Final
STAFF SUMMARY OF MEETING

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Date:03/12/2014
ATTENDANCE
Time:10:35 AM to 01:25 PM
Buckner
*
Court
*
Place:
Everett
*
Fields
X
This Meeting was called to order by
Holbert
E
Representative Hamner
McNulty
X
Murray
X
This Report was prepared by
Pettersen
*
Lisa Gezelter
Priola
*
Wilson
X
Young
X
Peniston
X
Hamner
X
X = Present, E = Excused, A = Absent, * = Present after roll call
Bills Addressed: Action Taken:
SB14-114
HB14-1294		Referred to Appropriations
Witness Testimony and/or Committee Discussion Only


10:36 AM -- SB14-114

Representative Hamner, Chair, called the meeting to order and welcomed the committee members and audience. She turned the gavel over to Representative Peniston, Vice-Chair, who recognized the school board members in the audience. Representative Hamner, sponsor, introduced Senate Bill 14-114, which allows Colorado State University - Global (CSU-Global) to expand. She discussed the reasons prospective students are currently turned away from CSU-Global and how this bill would help those students. Representative Hamner responded to questions from the committee.

The following people testified:

10:42 AM -- Becky Takeda-Tinker, President of CSU-Global, testified in support of the bill. She provided background information on CSU-Global, discussed the changes that would result from passage of the bill, and pointed out the reasons the bill is necessary. Ms. Takeda-Tinker responded to questions from the committee.

10:54 AM -- Jason Hopfer, representing the Colorado Community College System (CCCS), spoke about the bill. He discussed CCCS' neutral position on the re-engrossed version of the bill. Mr. Hopfer responded to questions from the committee.

10:58 AM -- Frank McCurdy, representing the United Veterans Committee and the American Legion, testified in support of the bill. He discussed the educational needs of veterans.









11:02 AM -- Master Sergeant Jesse Hazlett, a student at CSU-Global, testified in support of the bill. She discussed her experience as a graduate student at CSU-Global and the differences between attending CSU-Global and attending a brick and mortar institution. Master Sergeant Hazlett responded to questions from the committee.

11:12 AM -- Brad Schiffelbein, a student at CSU-Global, testified in support of the bill. He discussed his experience as an undergraduate and graduate student at CSU-Global and the experiences of his co-workers currently who lack the requisite credit hours to attend CSU-Global. Mr. Schiffelbein responded to questions from the committee.

11:17 AM -- Chad Marturano, representing the Department of Higher Education, testified in support of the bill. He discussed the need to increase degree attainment in Colorado, the fact that CSU-Global does not receive state funds, and that it competes for students with private, for-profit institutions. Mr. Marturano responded to questions from the committee.


11:21 AM

Representative Murray introduced Amendment L.003 (Attachment A), which removes the under-23 age restriction from the bill. Representative Hamner discussed CCCS' interest in maintaining the age restriction so that new high school graduates are steered first to community colleges. Committee discussion ensued.

14HseEd0312AttachA.pdf14HseEd0312AttachA.pdf
BILL:SB14-114
TIME: 11:25:44 AM
MOVED:Murray
MOTION:Adopt amendment L.003 (Attachment A). The motion failed on a vote of 2-10.
SECONDED:Fields
VOTE
Buckner
No
Court
No
Everett
Yes
Fields
No
Holbert
Excused
McNulty
No
Murray
Yes
Pettersen
No
Priola
No
Wilson
No
Young
No
Peniston
No
Hamner
No
YES: 2 NO: 10 EXC: 1 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: FAIL





11:26 AM

Representative Hamner offered closing comments to the bill.
BILL:SB14-114
TIME: 11:27:31 AM
MOVED:Hamner
MOTION:Refer Senate Bill 14-114 to the Committee of the Whole. The motion passed on a vote of 11-1, with one member excused.
SECONDED:Court
VOTE
Buckner
Yes
Court
Yes
Everett
No
Fields
Yes
Holbert
Excused
McNulty
Yes
Murray
Yes
Pettersen
Yes
Priola
Yes
Wilson
Yes
Young
Yes
Peniston
Yes
Hamner
Yes
YES: 11 NO: 1 EXC: 1 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS



























01:20 PM
BILL:SB14-114
TIME: 01:20:36 PM
MOVED:Peniston
MOTION:Reconsider the previous motion to refer SB14-114 to the Committee of the Whole. The motion passed on a vote of 11-0, with two members excused.
SECONDED:Fields
VOTE
Buckner
Yes
Court
Yes
Everett
Yes
Fields
Yes
Holbert
Excused
McNulty
Yes
Murray
Yes
Pettersen
Yes
Priola
Excused
Wilson
Yes
Young
Yes
Peniston
Yes
Hamner
Yes
YES: 11 NO: 0 EXC: 2 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS




























01:22 PM
BILL:SB14-114
TIME: 01:22:02 PM
MOVED:Peniston
MOTION:Refer Senate Bill 14-114 to the Committee on Appropriations. The motion passed on a vote of 11-0, with two members excused.
SECONDED:Court
VOTE
Buckner
Yes
Court
Yes
Everett
Yes
Fields
Yes
Holbert
Excused
McNulty
Yes
Murray
Yes
Pettersen
Yes
Priola
Excused
Wilson
Yes
Young
Yes
Peniston
Yes
Hamner
Yes
Final YES: 11 NO: 0 EXC: 2 ABS: 0 FINAL ACTION: PASS


11:32 AM -- HB14-1294

Representative Murray, sponsor, introduced House Bill 14-1294, which codifies privacy requirements for student data collected by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). The bill restricts the use of juvenile delinquency records, medical records, and social security numbers. It also prohibits the sending of personally identifiable student information out-of-state or to the federal government. It defines personally identifiable information to include student identification numbers. Representative Murray responded to questions from the committee.

The following people testified:

11:38 AM -- Rachael Stickland, representing herself, spoke about the bill. She discussed her experiences as a parent in Jefferson County when the district experimented with data collection and distribution via inBloom, Inc. She discussed the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and recent efforts to weaken its provisions, as well as the types of data collected by schools and districts and parents' lack of control. She expressed that the bill's provisions preventing data disclosure should be stronger. Ms. Stickland responded to questions from the committee and discussed the need for the anti-disclosure provision of the bill to apply to districts as well as to CDE.








11:43 AM -- Paula Noonan, representing herself, spoke about the bill. She discussed her experiences as a school board member in Jefferson County and the need to extend the bill's provisions to school districts and individual schools. Dr. Noonan responded to questions from the committee.

11:56 AM -- Natalie Adams, representing herself, spoke about the bill. She discussed her experiences as a parent in Jefferson County and the bill's lack of a parental consent requirement for data-sharing. She pointed out the provisions of the bill that allow CDE to share students' Personally Identifiable Information (PII) without obtaining parental consent. Ms. Adams responded to questions from the committee regarding Jefferson County Schools' experiment with InBloom.

12:02 PM -- Sunny Flynn, representing herself, spoke about the bill. She discussed her experiences as a parent, and as manager of a cloud-based business division. She discussed the needs of parents to maintain control over their children's data. Ms. Flynn responded to questions from the committee regarding Teaching Strategies Gold (TSGold) and the need to address data privacy at the local level.

12:12 PM -- Jen Butts, representing herself, spoke about the bill. Ms. Butts responded to questions from the committee. She urged committee members to further restrict the use of PII and to amend the bill to include both parental consent provisions and data retention time-frames.


12:22 PM

Committee discussion ensued. Ms. Butts continued to respond to questions from the committee. Ms. Butts distributed a handout to the committee (Attachment B).

14HseEd0312AttachB.pdf14HseEd0312AttachB.pdf

12:30 PM -- Cheri Kiesecker, representing herself, spoke about the bill and discussed the need to strengthen its provisions. She provided written testimony to the committee (Attachment C).

14HseEd0312AttachC.pdf14HseEd0312AttachC.pdf

12:40 PM -- Chip Swan, representing Elizabeth Schools, spoke about the bill. He discussed the fiscal impact on school districts and the reports that CDE currently requires of districts. Representative Murray responded to Mr. Swan's concern that the bill may lead to more reporting requirements for districts. Mr. Swan pointed out that any mandate to CDE falls down onto the shoulders of school districts. Mr. Swan responded to questions from the committee.












12:51 PM -- Krista Anderson, representing Stand for Children, testified in support of the bill. She discussed her organization's support for the bill, the influence of technology in the classroom, the need to hold schools accountable, and the necessity for transparency in data collection. She also pointed out the need to ensure student privacy.

12:53 PM -- Daniel Domagala, Chief Information Officer, CDE, testified in support of the bill. He discussed eight actions required of CDE by the bill. He explained the department's efforts to safeguard data privacy, its efforts to update its policies, and how those efforts continually progress. He discussed the prohibitions on data collection in the bill. Mr. Domagala responded to questions from the committee. He discussed the lack of policies or rules regarding the length of data retention. Mr. Domagala continued to respond to questions from the committee.

01:14 PM -- Phyllis Albritton, representing herself, spoke about the bill. She urged the committee members to consider amending the bill to strengthen its privacy provisions. She discussed her experiences as a parent in Jefferson County.


01:18 PM

Representative Hamner laid over the bill for action only until Monday, March 17. Representative Murray commented on the prohibition of data sales.


01:23 PM

The committee adjourned.