Over objections that they are flouting the independence cherished by the state’s public schools, Senate Education Committee Democrats Monday voted to impose a mandate for “science-based content standards” on any schools that teach sex education.

House Bill 1292, sponsored in the Senate by Democrat Sen. Sue Windels, of Arvada, was embraced by the committee's four Democrats – Windels is its chair – despite an overflow crowd that showed up to oppose the measure.

Although much of the testimony, pro and con, centered on the efficacy of different kinds of sex-ed courses, including abstinence-based teaching, what turned off all committee Republicans was the way the bill brushes up against the constitutional guarantee of local control enjoyed by school districts. 

“Our responsibility as legislators is not to dictate curriculum to local schools,” said the committee’s ranking Republican, Assistant Minority Leader Nancy Spence, of Centennial. “This bill is clearly a violation of local control.”

Spence, who served for years on the board of the Cherry Creek School District, said she “would have resented” such encroachment during her tenure at the school district.

Windels insisted that the bill doesn’t affect districts that use only an abstinence-based sex-ed program, but critics on the committee noted it does supercede the prerogatives of all other districts. Windels conceded that the bill even requires the teaching of controversial “emergency contraception,” which some contend can cause abortions.

“To not see this as micromanagement is to misread the bill,” said committee Republican Sen. Josh Penry, of Fruita.

A sex-education teacher who testified in support of the bill said the intent is to ensure if sex education is taught, it is “based on science and not ideology.”

Yet, Penry said the bill appears to be a cure in search of an ill. “What problem are we solving?” he said.

Republican Sen. Mike Kopp, of Littleton agreed, pointing out no one has approached entities like the State Board of Education complaining that their schools’ sex-education curriculum was inadequate.

“You people are piled into a fire truck looking for a fire that doesn’t exist,” Kopp said.

Penry chided influential lobbies that failed to show up and testify on the bill but usually

are vocal in their opposition to legislative attempts to influence local school curriculum.

“Where are these advocates of local control? They fight math and science standards and fight English competency standards,” Penry demanded. And, he said, the usual lobbies were missing in action on a bill that mandates the teaching of emergency contraception methods.

Penry’s own bill to establish statewide graduation standards for science and math, which recently was killed by Democrats in a House committee, was opposed by the Colorado Association of School Boards, one of the lobbies he singled out for criticism today.

Reached for comment at her office, the association’s longtime lobbyist Jane Urschel said she did not testify today on HB 1292  because her organization took no stand on the measure. She added, however, that, “CASB has never fought standards.”

Urschel noted that the group does oppose outright requirements and contended, “There is a very big difference.”

When asked about whether 1292’s mandate for emergency contraception was a standard or a requirement, Urschel said, “All I can say is we’ve never opposed standards.”