April 20, 2026 · Education · 5,903 words · 18 speakers · 75 segments
. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The Senate Education Committee will come to order. Ms. Kurzweil, please take the roll.
Senators Bridges. Hello.
Bright. Here.
Frizzell. Excused.
Kip. Here.
Rich. Here.
Marchman. Here.
Mr. Trump. Chair. Here. And please note that Senator Frizzell is also here.
Today we'll be hearing one bill, Senate Bill 23, brought to us by yours truly and Senator Kirkmeyer. And I will hand the gavel over to my Vice Chair, Senator Marchment. I know it's a maniacal slightly I think it's appropriate to the comments. Senators, when you're ready.
Senator Colker. Thank you, Madam Chair. Appreciate everyone being here today to hear on the long-awaited, much-anticipated School Finance Act. First of all, just want to go over some background and also thank so many of the stakeholders who have been involved with drafting this bill. It's only a three-page bill, but we will have a number of amendments today as seems to be typical with school finance. We're adding things to cover some changes that particularly stakeholders or Department of Ed need done. So we'll explain those here later, but I just want to talk about the background of the School Finance Act for the millions that are listening online. to set the picture here. In Colorado, our funding for our schools is split between the local share and the state share. Each year, the School Finance Act determines the annual state appropriation for the state school finance formula and the total program funding. In 2024, we adopted a new formula after nearly 30 years of using a formula established in the 1990s. And in 2025, we renegotiated how the formula would be phased in over the course of the coming years. This year's formula implements the agreed upon phase in of the new formula at 30% and school districts are held harmless to fiscal year 24-25 total program fundings. So if a school receives the greater funding under the old formula, they will continue to receive that greater amount until implementation reaches 100%. The bill uses three-year student averaging for the new formula and a five-year averaging for the old formula to do the comparison. LCS estimates this will increase the base per pupil funding by $208.60 to $8,900.40 and establish statewide total program funding at a whopping $10.2 billion in fiscal year 26-27. Of the $10.2 billion in total program funding, $5.6 billion is state share. $4.6 billion is local share. State share, in case you don't know, is paid from our general fund, the state education fund, and the state public school fund. The state ed fund will account for approximately $1.014 billion this year. Of that, approximately $211 million will come from a little old amendment that was added last year. Senator Kirkmeyer, do you remember that amendment?
Kids Matter Fund. Yeah, the Kids Matter Fund.
So about $211 million will come from that. The permanent fund puts money into the state public school fund, which accounts for about $168 million. The rest is general share. Excuse me, general fund. And I'd like to take a moment and send my appreciation out to the two people that are part of the Joint Budget Committee sitting here today in this room for the work that they did to make sure that we were able to fund education without a cut in a year of drastic cuts. And I want to say thank you to Senator Bridges and Senator Kirkmeyer for that, along with the entire JBC, because it was very tough. And you were able to do a great job to make sure that we're able to keep this funding. I mean, granted, it may not be what we think is absolutely enough, but it still increases it from last year. And I'm going to turn it over to Senator Kirkmeyer.
Senator Kirkmeyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before I begin in my very short comments, I want to thank Michael Prime. Senator Kolker has done a phenomenal job on getting this all pulled together while I was over at the Joint Budget Committee. I was able to make several of the stakeholder meetings, but not all of the stakeholder meetings. So, and I also want to thank his incredible aide who puts together handouts for me too, just like this. They're color-coded and they're complete and it's, she did a great job. So, and she tracked me down to give me my copy of this summary of all the amendments. So, appreciate both of them. And I'll just reiterate, I know last year that we talked about trying to do the School Finance Act prior to the long bill getting completed. The long bill is not completed yet, and I understand we know we got the bill introduced, but we didn't get it all out in front of the long bill. But part of that is because of the Kids Matter Fund that was created last year, ensuring that there are no cuts to K-12 education. And basically what we're doing here is just implementing current law. So the things that we were able to accomplish over the Joint Budget Committee and then with what we did last year made it such that we didn't need to worry about K-12 education getting funded because we had agreed last year to fund it. So that was good news. So again, no cuts to K-12 funding. It's fully funded as required under the law. And we do have some amendments that came from the Department of Education and maybe a couple of others, but mostly from the Department of Education that we do want to put into the bill. But we were trying to make this as easy as possible. For those of us who have sat on the Education Committee for a number of years, I can remember school finance formula bills that were like, I don't know, 56 pages or something ridiculous like that. So we kept the promises that were made, and we're moving forward with them. Thank you.
Thank you both. Committee, I know we're getting our packets of amendments. Does anyone have any questions for the sponsors before we hear from witnesses? Okay, seeing none, we will go ahead and begin with our witness testimony. If I could have Matt Cook, Ty Barwick, Melissa Gibson, and Samira Yusupov to the dais. That would be wonderful. Okay, it might just be the three of you. Matt, we'll start with you.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the Senate Education Committee. My name is Matt Cook and I here today representing the nearly 1 locally elected Board of Education members and their superintendents who make up the Colorado Association of School Boards On behalf of the CASB membership we are here in support of House Senate Bill 26023 CASB members would like to thank Senators Kirkmeyer and Colker for introducing the bill early in the session. CASB members have long advocated for the School Finance Act to be approved before the state budget. CASB member boards must adopt fiscal year budgets by July 1st of every year, and it's always a race to finalize those budgets because we often don't know the final numbers until the closing days of the legislative session. CASB members also support that Senate Bill 26023 is a clean school finance act that focuses on protecting vital funding for our students. CASB members support the limited amendments that we believe will be proposed today or in the near future. Again, we'd like to thank the bill sponsors and members of this committee for ensuring that reductions in state funding during a difficult budget year were kept as far away as possible from Colorado classrooms. On behalf of the CASB members from across the state, we would respectfully ask for a yes on the bill, and I'm available to attempt to answer any questions.
Very good. Thank you. Now we'll go to you there in the middle. Would you get – there you go.
Thank you, Mr. Chair Kolker and members of the Senate Education Committee for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Ty Barwick and I am speaking for the Colorado Gifted and Talented Student Board in support of this bill today, the School Finance Act. The Colorado Gifted and Talented Student Board consists of 37 members across 24 schools and 13 school districts. In the past eight years, this board has worked to empower, support and advocate for gifted and talented students in Colorado throughout their educational journey in order to create a cohesive and educational system where the needs of GT students are recognized, understood, and enriched by educators. As an executive chair and member of this board for the past two years, I've experienced firsthand how this bill could significantly impact students all across Colorado and develop their futures. According to the Learning Policy Institute, a multi-state study found that a 10% increase in per-pupil spending for low-income children resulted in a 7% rise in high school graduation rates, nearly a 10% increase in adult wages. With that in mind, I would like to introduce the perspectives of one of the students in the board at Vilas High School, a remote rural high school in southeastern Colorado. This school has 37 students enrolled grades 7 through 12 and 6 full-time teachers. According to the U.S. News and World Report, this school enrolls 78% economically disadvantaged students. With this bill, educational and long-term economic outcomes for students in rural districts or low-income students all across Colorado will be met and supported. Additionally, this bill can benefit students in larger schools as well. I attend Denver South High School as a sophomore, which faces high teacher turnover rates and student-to-faculty ratios of up to 33 to 1. This bill will allow for higher educator retention, smaller class sizes, and more focus on students with different learning styles. Increasing per pupil funding can raise teacher retention rates, increase focus on students with different learning styles, and allow students in different income classes to have the same opportunities. For the well-being of all students in Colorado, I urge you to vote yes on the School Finance Act. Thank you.
And thank you, Mr. Barwick. Now we'll go to you, Melissa.
Thank you so much. Members of the committee, my name is Melissa Gibson. I'm the Executive Director of CASE, the Colorado Association of School Executives. We represent more than 3,300 school administrators from nearly all 178 school districts. My comments are in support of this legislation, and I'm pleased to also be testifying on behalf of the Colorado Education Association, CEA. I just want to start by saying we are deeply appreciative of the hard work of the bill's sponsors, as well as their clear value around protecting K-12 funding. And we are also very grateful to this legislature as a whole. It is not lost on us the incredibly challenging, painful budget circumstances facing this state. And your value and priority around protecting public education funding means a great deal to our association and to our members. We are very pleased, as I said, to support this legislation, though I understand the amendment is not quite ready for introduction today. We're looking forward to seeing it introduced, and that is the creation of a new smoothing factor that will eventually take the place of what we know now as declining enrollment. Case was asked to lead these conversations towards the end of last session, and we were pleased to do so. we invited any interested superintendent and CFO to come to the table and have a conversation around what the challenges are, what the needs are, what would be a viable solution, and importantly, what would be a practical and realistic one, given the financial circumstances facing the state. I know we have the Douglas County CFO as well as the Littleton CFO who can speak a little bit more in detail to that process. but I just want to thank you all for your willingness to let K-12 leaders have a voice in that process. We had everyone from our small rural friends to larger, more metro districts included. So this proposal we came forward with very much is representative of the whole array of school districts in our state. And again, thank you to the bill sponsors, and I'm happy to, as Matt said, attempt to answer any questions.
Very good. Thank you so much, Ms. Gibson, for your testimony. on behalf of CASE and CEA. Does anybody have any questions for this panel? Seeing none, we appreciate you being here today. Thank you for your testimony. Okay, let's see who we can pull up online. We have John Paul Burden, Jonathan Levesque, Scott Smith, Daniil LaPlatt, and Jaina Slicener. John Powell's not here. Okay. Okay, very good. It looks like we have a full panel. I'm going to start with Mr. Jonathan Levesque. If you'd like to unmute yourself and begin your testimony, you've got three minutes.
Thank you, committee members, for having us and allowing us to do this remotely. I am currently at my district working on our budget as our process starts in December, and we are working through some budget cuts right now, so I appreciate the flexibility. I want to be transparent as well. Two years ago I was down at the Capitol testifying against the new formula because it actually negatively impacted Littleton Public Schools. Today I am here to support the implementation or the continued implementation of the School Finance Act. And as it is the best way for us to continue to grow funding for K-12 as it's needed through this hard budget time, not only at the state, but at many districts. The biggest thing I want to point out is predictability of funding is very hard to run school districts on a continually changing budget. As I said, we started our budget process late last year, early this year, and we move through staffing, we move through negotiations with our bargaining units, and to know what we can offer our staff for compensation is necessary. So, again, I am here in support of moving forward on the implementation and happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Levesque. And we will now go to Scott Smith.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Scott Smith from Cherry Creek Schools. I know I know a lot of people in the room. I'm also the current case president. To be clear, I'm testifying on behalf of Cherry Creek today. I want to thank the sponsors for bringing this legislation forward. Similar to Jonathan's comments, really thank you for the timing and bringing this forward early and allowing us to have a lot of visibility into where school finance is going. Also really want to thank the sponsors and the committee for honoring the deal that was made last year with school districts. The last few years we've leaned in with various legislators to help try to solve the state's budget problem. Unfortunately, those deals haven't gotten implemented as originally designed, but I really want to thank you all for living up to your promise and funding this deal as we had discussed last year. Similar to my colleagues, predictability and stability are huge components of school finance. We are almost done with budget season now, and we're just getting to what the School Finance Act is. So, but thanks to having that marker out there and knowing where we're trying to go, it's really allowed us to aid in our budget planning. So, hopeful that this bill gets passed as written in that, you know, we can use this information and we'd love to see this timeline adhered to in the future. You know, as I close, I think, you know, funding school finance with the deal is a great step for all of us. I would respectfully request that as this committee looks at homeschool enrichment, that we maintain the 0.5 funding for those schools who are doing it right. We definitely want to make sure that those who are gaming the system are not able to do that But whether it a cut to school finance or a cut to funding for enrichment programs or other shuffling of the deck chairs the result is all the same it a cut to schools and so i would respectfully request that as you finalizing this budget package that you maintain the 0.5 fte for those homeschool enrichment programs who are actually doing the right thing again very appreciative of all the work that has been done and would urge a yes vote on this act thank you and thank you mr smith let's go to daniel laplatte
thank you good afternoon madam chair members of the committee my name is daniel laplatte i serve as the executive director of the colorado rural schools alliance the alliance represents 146 rural school districts across the state educating approximately 135 000 students across colorado The Alliance is here today in strong support of Senate Bill 26023, and I want to take a moment to specifically thank the sponsors and the committee for your timing and for the enrollment averaging and smoothing provisions in this bill. Rural districts are not like their urban counterparts. We don't have the enrollment cushion of thousands of students, so when circumstances beyond our control shift, say for example a family moves away or an employer downsizes, we feel it immediately and acutely. The multi-year averaging provision is a stability mechanism. For rural Colorado, stability is the difference between keeping a teacher and losing one, between running a program or canceling it. The smoothing factor matters for the same reason. As the new formula continues its phase-in, predictability is a budget necessity for our systems. These provisions together give rural communities the footing they need to plan, retain, staff, and serve students across Colorado. Again, we thank you for your hard work, your partnership, and commitment to Colorado students. We urge a yes vote. Thank you.
Great. Thank you, Ms. LaPlatt. And finally, we'll hear from Ms. Sleisner.
Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Janice Sleisner. I'm the CFO of Douglas County School District and Smoothing Factor Working Group co-chair along with Mr. Smith. I actually want to begin by expressing our sincere appreciation for the shift in the legislative process we've experienced this session. Too often, school finance is a conversation that happens to districts rather than with them. This year has been different. We want to thank the sponsors and this committee for the truly open-door policy you've maintained. The opportunity to bring our voices to the table and the willingness of leadership to engage in some very difficult, candid conversations regarding the fiscal realities of our schools has been invaluable. This collaborative spirit allows us to move past simple talking points and get to the actual mechanisms of how policy impacts a student's classroom experience. As a result of this openness, We've been working hard on solutions to help districts navigate the dual challenge of declining enrollment and fixed operational costs. While we aren't introducing it today, we have developed a smoothing factor methodology, specifically a 50-30-20 weighted average. Our goal with this proposal is to find a reasonable middle ground, one that acknowledges the state's fiscal constraints while providing districts with a predictable glide path to right-size operations. It's designed to prevent the mid-year budget crisis that occur when funding shifts months after our legal contracting deadlines have passed. We look forward to bringing you the full details of the smoothing factor to you soon. But more importantly, we look forward to continuing this partnership. Thank you for leading these hard conversations and ensuring that the people running our schools have a seat at the table where the decisions are made. Thank you for your time and your dedication to supporting education for all of our students.
And thank you for your work for students as well as the volunteer work you both are working on. So thank you. So does anybody on the committee have questions for any of these panelists? Seeing none, we really appreciate your joining us today and your testimony. At this point, we will entertain any other witnesses who would like to speak to the School Finance Act. Seeing none, our, oh, come on up. Happy to see you. And if there's anyone else, she doesn't look like she bites. Once you get situated, there's a button on the table to turn on the mic, and the light will turn green. It's on the actual table. It's kind of confusing. Okay. And then you may begin. You've got three minutes.
Thank you, Ms. Marchman and members of the Senate Education for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Samir Yusupov, and I'm speaking for myself with affiliation to the Colorado Gifted and Childhood Board.
Excuse me, will you just move a little closer? You don't have to eat the mic, but just a little closer.
Thank you, Ms. Madam Marchman and members of the Senate Education for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. My name is Samira Yousapov, and I'm speaking for myself with affiliation to the Colorado Gifted and Talented Student Board in support of the School Finance Act, Bill SB 26023. I'm here today to urge you to vote yes on this bill. As a student in one of Colorado's most diverse and fastest growing districts, I see the resource gap every day. In my school, classrooms are so crowded that some students don't even have a desk on the first day of school. This isn't about physical space, but it's about opportunity as well. Last semester, several of my peers were barred from higher-level English classes because the class hit its capacity limit and the school lacked funding to add more sections. When I look at my neighboring districts, the disparity is clear. Other schools offer specialized STEM tracks, IB programs, and a wider variety of AP courses much earlier in a student's career. Without the funding provided by this bill, students in districts like mine and APS are left with a ceiling on our potential simply because of our zip code. I believe this bill is essential because it ensures that funding finally follows the student. According to the Colorado Department of Education, this bill continues the shift towards a formula that directs more resources to schools with high concentrations of students in poverty. For students in high-need districts, this means you won't have to settle for fewer advanced courses or outdated resources because our local tax base is different. It allows students to invest in the specialized staff at our schools, like GT coordinators and interventionists that make a rigorous and beneficial education possible for everyone. For the well-being of 40,000 students in APS and the hundreds of thousands more across Colorado, I urge you to pass this bill. It's time to bring real equity to our classrooms and stabilize the foundation of public schools. I strongly urge a yes vote on this bill. Thank you.
And thank you. And just want to make sure you are Samira. Is that correct? Wonderful. Does anybody have any questions for our witness?
As a former gifted and talented teacher, I just want to say thank you for your advocacy for both of you being here today. And this really does matter for you. So thank you.
So we will go ahead and close our witness testimony phase and welcome our sponsors back. And I know we have a number of amendments, so Senator Colker, when you're ready, why don't you move what you want, and then we'll talk about it.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move L-002 to Senate Bill 23.
Great. What does L-002 do?
Well, first of all, we have a number of amendments. Some of them just weren't done in time. We have them scheduled for appropriations and possibly seconds. But this particular amendment, L-002, recommends replacing the word reimbursement throughout the statutory section with funding because to sustain funding is formulaic, not based on reimbursing or expenses. And the change would clarify that 3% offset applies to CDE, not districts. Again, this was requested by the Department of Ed for the change in the verbiage. And we urge an aye vote.
Okay, does anyone have any questions on L002? Any objection to L002? Seeing none, L002 is adopted. Senator Colker.
Thank you. I move L003 to Senate Bill 23.
Great. Tell us about L003.
L003, again, requested by CDE, is the School Transformation Grant Program allowable uses of funding. Currently, Colorado statute contains three closely related but not fully aligned list of allowable activities for which the School Transformation Grant Program funds may be used. Recent legislation amendment, two of these lists, creating unintended inconsistencies across statute seven. The department is recommending technical cleanup language to align all three provisions. And these changes will ensure that the amendments to the program's purpose adopted in HB 25-1278 are fully reflected in the program's allowable uses and that grant funds may be used for any of the rigorous school redesign strategies identified in sections 22-11209 and 22-11210 as amended by 1278 from last year.
Very good. Any objection to L004 Three Sorry three I was looking at the wrong one I moved ahead School transformation yes L-003 is adopted. Senator Colker.
Thank you. I move L-004 to Senate Bill 23.
To the amendment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
This amendment was requested by the Department of Education, supports for districts facing emergency cash flow situations. Originally added prior to COVID or during COVID-19 was support for small, rural, and rural districts that often had difficulties finding auditors given their location and size, and it was set to repeal in July 1 of 26. However, the number of qualified auditors is shrinking across the state, and many small and rural districts still struggle to find auditors. Therefore, the flexibility given the implications for local property taxes is still relevant. This amendment extends the flexibility for small and rural districts indefinitely. I ask for an aye vote.
Any objection to L-004? Seeing none, L-004 is adopted. Senator Kirkmire, or Coker.
I move L-005 to Senate Bill 26.
Great. 26-023, excuse me. L-005 to the amendment.
Senator Kirkmire. Thank you, Madam Chair. This amendment was requested by the Rural School Alliance, and we're on board with it. It clarifies that assistant principals and assistant superintendents may be included in PARA. PARA is supportive of this, and they've been notified they were not opposed to the change. Any objection to L-005?
Seeing none, L-005 is adopted.
Senator Colker. I move L-007 to Senate Bill 26023.
To the amendment.
Senator Kirkmeyer. Great. Thank you, Madam Chair. We're fixing the hold harmless provision in 2627 School Finance Act. We had some questions and concerns about this, and there was an issue that we had to deal with on the Joint Budget Committee, so it's imperative that we take care of it now as it moves forward. And what it is, the original language in the School Finance Act did not account for a district receiving a negative phase-in amount. This negative phase-in amount was the result of how declining enrollments impact the new school finance act from 2024 in a quicker capacity than the original school finance act from 1994. So we made changes at the Joint Budget Committee in the current fiscal year, and now we're just trying to make sure that it does carry forward as we move forward again, because again, it's dealing with a district that receives a negative phase-in amount. Did check with LCS and with the other folks over at the JBC staff, so Anna and Andrea are right here behind us. They can probably explain a little bit better, but we made sure that they looked at it and made sure it was consistent, what we had done in the Joint Budget Committee, and that it does work so that there is consistent interpretation of the statute as we move forward.
Ask for an aye vote. Very good. Any objection to L-007? Seeing none, L-007 is adopted.
Senator Kolker. I move L-009 to Senate Bill 2623. To the amendment.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
This is just a technical update. LCS asked for this, Legislative Council Services. The amendment will replace the total program figures in the introduced bill passed on the most recent forecast from the Legislative Council Services analysts. So we're just updating the inflation number. Very good. Any objections to L-009?
Seeing none, L-009 is adopted. Whoops.
Senator Colker.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I move L-010 to Senate Bill 23.
To the amendment, Senator Kirkmeyer.
Thank you. This is about financial transparency in our website and the funding. It's set to repeal on July 1, 2026. This section includes language that allows the state to fund the creation and maintenance of the department's financial transparency website, which I think we all find important, and that's funded through the state education fund. As such, this funding happens in the long bill each year through the state education fund transfer and has already been appropriate in this year's bill, but we just need this again that we have it in the School Finance Act as well. Ask for an aye vote.
Any objection to L-10? Seeing none, L-10 is adopted. Are there any other amendments? Not at this time. Committee, any other amendments? Seeing none, the amendment phase is closed. Wrap up. Senator Colker.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, members of the committee. Thank you to all the people that worked on this, the stakeholders that testified today, and many others that didn't make it today to testify. As Senator Kirkby said before, we held stakeholder meetings over a course of two weeks just to make sure that we were getting the information we needed from our local school districts, CFOs, superintendents, anybody who wanted to participate. I had one particular superintendent say, well, you know, this looks pretty good as it was introduced. You know, this is what we said we were hoping to do last year. So why are we meeting? I said, because I want to know if we're missing anything. Are we missing anything? I want to make sure that you have input. I want to make sure that this is transparent. There's no shenanigans going on. That's my word for the year. We're doing what we set out to do at the beginning. So I appreciate everyone's patience with me, with my co-prime sponsor, in making sure that we're getting everything right. We still have a couple other technical changes to make. those were longer amendments that we'll be able to bring in appropriations and look forward to getting this done and through often to the house just on one quick closing note here the i want i want to note that even though we increase funding uh in the light of the shortfall and and really the strong work done by jbc the lcs projections from earlier this year confirm what many of us have already known. The phase in the new formula is not sustainable. In their memo from LCS memo from February of this year, nonpartisan staff note it, modeling by the JBC staff director shows that under current budget economic expectations and incorporating the current loss scenario for school finance, the state's general fund reserve will be negative by fiscal year 2930. A recession scenario would accelerate the depletion of that reserve. This also is in regarding to the state ed fund. State ed fund has money in there to make sure that we're funding it, but it's not complete. We need general fund money to complete our state share. And in order to fully fund education, as promised to the people of Colorado, we will need to look at the structural funding issues in our state budget and increases in revenue that I know are needed to raise that revenue for the adequacy of K-12 education. And that I urge an aye vote.
Senator Kirkmeyer.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Members, we pulled this bill all the way back in May because last year during the School Finance Act, there was a lot of discussion that was taking place and not all of it was out in front where everybody could see what was going on and have a good understanding of it. So we wanted to make sure that as we pulled this bill that everyone knew that it was going to be a clean bill. So that's why I was happy to hear that, you know, we heard from the CASB folks that it's a clean school finance act, and that's nice, and about the timing. We did try to get this, certainly have it introduced before the long bill so that people could have a discussion about it, but throughout the summer and the fall, we've been meeting with folks individually together, talking with superintendents, talking with, you know, finance directors, all sorts of folks about what needs to take place in the school finance act. So I feel very honored to be able to be a part of this bill. We are honoring the deals that have been set, deals that we all voted on and agreed to, and there is a clear value here in protecting K-12 education. Now, I'm not going to agree with everything that my co-prime said with regard to additional funding needed in the future, because quite frankly, there is an earmark in our Constitution that requires, and that we should have been doing since 2009, and there was about 15 years where we didn't do this, where we were supposed to be funding additional funds going to education as mandate in the Constitution to keep up with inflation. And we weren't doing that. So while my co-prime's favorite word is shenanigans, mine I think is bamboozle. Because we kind of bamboozled people where we did the negative factors. So anyways, there are dollars here. We earmarked in the Constitution. Kids Matter Fund last year earmarked 0.00065% of 1% in the state statute to ensure that we don't have a crisis priorities and that we do understand that the Constitution requires us to have a free public school system
throughout the state that is fair and uniform and consistent, and that we fund that, and that we should be funding that first before we go through the rest of our budget. So the funds are there as long as we prioritize K-12 education. That's what we have done, and I ask for an aye vote. Thank you. Any other comments? Seeing none, Senator Colker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move Senate Bill 23 as amendment to the Appropriations Committee with a favorable recommendation.
Very good. Ms. Kurtz-Felan, will you please poll the committee? Senators Bridges?
Aye. Wright? Aye.
Brazil?
Aye. Kip?
Yes. Rich?
Aye. Volker?
Aye. Madam Chair? Aye. That bill passes, and we wish you all the best in appropriations. We know a couple people over there, so hopefully you'll do well. Very good. And with that, Senate Education will be adjourned.