Bill to Enhance Media Literacy in Colorado Schools Clears Committee!

Legislation would expand access to media literacy resources to help students decipher between credible news and misinformation

DENVER, CO – Today, the Senate Education Committee approved HB21-1103, sponsored by Senator Brittany Pettersen, which seeks to strengthen media literacy in Colorado schools. This bipartisan legislation would make relevant resources available to students and prioritize media literacy as part of school curricula throughout the state. 

“The era of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’ have severely disrupted our understanding of the truth, making it considerably harder to tell the difference between credible news and misinformation,” said Senator Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood. “This lack of understanding is concerning and, frankly, dangerous. This bill will ensure that our students have the resources necessary to tell fact from fiction so they can become well-informed, thoughtful, and engaged members of our society.”  

With the accelerated growth of social media and its integration into the media diet of Coloradans, the dissemination of misinformation has become all too common. To help reduce the spread of falsities, we must equip young Coloradans with the critical thinking skills necessary to analyze the information, claims, and sources presented to them through the media in an effort to empower them to make more informed decisions and strengthen our democracy. 

As such, this bill would require the Department of Education to create and maintain a bank of media literacy resources and for the State Board of Education to bring a renewed focus on media literacy by integrating it into K-12 curriculums.

HB21-1103 now moves to the Committee of the Whole for further consideration. Track the progress of the bill here.