Todd Engdahl at Chalkbeat Colorado reports on passage in the Colorado House today of House Bill 16-1002, reinstating Colorado’s parental leave statute for school activities after they lapsed in 2015 due to legislative inaction:
The Colorado House gave final 35-30 approval Thursday to a contentious bill intended to give parents the legal right to time off from work for parent-teacher conferences and a limited number of other school meetings…the 50-minute debate over the bill on Wednesday was as much political theater as it was a policy discussion, with a strong undercurrent of Democratic-Republican differences about economic opportunity and business regulation, not about education…
“By passing this bill we will create a foundation for all parents to be able to be involved in their children’s education,” argued Rep. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, the House prime sponsor of House Bill 16-1002. “It’s common knowledge that parent involvement creates academic success.”
Republicans who came to the microphone said they’re for parental involvement but countered that the bill isn’t necessary. “Companies can do this already,” said Rep. Tim Dore, R-Elizabeth.
Passing a law on the issue would “interrupt the positive interactions between employees and employer” necessary for a harmonious workplace, argued Rep. Paul Lundeen, R-Monument.
After the passage of this legislation in the Democratic-controlled House, it awaits a dubious fate in the Republican-controlled state Senate–where a similar bill reauthorizing the parental leave law before it sunset died last year. But no words can capture the scene as “family values” Republican legislators lining up to take away parental leave rights families have had for years quite like this photo posted to Twitter by Rep. Faith Winter of Westminster:
In front lined up to testify from left to right are Reps. Jim Wilson, Justin Everett (identifiable by his shiny coiffed hair), Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, and Reps. Paul Lundeen, Tim Dore, and Don Coram.
Now immortalized as the “No Family Values For You Bros?” We bet you’ve got a better caption.
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We don't attend school events. That's women's work.
We're for family values until the moment of birth!
We thought you knew “family values” just means anti-choice.
Caption "Bros before Hoes!" Am I allowed to say that?
Good womensfolk stay home with the kids sos us mensfolk can do the decidin'!
"Leaders doing the right thing even when it's not popular."
Please explain why it's the right thing?
… right (wing) thing …
More of an explanation than modster could provide, I'm sure.
Exactly what Lundeen said. Putting laws between employees and employers hurts their relationship. People I work with are like my family, I don't need the government to tell me to be nice to them.
Oh poor boy. Those nasty government tyrants are putting laws between employees and employers. Like every company is as compassionate and would never ever take advantage of their employees. I seriously doubt helping families educate the next generation of highly skilled workers is anti-business.
There are also plenty of backstabbing feuding families in the world.
Pssst, hey bro, those other kids at the convenience store? — they all think you're a dick. Really! (and, that's when they're being nice …)
… so, I guess they are like your family.
Yes, that harmonious relationship whereby you tell your kid you can't go to the school play because your boss called you in to work.
If you have a decent job that doesn't happen. If you don't, vote with your feet. A law isn't needed.
Your arrogance is exceeded only by your naivete. How long has it been since you have been on the clock at work?
I'm reminded of GW Bush being astounded by supermarket check out lines.
"This is for checking out?"
Not everyone has the option of walking away and finding a better job for all kinds of reasons you aren't capable of even imagining.
Not everyone grows up in advantaged households. Not everyone who did grow up in an advantaged household and did have a "decent" job avoids getting laid off in various downturns and boom and bust cycles and having to take whatever lower paying job they can get.
Not every stay at home mom has a husband who doesn't dump her or die and leave her without much of a resume for landing a "decent" job in a competitive labor market. Not every x pays up, leaving a woman with kids to take whatever she can get to make ends meet.
You're an ignorant little pinhead and it's hard to refrain from wishing some catastrophe on you so you can pick up a clue but I won't because because I may not believe in much of an organized religious framework but I do believe it's evil to wish evil on anyone, even an obnoxious, privileged little pin head schmuck like you.
Of all the rightie trolls who have ever participated on this blog you are by far the least intelligent and the most worthless excuse for a human being. Never an independent thought. Never a glimmer of understanding or compassion for anyone not just like yourself. Just vomited talking points. You're pathetic.
And BTW even your self chosen name is a lie.
Bullshit. By your logic we should eliminate child labor laws because that puts laws between employees and employers. And not every work environment is collegial or "nice."
That's why Obama is a great leader and will go down in history as the Modsters worst nightmare.
A non-Republican who cared more about doing his job and serving his country then trying to appease insane and disingenuous Republicans.
What planet are you living on? Obama, a great leader? I think not. He's a total, well, community organizer who's always trying to appease everyone so they can all get along. Let's see, when did Obama ever stand up to Republicans? Well, I just can't think of one time in his entire presidency. What a total waste of space he is.
Disagree completely Craig. The Union was on the verge is dissolution and disaster with calls for succession amid hundreds of thousands of lost jobs a month and mired in a war we couldn't win and gas prices shooting through the roof. The fact that we are living in a stable economy today with fewer foreign policy debacles is something that a lot of folks take for granted now but could have gone the other way if Palin/McCain had been at the center of power. I'm confident that history will show he made a bigger impact on this era than he will ever get credit for but black men accomplishments in our society are only appreciated on the athletic field.
And if Romney were Prez for the past 4 years with the identical set of achievements Obama has even with a hostile Congress, Republicans would be proclaiming Mitt to the greatest president of all time, deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Nobel in Economics, and probably the Nobel in Science to boot!
And there are additional achievements to come if the Iranian Nuclear Pact works out. It will be the equivalent to Nixon going to China. Then there are the generational changes that happened on his watch like marriage equality and a skyrocketing global awareness of Climate Change and the need for environmental preservation. The world is better today because of his steady hand. I really believe that Craig.
How about this for a caption "Bros before Hoes!" It is short, simple and fits on a bumper sticker!
I'm always a fan of short, simple, and rhyming. But the slogan "Bros before Hoes", applied to (not) allowing parents to attend their kid's school meetings, assumes that most people's kids are the result of Hoe'in around.
Maybe that was your point.
Maybe this is what he imagines this line up of morons would say?
"We don't even know for sure that our kids are our kids. We're too cheap for DNA testing, so we've just got to take our wives' word on it. Look at us, why wouldn't our wives cheat on us?"
My parents never came to my school conferences, and look how well I turned out!
Modsters parents home schooled him because they didn't trust teachers or scientists and look how he turned out.
( I meant that as a caption for the Republican "boys"….my parents actually came to my school conferences).
I should have put a snark symbol next to mine. It's low class but cheap entertainment for me to needle him since we have a dearth of rational Republicans posting on this site. He's one of those 'one and run' characters who can't handle facts or counter arguments.
Nice flower profile BTW. What kind is it?
It is a Mexican poppy (argemone mexicana). If you look closely, you can see a bee in it. I found it on a walk in Greeley.
Nice. When the snow and rains come early, Gilpin County the end of June is a contender for wild flower capital of Colorado. There is a hike in Golden Gate State Park that takes you into a secluded mountain meadow at about 8,500 feet that always amazes me. I am incapable as a writer of describing the colors, variety and delicacy of that ecosystem. The west side of Gilpin is the Continental Divide and the tundra flowers on James Peak are also just popping into July. When I take plant persons like my wife up there, they don't want to come back down until they have to.
That's one of the things I miss the most about living in the high country…the wildflowers in springtime. Desert vegetation is beautiful and interesting, but a late June walk up onto Baldy from the water tank on Boreas Pass Rd. will blow your mind.
I like pretty weeds. They grow with a minimum of care, and when I have a garden, I tend to grow hardy wildflowers. I appreciate them when I come across them in the wilderness, too.
yeah…the difference between weeds and flowers is largely semantic. A weed is a plant you don't want around…a flower is one you do. Kinda the same with people…![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.5.5/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
I grew up on a farm. Typically on farms, in certain seasons, the work volume is heavy and time away is not a viable option. I suggest the law be amended so city folk be required to go to the farm to fill in for the farm parents when the farm parents attend parent-teacher conferences, school plays, school sports, etc.
Isn't this only fair? Plus, the city folk often consume what the farmers produce, which is all the more reason for my suggested requirement.
I suppose it would be fair if the country folk were providing their fare for free….but they don't….Oh…and by the way…I don't get any subsidies for being a consumer.
Working in a rural school district after working in urban districts all my teaching career, I see so many more parents in the afternoon / evening now than I ever did in the city. Granted, it isn't harvest or planting season. These folks care lots about their children's progress in school.
City folks, too, observe, often work night shifts and couldn't come to parent conferences, even with the law which the Republicans are trying to get rid of.
There will never be a law which is perfectly fair to all people in all situations.
No one ever said that times weren't tough in the '30s …