The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce announced its position on four bills working their way through the Colorado General Assembly.
HB15-1323 Changes to Assessments in Public Schools/Rep. John Buckner (D-Aurora)
Summary: This bill is a bipartisan effort to implement recommended changes in assessment tests in Colorado schools. The bill implements many of the recommendations from the 1202 Standards and Assessments Task Force, including:
- Eliminating all state-mandated tests in 12th grade.
- Eliminating state-mandated tests in 11th grade, except for the ACT college entrance exam.
- Administering English language arts (ELA) and math assessments in 10th grade.
- Adjusting the schedule for kindergarten students taking READ Act assessments.
- Providing a paper-and-pencil option for all tests.
- Providing more information directly to parents to reduce student opt-outs.
- Holding all schools and districts harmless from penalties under the school and district performance accountability standards through the 2015-2016 school year.
- Streamlining school readiness assessments and reducing the number of required assessments to one per year, instead of three.
- Excusing non-English-proficient students who have been in a Colorado school less than one year from the state-mandated ELA assessments. Such students would take the ELA test in their second year, but their performance would not be included in accountability measures until the third year.
The Chamber supports HB15-1323. HB-1323 implements the testing reform recommendations of the 1202 Task Force, which we support. The Chamber has a long history of supporting reforms in our education system in Colorado. Our interest is helping ensure our children are effectively prepared for the workforce demands we see in the future to sustain our economic growth. This bill holds on to the reforms we’ve made to date that have made us a national leader in accountability while reducing the amount of time kids spend testing and aligns with the principles we support for assessing our kids. In order to prepare our students to succeed in the economy of today and tomorrow, we must retain high standards; assessments that allow us to compare students’ progress locally, nationally and internationally; and the ability for local school districts to manage their own curriculum. With strong statewide assessments comes data that can inform school choices for parents and students; the opportunity to identify weaknesses and intervene when a student needs remediation, ultimately saving parents, students and schools money; enhanced transparency through diverse local input from educators, parents and business and community leaders on standards and assessments; and understanding the outcomes of our education system. We believe that if we follow these principles, of which House Bill 1323 aligns, our children will be prepared to lead our workforce and economy in the future.
HB15-1251 PERA and Denver Pub Schools Five-Year True-up/Rep. Lois Court (D-Denver)
Summary: In 2009, the general assembly enacted legislation to merge the Denver Public Schools (DPS) retirement system into PERA (Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association). The merger legislation created a new DPS division within PERA, set the employer and member contribution rates for that division and required PERA to calculate a true-up employer contribution rate beginning Jan. 1, 2015. The employer contribution rate must be adjusted to equalize the DPS division’s ratio of unfunded liability over payroll to the PERA school division’s ratio by 2040. The PERA board is required to recommend that the general assembly adjust the DPS total employer rate to assure the equalization of the two divisions.
This bill reduces the total employer contribution rate for the DPS division from 13.75 percent to 10.15 percent, which is the same as the contribution rate of other PERA contributors from school districts across the state.
The Chamber supports HB15-1251 because it upholds an agreement made with DPS in 2009. The Chamber supported SB09-282, which merged the DPS Retirement System with PERA and the true-up provisions of that agreement. This bill is consistent with those true-up provisions. That said, the Chamber remains committed to finding long-term solutions to PERA’s liabilities.
HB15-1330 Social Cost of Carbon in Certain Fiscal Notes/Rep. Mike Foote (D-Lafayette)
Summary: The bill requires development of the “social cost of carbon” to be included in the fiscal note for an electricity generation bill or concurrent resolution that is expected to cause a significant increase or decrease in the generation of electricity from any source. The bill defines the “social cost of carbon” as consisting of:
- An estimate of the increase or decrease in carbon emissions that results from the measure; and
- A monetization of the change in carbon emissions, which may be expressed with a range.
The Chamber opposes HB15-1330 because the measurement of the “social cost of carbon” is ambiguous and subjective. Furthermore, it singles out specific industries for extraordinary state intervention—in this case specific modification to the development of fiscal notes for bills affecting electric generation. This bill also creates a significant change to the process by which we develop fiscal notes.
SB15-257 Education Standards and Assessments and Flexibility Pilot Program/Sen. Owen Hill (R-Colorado Springs) and Rep. Jon Becker (R-Fort Morgan)
Summary: The bill repeals the existing statute that governs state assessments and requires the state board to review and revise the standards on or before July 1, 2016, and then every six years. It restricts statewide testing to English language arts (ELA) and mathematics, testing annually in grades three through eight and once in grades 10 through 12. For science, testing annually in one elementary school grade, one middle school grade and one high school grade. The bill continues to require students enrolled in 11th grade to take the curriculum-based achievement exam adopted by the state board.
The bill also allows local districts to design and implement a pilot alternative accountability and assessment system, so long as the pilot system complies with federal requirements. If the pilot system meets federal requirements, the state board must waive any conflicting state statutory or regulatory requirements for the participating local education providers.
Under current law, each school district must ensure that at least 50 percent of the performance evaluation of teachers is based on student growth. For the 2014-15 school year, a school district may decide what percentage, if any, to give to student academic growth in deciding a teacher’s effectiveness rating. The bill extends this ability to decide the percentage of performance evaluations tied to student academic growth for three additional school years.
The Chamber opposes SB15-257. While we agree that time spent testing needs to be reduced, we can’t make that change at the cost of teacher, student and school accountability as this bill does. We have to hold on to the reforms we’ve made to date that have made us a national leader in accountability. In order to prepare our students to succeed in the economy of today and tomorrow, we must retain high standards; assessments that allow us to compare students’ progress locally, nationally and internationally; and the ability for local school districts to manage their own curriculum. With strong statewide assessments comes data that can inform school choices for parents and students; the opportunity to identify weaknesses and intervene when a student needs remediation, ultimately saving parents, students and schools money; enhanced transparency through diverse local input from educators, parents and business and community leaders on standards and assessments; and understanding the outcomes of our education system. We believe that if we follow these principles, our children will be prepared to lead our workforce and economy in the future.
Senate Bill 257 is contrary to these principles and conflicts with the recommendations of the 1202 Task Force.
Click here to view all the Chamber’s positions this session.
Jennifer Jones is the director of public affairs for the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
[Photo by: Ken Lund]