Senate Education

All right, ready? Senate Education Committee will convene, please. Ms. Kirsten, please call the roll. Senators Bridges. Excused. Right here. Frizzell. Excused. Kip. Here. Rich. Here. Marchman. Here. Bridges. Here. Mr. Chair. Here. And we do have a quorum. We'll begin. We just have one bill today, Senate Bill 145. Our sponsors are ready to go. We'll start off with Senator bright. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, thank you for hearing Senate Bill 145. It's about fairness, transparency, and trust. Across Colorado, voters have approved more than 15 billion in school bond funding over the last decade to improve public school facilities. And that's a good thing. Yet while charter schools serve roughly 15% of our public school students, they've received only a fraction of those dollars. These are Colorado school students, no different, no less deserving. Yet too often, we tend to overlook those needs in the process. This bill does not mandate outcomes, does not require districts to fund any particular project. Rather, it simply ensures that when districts are developing bond proposals, they engage in a transparent and inclusive process that considers the needs of all public school students, including those attending charter schools.…