<\/p>\n
DENVER \u2013 Colorado\u2019s working parents may have an increased opportunity to attend academic activities for their children in the K-12 system.<\/p>\n
House Bill 1001 would reintroduce a portion of the Parental Involvement in K-12 Education Act that sunsetted in 2015. The act required employers to allow workers to take up to 18 hours of unpaid leave during an academic year in increments of up to three hours to attend \u201cparent-teacher conferences or meetings related to special education services, interventions, dropout prevention, attendance, truancy, or discipline issues,\u201d according to the bill.<\/p>\n
The bill passed 7-5 in the Colorado House Education Committee. Those opposed questioned whether parents were truly unable to make such meetings, if it should be on the employers to facilitate the time, if the school districts should increase their flexibility, and if the government should be so heavily involved in the relationship between employers and employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the government\u2019s role is not to be able to tell the employer how to treat their employees,\u201d said Rep. Tim Leonard, R-Evergreen.<\/p>\n
The bill\u2019s sponsor, Rep. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, disagreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy feeling is there are certain areas where I do feel the government needs to help us make some decisions. For example parental involvement. I do feel that every parent should be able to leave work to go to their kid\u2019s academic activities,\u201d Buckner said.<\/p>\n
Arguments for the bill included the importance of parent involvement in the educational process, and the need to positively reinforce academic activities in the same way as athletic events, despite athletics falling during inconvenient times of day.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody really says \u2018you can\u2019t go to their football game or soccer game or whatever.\u2019 But often times the academics take place in the middle of the day,\u201d said Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango.<\/p>\n
Xavier Manzanares, 10, a fifth-grader at Adventure Elementary in Denver, told the committee about occasions when his parents were unable to attend academic activities such as a science fair and a field trip to the Museum of Nature and Science \u2013 or to the committee hearing on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here today with my grandma because my mom and dad could not take time off work to come see me speak,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m asking you to please pass the parental involvement bill so my mom and dad can come see me at school. I would be so happy to see my mom and dad at the science fair this year so they could be proud of me, and at my parent-teacher conferences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, a similar bill was passed by the House before being killed in the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, Buckner said.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s bill might have a tough time passing the Republican-controlled Senate, but Buckner said she is hopeful.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited that this is getting out of the (education committee), and it\u2019s going to the committee of the whole, and then we\u2019ll see what happens in the Senate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The House Education Committee also passed H.B. 1041, which encourages schools to inform parents and students of job opportunities available as a result of their education and pathways to technical professions.<\/p>\n
It was amended to remove duplicative language and refocused to encourage schools to discuss with students and parents the opportunities available in the military, and to provide students information on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.<\/p>\n
The test \u201cmeasures developed abilities and helps predict future academic and occupational success in the military,\u201d according the official website for the ASVAB test.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ASVAB covers all different aspects of mechanics, math, reading, all the different basic skills I think you are suppose to have or acquired by the time you are maybe a junior or senior in high school, and so it really helps put the laser on where your students are doing well and what portion of their education needs to be shored up a little bit before we send them out into the world and the workforce or the military,\u201d said Rep. Phil Covarrubias, R-Brighton, said.<\/p>\n
The bill was reworked because of the amount of opportunities already available for students to explore technical trades, Covarrubias said.<\/p>\n
lperkins@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n DENVER \u2013 Between the Colorado state Senate and House of Representative seven bills passed third and final readings and will be transferred between the two chambers. Also, 11 were adopted after second reading Educational opportunity bill encourages military service discussions in schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[94,14,21,155,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-68110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-colorado-state-house-of-representatives","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68110"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=68110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gun-training bill goes to House<\/h4>\n
\n Among the bills that will switch chambers was Senate Bill 5, which creates a third exemption to the prohibition for concealed firearms on school campuses and would establish a minimum standard to which school employees have to be trained to carry a firearm at work.
\n After much debate Friday, the bill passed along party lines with an 18-17 vote that saw the Republicans use their majority to move the bill to the House.
\n The future of the measure is bleak because it lacks a Democratic sponsor in the House, where Democrats hold a 37-28 majority.
\n Among bills clearing second reading was S.B. 59, which will remove the need to use turn signals while navigating roundabouts.
\n \u201cIt\u2019s maybe not the biggest issue pressing us in the state of Colorado, but our traffic law needs to make sense, and in one area it doesn\u2019t make sense, and that is the requirement of the use of turn signals in roundabouts,\u201d Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said.
\n Current law requires turn signals at least 100 feet before a change of direction, which isn\u2019t always possible in these intersections, Lundberg said.
\n Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, said turn signals still provide some indication as to whether or not a driver is going to exit a roundabout, and they should be required.
\n \u201cI think people should have to use their turn signals so other people know what\u2019s going on, \u201c Jones said.
\n Also, eight bills were heard in committees, including:
\n S.B. 55, heard in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee, would create criminal penalties for employers that require union participation for employment.
\n It passed on a 4-3 party-line vote that saw Republicans vote to move Colorado toward the ranks of \u201cright to work\u201d states.
\n \u201cRight to work legislation puts Coloradans before special interests by creating more options and reducing costly, burdensome mandates some families simply cannot afford,\u201d said Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton.
\n S.B. 55 will be go to the Senate for second reading.
\n S.B. 120 would require citizenship for peace officers in Colorado.
\n \u201cIt is important that our law enforcement officials \u2013 who have power to arrest and authority to use force \u2013 possess a deep understanding and commitment to our system of laws, civil rights, and unique values,\u201d Sen. Bob Gardner. R-Colorado Springs, said.
\n Sen. Rhoda Fields, D-Aurora, voiced concern about how the measure impact communities that had already hired law enforcement officers who were not U.S. citizens.
\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen people come to this country that are just as committed to our Constitution and our values as the guy who was born here, and they do all they can to be productive, contributing, members to the society and want to be a part of the police force,\u201d Fields said.
\n For some areas, having peace officers who are not citizens is important to properly serving the populace, she said. \u201cI\u2019d like to see a police force that\u2019s reflective of the community.\u201d
\n lperkins@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"