Senate Education

Monday, May 4, 2026·▶ Watch / Listen

The Senate Education Committee advanced three House bills to the consent calendar, headlined by a sweeping plan to merge Colorado's fragmented workforce and higher-education systems into a single department by 2028 — and a lighter-hearted, recurring debate over whether aligning after-school regulations might spell the end of chocolate milk.

Key Actions

·Second Language Educational Program for High School StudentsPassed

+ 2 more actions

Notable Quotes

“More than 20 divisions, offices and units across seven state entities deliver 110 programs and initiatives in the system. If you think that's confusing for us as we're writing bills trying to support workforce development in Colorado, imagine what that's like if you are just an average person trying to get that education to get a good job here in the state.”
Jeff Bridges — Bridges' core case for consolidation, quantifying the fragmentation the bill aims to untangle.

+ 5 more quotes

Votes

Referred to Committee of the Whole and with a recommendation that it be placed on the consent calendarAction

Yes (6)Judy Amabile, Jeff Bridges, Lisa Frizell, Cathy Kipp, Janice Rich, Janice Marchman

Excused (1)Scott Bright

Referred to Committee of the Whole and with a recommendation that it be placed on the consent calendarAction

Yes (7)Judy Amabile, Jeff Bridges, Scott Bright, Lisa Frizell, Cathy Kipp, Janice Rich, Janice Marchman

Referred to Committee of the Whole and with a recommendation that it be placed on the consent calendarAction

Yes (7)Judy Amabile, Jeff Bridges, Scott Bright, Lisa Frizell, Cathy Kipp, Janice Rich, Janice Marchman

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TranscriptPreview

Senate Education will come to order. Ms. Kurtzfelan, will you please take the roll? Senator Zombile. Here. Bridges. Yep. Bright. Here. Brazil. Present. Kip. Here. Rich. Here. Madam Chair. Here. And we're going to go a little out of order to hear from our committee participants on House Bill 1317. So since you guys are both here, if that's okay. Thank you. And we'll give our sponsors a second to get situated because I sprung this on them. Line by line. Did something happen? Yeah. Okay. All right. Who would like to kick us off? Me, too. No, I can. I apologize. I was not quite. It's okay. There's no rush. Senator Frizzell, this was me, not you. Thank you. So, committee members, thank you so much for your time today. We're here to learn about House Bill 2630, 1317. And I'm going to harken back to last year. The governor issued an executive order that was Executive Order 25 006, which essentially tasked the governor's office staff to develop a report on the future of post secondary talent development in collaboration with and including feedback from leaders in cdhe, cdle, oedit, dora, cde, cte, and the Colorado Community College…

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