Hickenlooper backs education transparency proposal in state of state address

From Chalkbeat Colorado:  Gov. John Hickenlooper’s annual state of the state speech endorsed proposals to change how school enrollment is counted and to create greater transparency for school spending.

Speaking Thursday to a joint session of the House and Senate, the governor also asked members to “please join me in supporting our request for an additional $100 million for higher education, which would cap tuition increases at 6 percent and put college within the reach of many families.”

Lawmakers of both parties already have been discussing enrollment and transparency proposals and the higher education funding boost first surfaced in the governor’s 2014-15 budget plan, unveiled last November. But Democratic legislators have taken up the higher education idea as their own and on Wednesday introduced a measure, Senate Bill 14-001, that contains the extra funding and the lid on tuition increases.

No bills have yet been introduced on changing the state’s current single-day student count to an average daily membership system, nor on the issue of district and school financial transparency.

Both were part of an omnibus measure, Senate Bill 13-213, which was passed last year but didn’t go into effect because voters in November rejected the $1 billion tax increase needed to pay for the bill.

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