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Bill would require school districts to adopt three-year budgets and enrollment projections
Summary
Lawmakers debated Senate Bill 14-72, which would require school districts to prepare three-year budgets and include multi-year enrollment projections; proponents said the change would improve transparency amid steep enrollment declines in some districts.
The committee discussed a bill that would change school budgeting practices to require multi-year planning and enrollment projections.
Senate Bill 14-72 would "instruct the school district to prepare a budget for the next 3 fiscal years rather than for only the next fiscal year," and would require the budget format to include enrollment projections for each of the next three years and the rate of change in student enrollment between the current year and the fifth year prior, staff told the committee. The bill was placed on the third-read consent calendar.
Why it matters: Supporters said multi-year budgeting would better align expenditures with enrollment trends. Representative Chris said Isaac Elementary School District experienced more than a 30% enrollment decline between 2016 and 2025, and noted a 20% decline between 2020 and 2025. He said the change would prompt school boards "to get engaged with their administration on the topic of finance" and emphasized school boards' fiduciary responsibilities: "they and they alone ... can approve the budget, not the administration." Supporters described the proposal as promoting "radical transparency" in school finance.
Discussion and next steps: Committee members had no further questions in session; staff said the bill was available for follow-up with the sponsor. There was no committee vote recorded during this session.
Ending: The bill remains on committee calendars pending any further questions or amendments.
