Legislative Preview: Q & A with Morgan Carroll, Colo. Senate Minority Leader

Credit Colorado General Assembly

In a series of interviews with legislative leaders, statehouse correspondent Bente Birkeland discusses the upcoming legislative session and the change of control in the state Senate. Morgan Carroll [D-Aurora] is going from senate president to minority leader.   

Morgan Carroll on Republicans gaining control of the state Senate

“The things we believe in and who we’re working for really hasn’t changed. How we get it done and how hard we have to work to find common ground to get those things done is just going to take a little bit of an adjustment on what we do.”

“I would be disappointed if what we saw was focusing on rehashing old fights or just out right repeals when what we’re hearing from the people in this state is, not that they want us to see us having the same fights over and over again, but they would really like to see us move forward on things that effect their every day lives.”

Morgan Carroll on Working with the GOP

“We have a history of working collaboratively with any legislator on any issue.  So I think if we keep our eye on the ball, which is looking at where we can do meaningful public policy that intersect in the places of people’s lives where they’re really struggling and feeling the squeeze the most. I think that can promise for a very productive and collaborative session.”

Morgan Carroll Talks Education Reform

“We’ve seen a real strong grassroots movement from parents and kids saying we actually think too much of our classroom time is going towards testing and preparing for standardized testing and not enough towards actual learning.”

Please note: Incoming Senate President, Republican Bill Cadman, declined to participate in this series of interviews, saying he did not want to comment about his parties priorities prior to the session.