Senate Finance

Finance will come to order. Ms. Rudebush, will you please call the roll here? Excused, excused. Here. Yep. Here, here, here. We have Senate Bill 135 ahead of us. Who would like to start? Senator Bridges. Thank you, Madam Chair. Colorado is trying to fund a 21st century education system under a fiscal cap written in 1992. And every year on the Joint Budget Committee, we feel the consequences. We make choices no one should have to make between classrooms and health care. Not because Colorado is failing, but because the rules we operate under haven't kept up with reality. Taber says we want to do more. We ask the voters. So that's what this bill does. It simply asks Coloradans a question. Do we want schools funded near the bottom of the country, or do we want schools that lead the nation? Because right now, Colorado ranks near the bottom nationally in what we invest in K12 public education. Not because Colorado doesn't value education. It's because our constitution artificially restricts our ability to invest in it. Colorado students are producing incredible results. Our teachers do heroic work every single day. Yet Colorado has some of the lowest paid…