Gov. Bill Ritter isn't slamming the door on bills to tweak high school graduation standards, but he prefers a more comprehensive look at school reform, his spokesman said Thursday.

A bill awaiting action by a House committee would require four years of math and three years of science for graduation - more than required now by any major school district.

Ritter has said he wants a committee to look at everything from preschool through graduate school.

The committee could be formed within four to six weeks, said Evan Dreyer, Ritter's spokesman.

Sponsors of the bill to increase the math and science requirements appealed to Ritter in a letter Thursday.

"At some point, we have to stop studying the problem and just fix it," wrote Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genessee, and Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita.

While Colorado studies the problem, "the rest of the world moves ahead with standards for math, science and technical education," Penry and Witwer wrote.

Dreyer noted that Witwer and Penry "have asked the governor to take another look at this. . . . So the governor has agreed to do that - to take a look at it."

That's not a promise to sign the bill, Dreyer said.

"We haven't committed to anything other than giving it a look," he said. Ritter still prefers a comprehensive approach to education reform, he said.

That position is only slightly different from the one Dreyer described Wednesday, when he said that Ritter prefers a comprehensive approach to education, but was not threatening to veto individual bills such as SB 131.

The bill made it through the Senate with bipartisan support. But it could recieve an icy reception in the House Education Committee, where the chairman, Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, has said the bill does not have majority support.

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5209