Committee advances bill making state auditor's school-capital review discretionary

The House Education Committee on Tuesday moved House Bill 11 91 to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation after sponsors described the measure as a technical cleanup.

Sponsors Representative Johnson and Representative Veil Bacon said the bill changes language that currently requires the state auditor to "annually examine" school-district records related to state-education-fund expenditures for capital construction, replacing that mandate with language giving the auditor discretion to conduct such reviews. They told the committee the change reflects a 2008 shift in how capital-construction projects are funded through the Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) program and a 2021 statutory cleanup that left an unused annual-examination clause.

"What this bill would do is it would revise the requirement that states the state auditor should annually examine ... and instead make this review at the state auditor's discretion," Representative Johnson said, framing the change as a cleanup of leftover requirements.

Why it matters: sponsors and auditors said the underlying auditing authority is unchanged and that the bill merely stops requiring a specific, routinely unused report. The auditors' office told the committee that the Department of Education (CDE) continues to collect and post charter-school capital-construction data and that the auditor's compilation of that data had become duplicative of other sources.

"CDE does collect this information and they post it on their website," Jenny Page, director of communications for the Office of the State Auditor, told the committee. "This bill is really just a cleanup bill because we were the middle man in getting that information and passing it on to committees."

Office of the State Auditor staff clarified the change does not eliminate audits: the office still conducts statewide financial audits and local governments and charter schools continue to undergo annual audits under existing law, the witnesses said.

Committee members asked whether the change would reduce transparency for rural districts or alter which schools can access capital funds. Sponsors and auditors said it would not change eligibility for funding (that authority sits in Title 22) and that the auditor's office and the legislative audit committee can still request targeted examinations when needed.

Representative Bacon, the bill mover, told colleagues the change will save staff time and reduce redundant reporting without limiting the auditor's broader authority to audit funds and controls. Representative Johnson seconded the motion.

The motion passed; the chair announced the bill had "passed unanimously" and would proceed to the Committee of the Whole.

What happens next: House Bill 11 91 will be considered by the Committee of the Whole. The committee did not amend the measure during the hearing.