Less-stringent curriculum bill
Lawmakers seeking a tougher statewide math and science curriculum are lowering their proposed graduation requirements in an attempt to keep the measure alive.
The bill now would require three years each of math and science to graduate from high school instead of the originally proposed four years.
Also, students could test out of course requirements if they did well enough on statewide tests in their sophomore year.
The Republican sponsors of the bill, Rep. Rob Witwer of Jefferson County and Sen. Josh Penry of Grand Junction, offered the diluted version Tuesday after realizing the bill was doomed in the Democrat-controlled House Education Committee.
“This is our effort to have substantial graduation requirements this year,” Witwer said. “There is no more need to study the problem. We know our kids are falling behind.”
But Rep. Michael Merrifield, the Colorado Springs Democrat who chairs the House Education Committee, still hates the bill.
“It’s assuming that the only valuable curriculum- study areas are math and science and denigrates all the other areas, including the arts,” said Merrifield, who is against “indoctrinating every child into the same curriculum.”
Senate Bill 131 has passed the Senate. It’s scheduled for a Thursday hearing before the House Education Committee.
Smoking-ban issues remain
State lawmakers won’t clarify which bars will be exempt from the statewide smoking ban this year.
On Tuesday, Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, asked a Senate committee to kill House Bill 1108 because there wasn’t enough time left in the session to work out all the issues.
Cigar bars, along with casinos and the smoking lounge at Denver International Airport, were exempt from the ban that took effect last summer. Some bars that sold a lot of cigarettes before the law took effect argued that they qualified as cigar bars.
The bill, which had been approved by the House, said only sales of cigar or cigar tobacco, not cigarettes, would make a bar eligible for the exemption.
Lawmakers are still considering whether to ban smoking in casinos. Last week, the Senate said that shouldn’t happen until cigar bars and the airport smoking lounge also go smoke-free, but supporters are still hoping to get rid of that amendment.
Limits on concealed-gun permits
The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved a measure barring Colorado residents from getting concealed-weapons permits from other states.
Out-of-state visitors would be allowed to use only permits issued by their home states, not a third state, under Senate Bill 34, which goes to the full House for debate.
House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, said she was concerned because people who were denied permits in Colorado were able to get them elsewhere. She said opponents of her bill “don’t like Colorado law. They want to go around it and get permits elsewhere.”
Hiring fewer judges weighed
Lawmakers are considering hiring only 43 judges – 20 less than originally planned – so there will be more money for highways.
The judges would be hired over three years and would cost the state $15.3 million a year, including their staff.
More money also would come from raising court filing fees, which means less would be diverted from transportation funds under the state’s complicated budget laws.
A Senate panel backed the compromise Tuesday.
Supporters of hiring more judges have said the courts need to catch up with the state’s population growth and that companies consider a state’s legal climate when deciding where to do business.
Can we quote you on that?
“We’re going to have to cut the drinking off earlier in the morning.”
– Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Larimer County, after a reporter stumbled in front of his desk
