A bill that would have ended CSAP tests in high school as well as CSAP writing tests died Monday in a Senate committee.
House Bill 1357 would have replaced the high school tests with tests linked to the ACT college admissions exam. In that respect, it is similar to another measure still alive in the legislature: Senate Bill 212, which would align all K-12 education standards with college entrance requirements.
Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton, said the state is currently over-complying with federal assessment standards, and she wanted to take some of the money saved by eliminating the writing tests to let districts develop their own tests.
Health care bills suffer blows.
Two health care bills walked a tightrope at the legislature Monday, teetering close to death.
House Bill 1410, which would make insurance companies cover colorectal cancer screenings, and House Bill 1411, which would ban insurance companies from paying doctors to prescribe cheaper generic drugs, were sent back to Senate committees. That makes their path out of the legislature in the final two days exceedingly difficult.
Foes said HB 1410 needed further study, and opponents said HB 1411 could have unintended consequences.
School funding bill sidelined.
In a spat with the Senate, the House on Monday shot down the annual bill funding Colorado’s public schools, legislation that included expanding full-day kindergarten.
It’s a quarrel everyone agrees will be resolved before lawmakers adjourn Wednesday, but the rejection of House Bill 1388 showed the tension that can come in the final days of the session.
“Part of it is that there’s a feeling the Senate has gotten everything it wants and the House hasn’t,” said Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, who led the opposition to the school finance bill.
The move was mostly a message to the Senate that the House wanted more concessions on the bill. House leaders quickly moved to set up another conference committee with the Senate, expected to meet today.
