The Colorado House on Thursday had just a few bills up for second reading debate, but the morning was taken up with just one: House Bill 21-1103, intended to implement the recommendations from a media literacy report from 2019.

The bill is the successor to House Bill 19-1110, which required the Colorado Department of Education to convene a committee that would come up with recommendations on a media literacy curriculum that would become part of civics education the next time those standards are updated. That just happens to be taking place this year, under a bill (SB 21-067) now headed to the House.

In 2019, Republicans objected to adding more to the elementary and secondary curriculum as well as who would sit on that media literacy panel, complaining the report would be skewed by appointing teachers and other union personnel. “The fox [would be] in charge of the henhouse,” according to Rep. Mark Baisley, R-Roxborough Park. “To bring the folks who produce what we should be skeptical about to advise how it should be taught, [makes it] ripe for bias and defeats the purpose.”

House GOP objections to the 2021 bill focused on alleged bias and lack of community engagement.

Rep. Tim Geitner, R-Falcon, said what kids need is to learn critical thinking, not media literacy. He also had concerns over a resource bank listed in the bill, which he indicated could include materials that could be controversial or biased.

There is also no process for the public to weigh in on those resources, Geitner said.

Arguing in favor of a Geitner amendment, Rep. Colin Larson, R-Littleton, said most would agree that “we’re in a particularly difficult time in our democracy. There are a lot of heated opinions on both sides. Something like this is going to be under an extra level of scrutiny,” and information in the resource bank should be under the scrutiny of the public, given that media literacy is likely to evolve over time.

Rep. Janice Rich, R-Grand Junction, added that the public, which pays the taxes that runs the schools, should be allowed to be engaged in what goes into the resource bank. There’s no guarantee that the Department of Education will ensure ideological diversity, she said. “It can’t be all about one side.”

“I’m kind of old school,” said Rep. Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs. “More speech is always better. People can draw on multiple resources from differing points of view and we’re all better served.” But the list in the report is a static list from which educators can draw, he said, which could make it one-sided. Without a counter-balance, or at least allowing for adjustments, “I don’t buy that this is about media literacy” or that it would teach a specific point of view, he said

Rep. Stephanie Luck, R-Penrose, decided the bill needed to be filibustered. Reading the bipartisan bill at length wouldn’t delay things much; it’s only four pages.

However, the accompanying CDE report comes in at 158 pages, and that’s what she chose to read to the House .

There was a little grumbling about that overheard in the caucus.

Luck made it through 24 pages when Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, laid over the bill until Friday.

Stay tuned.