Carolina Journal‘s Lindsay Marchello reports:

The House K-12 Education committee OK’d the statewide school construction bond bill, but questioned the formula used to decide how much each county would get for school construction.

The committee met Tuesday to debate House Bill 241. It pledges $1.9 billion to fund the construction and renovation of public school buildings, community colleges, and facilities for the UNC System. Of that, $1.5 billion would go to PreK-12 public schools. Community colleges would get $200 million, and the state’s universities would receive the rest.

But before schools can get the money, voters would have to approve the measure on the 2020 March primary ballot. And it would have to pass a skeptical state Senate. Senators would prefer to direct current tax collections to school construction instead of borrowing money.

The statewide school construction bond is spearheaded by House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland. Reps. Linda Johnson, R-Cabarrus; Jeffrey Elmore, R-Wilkes; and Craig Horn, R-Union are also primary sponsors.

“I believe that this bill is critical as we move forward to the 21st century to make sure our classrooms are the best they can be,” Moore told lawmakers during the committee hearing.

Read more here.