A502AFD30FCE535987258784005DA1DF Hearing Summary

Brita Darling, Julie Pelegrin, and Alana Rosen, Office of Legislative Legal Services, provided an overview on the process for requesting bill drafts.

Senator Coleman requested a bill to focus on redefining at-risk parameters for students. The bill will establish a new definition for at-risk. The bill will incorporate data provided from the poverty study.



The committee discussed the potential bill draft. Representative McCluskie shared that because the final results of the poverty study will not be released until the beginning of January, the committee may need more time to work on the bill. Representative McCluskie stated that the committee can review the provery study during their meeting on January 10, 2022 and vote to approve the bill a couple of weeks later during the 2022 Legislative Session.  

Committee discussion ensued.

Senator Kirkmeyer requested a bill draft that would increase the state share of special education funding. The bill would require the special education funding tiers to be reviewed and updated.  

Committee discussion ensued.

Representative McCluskie proposed a draft for a bill that would create a Mill Levy Override (MLO) match fund.  



The bill would create an MLO override match fund for purposes of incentivizing lower wealth communities to pass local MLOs so school districts may benefit from additional local funding support.



Representative McCluskie responded to questions from the committee.    

Committee discussion and questions ensued.

According to House Bill 21-1325, if a vote conducted in the School Finance Committee results in a tie, then the Committee Chair can break the tie with an additional vote. Because the vote for Bill 3 resulted in a tie, Representative McCluskie casted an additional vote for the bill. The bill passed on a vote of 5 to 4.