School districts will be required to post their expenditures on their Web sites under a bill approved in the Senate this morning.

"People are very interested in where the government is spending their money," said Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, the chief sponsor of SB 57. "Transparency is very important to the people of Colorado."

In effect, school districts are required to post their checkbooks, showing how the money was spent and which companies got it. Districts don't have to report the salaries of individual employees by name.

The bill takes effect on Sept. 1, 2011.

The House education committee watered down the bill last month, voting only to "encourage" districts to post their expenditures. The full Senate vote reverses that decision.

Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, the education committee chairman, argued that posting the information will be costly to the school districts.

Today's decision was made in a series of unrecorded floor votes. A final, recorded Senate vote could come as early as Monday, after which the bill goes to the House.