate Bill 12-047, which would have provided state funding to districts that chose to administer basic skills testing such as the Accuplacer to high school students.

Senate Bill 12-164, which would have modernized state regulation of for-profit colleges that offer bachelors and graduate degrees and added some consumer protections for students.

The discipline and higher education bills were the products of extensive negotiations and development by lawmakers, state officials and interest group, so months of work have been wasted. Failure to pass the bills isn’t necessarily disruptive for state schools or colleges, but it does delay reforms sought by a wide variety of policymakers and groups.

The state constitution requires that bills receive preliminary and final floor consideration on different days. All of these bills were scheduled for preliminary consideration Tuesday, meaning they had to pass by midnight in order to receive final votes today, the last day of the 2012 session. A total of 31 bills suffered the same fate, according to our partners at State Bill Colorado.

Senate Bil 12-068, the proposed ban on added trans fats in school foods, did get preliminary House approval Tuesday evening. The two biggest education bills of the session, the 2012-13 school finance act and the early childhood literacy bill, were not affected by the impasse.

House Republican leaders didn’t want to bring the civil unions bill to the floor, where it was expected to pass. The game of political chicken with Democrats kept representatives off the floor for much of Tuesday evening, running out the clock for civil unions and the other bills.

Some lawmakers are urging Gov. John Hickenlooper to call a special session for consideration of the civil unions bill. It’s unknown if he will do that, or if he will include other issues if he does.

Historically, special sessions are limited to consideration of one issue, or to very few. The governor’s formal written “call” for a special session limits the subjects to be covered, so crafting a call that includes multiple topics but excludes other issues could be tricky.

Sen. Mike Johnston (right) pitches his amendment to the school finance bill while sponsor Sen. Bob Bacon listens.

Last week Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, persuaded the Senate Education Committee to add $6 million for the program to the school finance act, House Bill 12-1345. But the Senate Appropriations Committee stripped that money from the bill on Monday.

Johnston was at the Senate microphone today with a compromise version of the idea, costing only $3 million. School districts could voluntarily apply to the Department of Education for funds, and the program would have a preference for low achieving and Title I schools.

The full Senate bought Johnston’s lower-cost version and then passed the bill on a voice vote. The additional money brings the full cost of the literacy bill to $24 million in its first year. A final vote will come Wednesday, the last day of the legislative session, and the House will have to consider the Senate amendments.

Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, fought a losing rearguard action against the Johnston amendment, complaining that the spending should have been considered during the regular budget process. He argued that because the school finance act is moving after the main state budget (that bill was signed Monday) education advocates are loading extras onto the school finance act.

“This bill should have passed out of here two months ago. … It’s been hijacked, and it’s become a Christmas tree,” Lambert complained.

The bill authorizes spending of $5.3 billion on K-12 operating costs in 2012-13. That puts average per-pupil funding at $6,474.24, the same as this year. But many school districts still will see budget cuts anyway because of rising costs.

The total amount is still 16 percent below what total funding would be without use of what’s called the negative factor. That’s a calculation used to reduce school spending to the amount necessary to balance the overall state budget. The finance bill is the legislation that activates the negative factor. School funding is now $1 billion below what it would have been if that factor hadn’t been used in recent years.

Other key provisions – the ornaments on the Christmas tree that Lambert mentioned – of the finance act are:

• An increase from $5 to $6 million in the amount allocated to charter schools on a per-pupil basis to help cover facilities costs.
• A $1.3 million appropriation to boards of cooperative education services to help fund implementation of various state education reform initiatives.
• The addition of $480,000 to the Colorado Counselor Corps on top of $4.5 million in the main budget bill.
• A boost of $3.8 million in additional funding to charter schools that may have not been receiving at-risk support in proportion to the actual number of at-risk pupils they enroll. (Charters that have been receiving more at-risk money than their enrollment would indicate will continue to receive those funds.)

In other action

House Bill 12-1114 – This measure requires the Department of Education to contract for a comprehensive outside study of digital learning, both online and in-classroom. It’s pretty much the only piece of online legislation passed this year. The House accepted Senate amendments and re-passed the bill 65-0.

Senate Bill 12-036 – This measure requires parent consent for most kinds of surveys and non-academic questionnaires given to schoolchildren. The Senate agreed to House amendments and re-passed it 35-0.

The panels four Democrats voted to postpone the resolution indefinitely, while the three Republicans supported the measure.

Text of Monday story follows.

The Colorado House Monday afternoon passed House Joint Resolution 12-1023, which proposes that the legislature intervene in the Lobato v. State school funding case with a friend-of-the-court filing.

Also Monday, the multi-state testing bill passed out of a House committee, a Senate panel killed the proposed back-to-school sales tax holiday and Sen. Mike Johnston was dealt a setback on an amendment to the 2012-13 school funding bill.

Lobato discussion was measured and short

The lawyerly discussion on HJR 12-1023 was fairly brief – only half an hour – and focused on constitutional questions, not on the education funding issues raised by Lobato.

Gov. John Hickenlooper prepares to sign the 2012-13 budget bill Monday, flanked by lawmakers and aides.

It was the first time either House has had a formal floor discussion about the decision that was issued by Denver District Judge Sheila Rappaport last December, just before the 2012 legislative session convened.

House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, moved the resolution with a sympathetic rhetorical nod to the funding problems issues raised by the case but moved quickly to the constitutional question. Budgeting is “the sole prerogative of this elected body and the governor,” he said. Intervening in the case “does our part to defend that prerogative.”

Rappaport ruled that the school funding system is not rationally related to the state constitution’s requirement for a “thorough and uniform” education system, but she did not specify a remedy nor suggest an amount that would meet constitutional requirements. The ruling is on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, repeatedly stressed those elements of the ruling in arguing against the resolution, saying, “I disagree that the decision in the Lobato case impinges on our prerogatives.” She argued, “It is entirely appropriate for the courts to pass on the constitutionality of the laws we pass.”

But another Democrat, Sen. Dan Pabon, of Denver, supported the resolution, saying he’s worried that a supreme court ruling against the state could “break the separation of powers.”

Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, also argued for the resolution, saying court involvement in school funding “goes to the very question” of separation of powers and representative government. He also questioned “whether case should have been heard at all.”

The House chamber, which was kind of noisy earlier in the afternoon as members skipped around in a long calendar, was hushed during the Lobato discussion.

The resolution passed on a voice vote and was introduced in the Senate later in the afternoon. It was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to meet at 8 a.m. Tuesday. But the resolution isn’t on the Senate calendar as released Monday evening.

Get background on the Lobato case in the Education News Colorado archive.

Testing bill gets 8-5 House Ed approval

Time is precious during the last three days of the session, but the House Education Committee devoted nearly two hours to Senate Bill 12-172, a bill that would require the State Board of Education to commit Colorado to one of two groups that are developing multi-state achievement tests in language arts and math.

It’s pushed by Sen. Johnston and backed by the Hickenlooper administration. Johnston believes the multi-state tests will be higher quality that new Colorado-only tests, could be cheaper and will allow the performance of Colorado students to be compared to that of kids in other states.

A majority of the state board still leans toward developing Colorado-exclusive tests, and member Paul Lundeen, R-5th District, testified against the bill, calling it “a pig in a poke.” Get more background about the bill and the issue in this story.

Once the long list of witnesses was exhausted, the committee voted 8-5 to send the bill to the House floor. Republican Reps. Tom Massey of Poncha Springs and Ken Summers of Lakewood joined the six committee Democrats to pass the measure.

No go for sales tax holiday

Much-amended House Bill 12-1069, the proposed sales tax holiday for back-to-school purchases, was killed on a 9-0 vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, made a brief pitch for the bill, and then the committee did it in with no discussion.

The holiday wouldn’t have gone into effect until 2014 at the earliest, would have lasted for only two years and would have applied to only a limited amount of certain purchases on the first weekend of August.

Extra money for literacy software axed

Senate Appropriations did pass the 2012-13 school finance act, 9-0. But the full Senate didn’t take up the bill later, leaving it for Tuesday, the second-to-the-last day of the session.

The bill authorizes spending of $5.3 billion on K-12 operating costs in 2012-13. The amount is still 16 percent below what total funding would be without use of what’s called the negative factor. That’s a calculation used to reduce school spending to the amount necessary to balance the overall state budget. The finance bill is the legislation that activates the negative factor.

A late amendment that was added last week during a chaotic Senate Education Committee meeting last week was stripped Monday by the appropriations committee on a 6-3 vote.

Pushed by Johnston, a Denver Democrat, the amendment would have spent $6.1 million to pay for state acquisition of a computer system that teachers could use to administer literacy assessments to K-3 students. The system also would generate individual reading plans and instructional materials for struggling students. Use of the program would have been voluntary for schools.

The system was to be used to help districts implement the early literacy program that would be established by House Bill 12-1238, which is awaiting House review of Senate amendments.

“We want teachers to get data much earlier,” Johnston told the committee, noting that such work has to be done by hand now. “I think it’s not only an essential part of the literacy bill but essential for literacy instruction in K-3 throughout the state.”

But Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, moved to strike the spending from the school finance bill, saying, “In my opinion this expenditure is premature” and should have been brought up earlier during the budget process.

Committee chair Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, said he opposed the Johnston plan because it would take additional money from the State Education Fund, which many lawmakers and the administration are trying to protect in order to provide backstop funding for schools in 2013-14.

In a related development, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the 2012-13 state budget, House Bill 12-1335. The governor and several lawmakers used the signing ceremony to tout the bipartisan nature of the bill and how the budget better serves programs like K-12 schools and higher education than did the cut-back budgets of the last three years.

Time may run out for college transparency bill

Rep. B.J. Nikkel’s string of government transparency laws seems to have run out with the delay Monday of her House Bill 12-1252, which would have required some state colleges and universities to post extensive amounts of financial information online.

The Loveland Republican, who isn’t running for reelection, is the author of state laws requiring online posting of financial information by the general state government and the Department of Transportation.

Her higher education proposal has gone through various versions – some applied to all colleges and some to just research universities – and has been hanging around in committee while she tried to build support.

It came up on the House floor Monday afternoon, went through much debate and amendment and then was laid over until Tuesday by House Majority Leader Amy Stephens, R-Monument. Even if it were to get preliminary approval Tuesday, the bill could well die because Wednesday is the last day of the legislative session, meaning there might not be time for the Senate to consider it.

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.

School finance – The $5.3 billion school funding bill for 2012-13 has a Senate committee hearing Monday morning, meaning preliminary floor debate could come later in the day, with final passage Tuesday. House Bill 12-1345 will then return to the House for consideration of Senate amendments. While the funding plan at the center of the bill isn’t in dispute, the measure could be a vehicle for “statement” amendments intended to spark floor debate over the Lobato v. State school funding case.

Literacy – The much-amended, much-compromised House Bill 12-1238 is intended to improve outcomes for K-3 students who struggle with reading. It’s awaiting House approval of Senate amendments.

Testing – Senate Bill 12-172 would require the State Board of Education to commit Colorado to one of two multi-state testing programs. It’s the only major education bill that still faces its first House committee hearing. This is one that could go down to the wire on Wednesday.

Discipline – The first House floor consideration of Senate Bill 12-046 is scheduled for Monday, meaning that if all goes smoothly final passage could come on Tuesday. There’s little disagreement over the bill’s policy goal of eliminating most school zero-tolerance policies, and it appears that concerns have been eased about the bill’s data-reporting requirements.

Sales tax holiday – House Bill 12-1069 also needs Senate Committee review and then two floor votes. There’s a bit of uncertainty lingering over the holiday for back-to-school purchases, but the bill does have strong bipartisan sponsorship in the Senate.

Trans fats – Senate Bill 12-068, which would ban added trans fats in some school foods, is to have its first House floor debate Monday. There’s not a lot of lawmaker enthusiasm for this measure, but it’s been significantly watered down in order to reduce opposition.

Catching up

Here’s an update on the fate of some other education bills considered late last week.

House Bill 12-1333 – This Republican bill, which would have allowed teachers to withdraw from unions at any time, rather than only during specified periods, was killed on a 3-2 party-line vote early Thursday morning in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

House Bill 12-1306 – This proposal would have allowed school districts that gained students after the Oct. 1 count date to seek extra per-pupil funding from the Department of Education at the end of the school year. Republicans Sen. Keith King of Colorado Springs and Rep. Chris Holbert of Parker introduced the bill in response to criticisms that large numbers of online school dropouts were returning to regular schools that weren’t receiving funding for them.

During the draining Senate Education Committee meeting Thursday night, King again mentioned legislative staff research that indicated the problem was a small one and then asked that the bill be killed, saying he’d made his point. (King also had concerns that Democrats might try to amend provisions onto the bill that he didn’t want.)

House Bill 12-179 – This measure was an attempt by Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass, to deflect criticism from the Building Excellent Schools Today program. Some BEST projects have had construction deficiencies linked to a Fort Collins engineering firm. It would have changed review of construction plans and also altered the BEST board. Education lobbyists didn’t like the bill, the Senate Education Committee wrestled with it twice and the Senate Appropriations Committee killed it during a brief late-afternoon meeting on Friday.

The calendar

Here’s the schedule of education bills as issued by legislative staff on Friday. Consider it an approximation, because things can be fluid during the last days. Check here for links to the full calendars of all bills, resolutions and other business.

MONDAY

10 a.m. – House final consideration

• Senate Bill 12-160 – Membership of state parent advisory council

House preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1109 – Budget cuts elsewhere in state government to fund education
• Senate Bill 12-051 – Suggested contracting procedures for school districts
• Senate Bill 12-068 – Ban on added trans fats in some school foods
• Senate Bill 12-046 – Reform of school discipline policies

House consideration of resolutions

• HJR 12-1023 – Legislative legal intervention in Lobato v. State

10 a.m. – Senate preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1240 – Education law cleanup bill, including some CAP4K delays

Upon floor adjournment – House Appropriations Committee, room TBA

• Consideration of bills as assigned, such as late-moving Senate measures

Upon floor adjournment – Senate Appropriations Committee, room 356

• House Bill 12-1345 – School finance act
• House Bill 12-1261 – Stipends for board-certified teachers in high-needs schools
• House Bill 12-1069 – Back-to-school sales tax holiday

1:30 p.m. – House Education Committee, room 0112

• Senate Bill 12-172 – Multistate testing

TUESDAY

9 a.m. – House preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1252 – Online financial transparency requirements for some universities
• Senate Bill 12-164 – Regulation of for-profit colleges

9 a.m. – Senate preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-14 – Technical measure on dental hygienist degrees
• House Bill 12-1155 – Reform of higher education remediation methods

WEDNESDAY

Whatever’s left over

Both chambers, particularly the House, have amendments to consider before final re-passage of bills. The most important measure on this list is the literacy bill, and none are expected to be contentious. Here’s the lineup:

House consideration of Senate amendments

• House Bill 12-1081 – Financial flexibility powers of Auraria Higher Education Center
• House Bill 12-1324 – Admissions standards of Colorado Mesa University
• House Bill 12-1124 – Commissioning of digital learning study
• House Bill 12-1043 – Concurrent enrollment modifications
• House Bill 12-1086 – Ratification of state agency regulations, including SB 10-191 appeals rules
• House Bill 12-1238 – Early literacy

Senate consideration of House amendments

• Senate Bill 12-036 – Requirement of parent consent for most school surveys

The Senate also still has to vote on numerous gubernatorial appointments, including positions on the Metro State and Western State trustees and the boards of the community college system, CollegeInvest and the Charter School Institute Board.

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.

The Senate Education Committee meeting on May 3 started out calmly enough with a school finance briefing by Sen. Bob Bacon and Leeanne Emm of the Department of Education.

The move was the highlight of a chaotic, at times bizarre, five-hour meeting that saw the Senate Education Committee jumping back and forth between bills and even revisiting measures it had voted on the day before.

The session also included a lecture on the proper use of commas by vice chair Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, and it ended with a weepy farewell by committee members to three members who won’t be in the Senate next year.

But the centerpiece of the marathon was House Bill 12-1245, the bill that proposes $5.3 billion in school total program funding next year and keeps average statewide per pupil funding at the same level as this year – $6,474.24. It would be the first time in several years that average per-pupil funding hasn’t been cut, and the bill was the product of extensive legislative work and negotiations (see this item for more details).

Senate Ed chair Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, Thursday proposed an amendment that would have added a section to the bill calling for a study of the cost to comply with last year’s Lobato v. State ruling by Denver District Judge Sheila Rappaport. The case is on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. (See the Lobato archive for background.)

“The court ordered the legislature to design a new school finance system. Have we been doing that? No,” Bacon said.

But Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, wasn’t comfortable with the wording of Bacon’s proposed amendment, saying it focused too narrowly on the cost of recent reform mandates and not on the total cost of an effective education system.

Bacon said he understood the criticism, and the committee set the finance bill aside while legislative staff members – and education lobbyists – crafted some new language.

After stumbling through several other bills, the committee returned to the issue 90 minutes later.

Johnston liked the new language drafted by legislative lawyer Julie Pelegrine, but then a bigger objection surfaced.

Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs / File photo

Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, had just returned to the hearing room after presenting a bill in another committee.

The Lobato case is “in the courts, and the courts are going to make that decision,” said King, who testified as a witness for the state during last August’s trial. “I don’t think the legislature at this time can do a cost study … I think this has the potential to blow up the school finance act.”

Bacon replied, “Judge Rappaport did say we needed to make a start on it … there is some thought in this building that we have been given a charge by the judge to do something.”

King said, “I would just encourage you to withdraw this amendment … because I think it will taint the appeals process.”

“I hear you carefully, and I don’t want to blow up the entire act. … I will withdraw it now, but I can’t guarantee I won’t offer it again, or someone else will offer it,” Bacon said. The legislature has four working days left in the 2012 session.

Opinions about the Lobato case have a partisan tone in the legislature because Republicans generally oppose the judge’s ruling while Democrats support it.

Some Democrats have been agitating for the legislature to pay more attention to the case, which has received scant mention during the 2012 session. However, earlier this week House Republican leaders introduced a resolution that calls for the legislature to intervene in the case on the state’s side.

The state’s written appeal brief is due to the Colorado Supreme Court next month, and the high court could rule as early as next autumn.

Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, demonstrated the proper use of commas.

After the school finance issue was settled, Hudak provided a light but odd note when she took “a moment of personal privilege” and launched into one of her pet peeves – misuse of commas in a series. The former English teacher had spotted an error in a staff document and proceeded to a chalkboard in the hearing room to scratch out an example of proper usage.

Lobbyists, punchy from the long hearing, guffawed and took pictures of Hudak with their phones.

And at the end of the long session, members got a little misty-eyed as they bid farewell to three veteran members who are leaving the legislature. Those are Bacon, King and Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, who have been major figures on education issues for years. It was the committee’s last scheduled meeting of the 2012 session.

In the works since last summer, the bill was initially controversial because of concerns that it placed too much emphasis on retention of third graders with low reading skills.

But extensive Senate amendments gave the bill a form that was praised by Democrats and Republicans alike in final remarks before the vote.

House sponsor Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, was involved in the Senate negotiations, and the amended bill is expected to be approved by the House in the session’s waning days.

Text of Thursday story follows, including details on bill provisions.

The Colorado Senate Thursday gave preliminary voice vote approval to House Bill 12-1238, the early childhood literacy measure that is the highest profile education bill of the 2012 session.

The measure passed without amendments, despite efforts by Democratic Sens. Evie Hudak of Westminster and Irene Aguilar of Denver to tweak the definition of retention in the bill. The motions prompted a long semantic debate over whether the bill improperly defines retention as an educational “intervention.”

Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, argued against the amendments. “What this bill is about is trying to get kids to read by the end of the third grade,” he said, “I hope that we don’t get caught up in the semantics of this because that’s not what this bill is about.”

The Senate started to debate the bill at mid-morning, but discussion was delayed until afternoon because copies of a lengthy committee amendment hadn’t been distributed to senators.

After passing the House, what’s now called the Colorado READ Act faced barriers in the Senate, given a skeptical Democratic leadership and lobbying from school district interests who saw the bill as too restrictive and underfunded.

But major amendments approved last week by the Senate State Affairs Committee seemed to meet most of the concerns about the bill. Heath was a major driver behind the amendments.

“We did the best we could to change the tone of this bill so that this is a literacy bill,” Heath said on the floor Thursday.

Here are the key elements of the amended literacy bill:

• A focus on students with a “significant reading deficiency” (to be defined by the State Board of Education). The House version of the bill also covered students with “reading deficiencies,” defined as those reading below grade level but above the level of significant deficiency. With the new focus, the bill is expected to apply to about 24,000 students statewide.

• Use of interest revenue from the state school lands permanent fund to provide about $16 million in per-pupil funding (about $700 per student) to districts working with students who have significant reading deficiencies. The House version of the bill included about $5 million in funding. That’s retained in the Senate version, to be used for professional development grants, putting the total price tag at about $21 million. If the bill passes it would be the first significant education reform bill in the last five years with significant funding. Proposed changes in the bill’s legislative declaration specifically note the need for financial resources.

• Easing of some of the more detailed requirements for parent consultation and notification contained in the House version.

• While the proposed amendments retain specific references to retention as an option for struggling readers, the language is somewhat softened compared to the House version. Superintendent review of retention decisions for third graders remains in the bill, but parents would have veto power over retention of students in kindergarten through second grade.

• Addition of specific interventions, such as enrollment in full-day kindergarten, summer school and tutoring, for K-3 students with reading problems. Districts would have to use those tactics to qualify for the per-pupil funding.

Tax holiday bill squeaks out of committee

After chewing on it for more than an hour, the Senate Finance Committee approved House Bill 12-1069 on a 4-3 vote. The measure is the proposed sales tax holiday for back-to-school purchases.

The bill goes next to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where there are likely to be questions about the estimated $4.5 million state revenue loss that measure would cause. And two Finance members who voted yes, chair Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, and Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, indicated they still have concerns about the bill.

The finance panel did amend the bill so the holiday would occur during only two years, rather than the five years in the House version of the measure.

The tax holiday would kick off in the first calendar year after state personal income grows by 5.0 percent. That’s expected to happen in 2013, meaning the first holiday would be in 2014. The tax break would cover school supplies not exceeding $50, clothing not exceeding $75 and computers not exceeding $1,000 and would be available during a three-day period every August.

The break applies only to the 2.9 percent state sales tax. Cities and counties could choose whether or not to participate.

The controversial regulation requires prompt notification of parents when school employees are arrested.

In other action, the Senate Education Committee gutted a late-starting bill affecting the state Capital Construction Assistance Board, which runs the Building Excellent Schools Today program. And major bills on statewide testing and school discipline advanced.

Parent notice gambit dies on party-line vote

The latest episode in the long-running melodrama over the State Board of Education’s April 2011 parent notice rule came in the Senate with a proposed amendment involving House Bill 12-1086, this year’s version of the annual omnibus rules review bill. (Regulations issued by state agencies automatically expire in May, unless they are made permanent by the bill.)

The Legislative Legal Services Committee last December failed to approve the parent notification rule on a tie vote, thereby marking it for expiration. (See this story for details on that meeting and on the long saga of the rule.)

SBE Chair Bob Schaffer, R-4th District, has been pushing the rule for two years. Earlier this session Republicans in the House Education Committee attempted to give the board power to issue the rule in an amendment to a routine cleanup of education laws (see story). But that change was stripped by another House panel.

Wednesday, Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, attempted to amend the rules review bill to include ratification of the parent notice rule.

“This rule is within the State Board of Education’s general overview of instruction,” Brophy argued. “I think we should correct the decision of the Legislative Legal Services Committee.”

Senate Majority Leader John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, pushed back, saying, “We spent a lot of time going through this and decided not to do this. Respect the process.” Morse was chairing legal services last December when the SBE’s rule died.

Brophy’s amendment got the votes of the Senate’s 15 Republicans but failed because all 20 Democrats voted no.

Incidentally, the rules review bill also contains legislative ratification of the recent SBE regulations for appeals by teachers who receive two consecutive ineffective or partially effective evaluations. (Get background on that issue in this story.)

Key sections excised from BEST bill

Sen. Gail Schwartz’ Senate Bill 12-179 emerged from the Senate Education Committee Wednesday considerably shorter than it was when the hearing started.

The measure, introduced less than a week ago, was seen as an attempt by the Snowmass Democrat to shore up the reputation of the Building Excellent Schools Today program in the wake of a long-running Denver Post series about school construction problems linked to the Neenan Co. of Fort Collins. Some schools financed by BEST were among those with engineering problems.

There were two key parts of SB 12-179. The first would have had the effect of shifting engineering review of many school building plans from the state Division of Fire Safety to local building departments. Schwartz was mildly critical of the division during the hearing, saying, “There is really a problem we have with plan reviews” by the state.

Another part of the bill would have set strict conflict-of-interest rules for the nine-member BEST board, rules that skeptics felt would have made it impossible to fill seats that require school engineering, architectural and construction experience.

“You couldn’t get enough people to serve,” said Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs. “I think banning them from the board entirely is problematic,” said Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster. The board has formal conflict-of-interest rules that bar members from discussing or voting on projects in which their employer may have an interest.)

The 2008 BEST law sets detailed education and construction requirements for members of the construction board, which is filled through a complicated set of appointments by the governor, the State Board of Education and legislative leaders. The Schwartz bill did not attempt to change any of those original board requirements.

Schwartz sat tight-lipped through the Senate Ed hearing, saying at one point that she thanked “the committee for your thoughtfulness.”

On King’s motion the committee removed the two sections on a unanimous vote and then passed the slenderized bill on a 6-1 vote.

The bill has caused a fair amount of behind-the-scenes heartburn for education lobbyists and BEST supporters, who felt it was unnecessary and problematic.

Intrigue over BEST may not be over, and sources expect another bill proposing to change or cap the program’s revenue still will be introduced, even though the 2012 session has only five working days left.

Broad support for multistate testing bill

The Senate Wednesday gave final 31-4 approval to Senate Bill 12-172, which would require the State Board of Education to commit to one of two groups that are developing multistate achievement tests in language arts and math. Such tests would be based on the Common Core Standards, which have been adopted by the state board.

Sponsor Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, argues that the multistate tests will be higher quality and perhaps cheaper than Colorado-only tests, which is what some members of the state board want. (See this story for background.)

The House Education Committee is expected to take up the testing bill on Monday afternoon, meaning the measure – if it gets that far – might not get a final House floor vote until Wednesday, the last day of the 2012 session.

Discipline bill gets easy committee OK

House Education Wednesday gave 13-0 approval to Senate Bill 12-046, the school discipline reform bill that would roll back most zero-tolerance policies. Supporters of the bill believe that such policies have led to excessive use of expulsions, out-of-school suspensions and referrals to police, in turn leading to high school dropout rates.

Get more background on the bill here, and you can listen to archived audio of the committee meeting here.

Other bills on the move

Stipend bill gets a haircut: Senate Education passed House Bill 12-1261, the bill that proposed to give stipends to nationally board certified teachers and additional money to such teachers who work in high-needs schools.

But, on the motion of chair Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, the bill was amended to provide $2,000 annual stipends only to teachers at high-needs schools, not to all such teachers.

Name change trifecta: The Senate gave 32-3 final approval to House Bill 12-1331, the measure to change Western State College to Western State Colorado University. That brings to three the number of colleges elevated to university status this session. Metro State and Adams State name changes were approved earlier. Mesa State was upgraded to Colorado Mesa University last year, so Fort Lewis in Durango is now the only four-year state school with college in its name. Officials there have no plans for a name change.

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.