Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, has taken up the cause of spending transparency this session with a bill requiring school districts to post their check registers online in searchable format. The Senate Education Committee recently gave approval to the measure, but in its altered version, such disclosure would become optional.

HudakFTS File Photo

Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, offered an amendment that stripped the bill of any power by changing its language from requiring school spending transparency to “strongly encouraging” it. Harvey objected to the amendment, saying it gutted his bill. “Democrats went from being the party of transparency to lackeys for the bureaucrats,” he said.

When faced with strong objections to his bill from Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Arvada, Harvey cited what he called an “interesting school expenditure,” which included $103.81 on two lunches for Hudak and Jeffco Superintendent Cindy Stevenson. Hudak had no response to Harvey's statement, but she did become visibly red in the face.

Libertarian activists came to the capitol to hear the bill debated on the Senate floor today, but it was laid over to Friday. They rallied this morning on the east steps of the Capitol urging Democrats to take school transparency seriously.