The House Education Committee advanced two education bills to Appropriations: HB 26-1055, a youth activity card pilot program funded entirely by gifts, grants, and donations, passed narrowly 7-5 after contentious debate over government role and funding guarantees; HB 26-1078, expanding off-campus concurrent enrollment to four-year institutions, passed 8-3 with sponsors still working to eliminate the fiscal note.
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Rep. Garcia Sander listed approximately 15 existing programs — including the Outdoor Equity Grant Program, Museums for All, Generation Wild, Boys and Girls Clubs, and others — and asked 'what is this bill supporting that isn't already supported through a wide variety of things that the Colorado state Legislature has already provided?' Vernon Jones responded that the bill addresses a 'silo mentality' and would create navigation to coordinate the ecosystem, challenging the committee to 'Google search really quick how many actual kids are being served by all those programs' and arguing that if it is not 100%, 'that means we still have work to do.'
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“I have buried more children under the age of 18 than I can bear with my heart, 17 to be exact, right from the ages of 10 to 18 over the last 10 years. And those kids did not have the ecosystem support that they needed.”
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Sign in to subscribeThe Education Committee will come to order. Mr. Beck, please call the roll. Representatives Bacon. Excused. Bradfield. Here. Flinell. Excused. Garcia. Sander. Present. Gilchrist. Here. Amrick. Here. Hartsook. Here. Johnson. Here. Phillips. Excused. Stuart Kay. Here. Story. Here. Martinez. Here. Madam Chair. Here. Okay, we are starting with House Bill 1055. Our bill sponsors are here. Who would like to start? Rep. Lindsey. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Education Committee. I haven't been here in a while, so it's nice to get to see you all in this capacity. It's nice to get to be working on some legislation that would even need to come here in this case, things that I care about, like impacting young people. And so we're very happy to be here today. Representative Win and I to present House Bill 1055, which is loosely named the My Colorado Card Bill. If anybody is lives in Denver or adjacent, you may be familiar with the My Denver card, which really is the the beginning grounds of where this concept comes from. When my kids were younger, obviously now I represent Aurora, but I used to live in Denver and our kids were able to get…
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