As the Colorado General Assembly wraps up the 2026 session, lawmakers once again failed to confront one of the most costly and disruptive features of public education: high-stakes standardized testing.

This past week, Governor Polis signed House Bill 25-1278, expanding high-stakes testing and approving a new accountability dashboard from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). Instead of innovation, Colorado’s children are stuck with more testing, growing class sizes, fewer electives, and diminishing opportunity. Despite decades of test-driven policies, the achievement gap has widened while administrative budgets have ballooned.