The Senate Education Committee has passed a heavily amended version Senate Bill 191, the controversial reform bill that would change the way teachers receive and retain tenure.
The committee voted 7-1 for the bill. Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, was the lone holdout.
The committee voted on the bill offered by Sen. Michael Johnston, D-Denver, after two and half hours of debate. The committee heard hours of testimony on Wednesday and Thursday.
The bill goes to appropriations on Monday, the full Senate on Tuesday with second reading anticipated on Wednesday. The House Education Committee meets next on Thursday and may take up the bill then.
Several hundred teachers protested the bill at the capitol this morning before the committee began its debate at 1:30 p.m.
Lines were clearly drawn in the committee hearings on the bill, which would tie teacher evaluation to student academic growth and change how teachers obtain and keep tenure.
Dennis Van Roekel, president of the 3.2 million-member National Education Association, voiced his displeasure about an evaluation system that focuses on standardized tests.
The bill calls for 50 percent of an annual evaluation for teachers and principals to be tied to student academic growth on assessments. It was a refrain repeated by local union presidents from Jefferson County and Denver public schools as well as a number of teachers.
Supporters of the bill included superintendents, business members, former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, teachers, principals and students.
Harrison School District Superintendent Mike Miles called the bill a paradigm shift.
Aurora Public Schools Superintendent John Barry — who signed a letter of support along with 22 other Denver-area superintendents — said evaluation and tenure must be linked.
“You cannot divorce these two strategic principles,” he said. “Evaluation and tenure change must occur together. They are like the motor and the pulley.”
Jane Urschel, deputy executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards, supported the bill because she said it creates a systemic change.
“With this bill we have a chance to build a new system to professionalize the practice of teaching and educating,” she said. “You heard from superintendents that this is not a question of resources. It’s using resources differently and using time differently.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367
