A peek ahead at water/Ag legislation for the legislative session? Clarifying something from CPR's article about the Early Childhood Education Dept.
A peek ahead at water/Ag legislation for the legislative session?
The Sun article linked first below is an older one, but the information in it is not (sometimes takes me a bit to get to things).
On Sept 18 The Colorado Water Resources and Agricultural Review Committee met and decided which bills they wanted to send to be drafted for the coming legislative session.
The article details which bills didn't make it as well.
I'll leave it to you to read up on those that didn't make it, but there is one that I thought worthy of special mention because I was sorely disappointed to see it not get to the drafting stage.
It's linked third below and would prevent the Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners from changing the status of leased public lands if the current lessee wants to continue using it for what was termed "historic uses" (agriculture or grazing).
Quoting from the summary in the third link:
"The bill prohibits the board from authorizing a new use of land that has been leased for historic uses if either the current or a potential new lessee wants to lease the land for historic uses and the new use is incompatible with historic uses. The board may authorize a new use of land only if there is no interest from a potential lessee to use the land for historic uses or if the new use is compatible with the historic uses of the land."
Given the environmental policy and policy around public lands in this state, this is one I would most definitely want put forth. I'm not sure if the fact that it didn't make it to drafting means it wouldn't stand a chance (keep in mind that review committees decisions on bills don't prevent individual legislators from bringing bills forward), but if you like this idea, forward it to your state legislator and see if either wants to give it a go.
I did to mine. What I was told by Sen Byron Pelton was that they wanted to be careful about the language in the bill and would be back with another version in the coming session.
As to which bills did get forwarded, I attached them as screenshots 1 and 2 from the Sun article.
I'm glad to see the important business of the people's getting done. My God! I had no idea such horrible gendered language was still rampant in the Ag sections of the Colorado Revised Statutes. Shameful.
On a more serious note, I'm glad to see the mistake on backflow preventers is up for a fix. I'm glad to see that information about anyone involved in wolf depredation claims would be kept private. I wish the same for anyone shooting a wolf (unless they're up for charges).
Lastly, I'm glad to see a bill that explicitly exempts Ag buildings from the state's energy use reporting requirements. That was the understanding in the bill requiring such reports, but the Colorado Energy Office apparently didn't get the memo there.
See anything sticking out to you? Anything on your wishlist? Add to the comments (only after sending your thoughts to your own state rep/senator).
https://coloradosun.com/2024/09/20/colorado-lawmakers-push-bills-focused-on-water-quality-agriculture-exemptions/
https://leg.colorado.gov/committees/water-resources-and-agriculture-review-committee/2024-regular-session
https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/bill_15_25-0168.pdf
Clarifying something from CPR's article about the Early Childhood Education Dept.
CPR's education reporter Brundin recently wrote an article about a rule change in Colorado's Universal Preschool (UPK) program.
That article is linked first below and it details a proposed change which would NOT allow religious preschools to continue the current exemption they have allowing them to give admissions preference to people in their congregation.
If education and education policy is a passion, give it a read.
I want to focus here on a detail which Brundin should have done a better job at clarifying: who is it that is making decisions at our state's Department of Early Childhood?
Let's talk first about what Brundin has in her article. Take a look at screenshot 1 attached for the relevant quotes. They are listed in red in the order in which they appear in the article (and they are non-contiguous).
Having seen these quotes, what sense do you get of how decisions are made at the Colorado Department of Early Childhood? Is it a board deciding? Is it a board making recommendations? Is it one person (the director)?
I write a lot about unelected boards in this state. I don't like them. Even when fair,** such entities are not how we ought to be doing business since they are not accountable to the people.
The Department of Early Childhood takes this idea and runs with it, however. In this department (and it's something CPR's Brundin doesn't adequately convey), the decision-making isn't even a group. It's a single, unelected person.
The board can suggest. They can advise. They don't and can't "repeal" anything. Dr. Roy, the director is the one doing the repealing and she decides on her own. This is with regard to everything, not just this particular rule.
The original rationale for setting things up with one individual at the head was to simplify and expedite UPK, to get it up and going quickly.
It would be natural to assume that once that task has been accomplished (and here I'm not saying that I agree that it's set up well or fully even now, but just for argument's sake), we'd go to some sort of fuller board that might better represent more of the state.
Natural to assume, yes, but that ain't what happened.
Last legislative session, see the second bill below, the legislature moved to pass (with Polis signing) a law that extends this state of affairs for another 7 full years. See screenshot 2 from the bill's fiscal note.
So til AT LEAST 2031, we'll have one unelected, political appointee running the entirety of Early Childhood Department in this state. You didn't really want to have too much say in the way things were run in this state did you?
**Fair here would be defined by me as truly representative of all parts of our state, geographically and ideologically--a dream when it comes to Colorado's actual appointed boards sadly.
https://www.cpr.org/2024/10/10/colorado-upk-religious-preference-rule-universal-preschool/
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb24-1332