HELENA — From mothers to business executives to high school students, everybody seemed to like Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s $138 million education bill Friday, saying it does what needs to be done for the state’s schools.

“I would like you to consider this as an investment, rather than a government expense,” said Lyle Knight of Billings, the president of First Interstate Bank.

Knight, like many who testified before the Senate Education Committee, said the bill is a needed, comprehensive package that boosts Montana’s school system from top to bottom.

Senate Bill 152, sponsored by Sen. Don Ryan, D-Great Falls, includes nearly all of Schweitzer’s education initiatives for the next two years: Funding for full-day kindergarten, increased money for public schools, scholarships for students at Montana colleges, loan forgiveness for teaching graduates in Montana and a program to fund school construction and maintenance in the future.

Ryan, who chairs the Education Committee, urged the panel and the Senate to take fast action on the bill and move it to the House. If funding is approved quickly, school districts can know early how much state money they’ll have for their budgets this year, he said.

The bill faced no opposition Friday before the Senate panel, but it could face tough political sledding in the Montana House, which is controlled by Republicans.

On Friday, however, it was all praise and accolades for the bill — almost.

Lobbyists for Montana’s education community lauded Schweitzer for his commitment to funding education, but said the measure falls short of what schools need.

Eric Burke of MEA-MFT, the union representing public school teachers and other school employees, said the loan-forgiveness program and increased funding for schools will help in districts that are having trouble attracting new teachers.

Yet teaching graduates have an average debt-load of $22,000 from attending college, he said, and many other states offers loan-forgiveness programs and signing bonuses for new teachers.

The bill should be amended to increase a state per-teacher allotment to school districts by about $1,200, adding another $30 million to its state funds for public schools, Burke and others said.

“Senate Bill 152 does a lot to address these (shortcomings), but it does not go far enough,” he said.

But most of those who testified Friday gave SB152 a strong endorsement.

Sandi Luckey, a mother from Helena, said she’s looking forward to having her 4-year-old daughter attend full-day kindergarten, because her daughter is excited about learning.

“I testify today as the mother of a 4-year-old who is ready for high school, but I’d like to start her off in kindergarten first,” Luckey said.

She also said that for a single mother, having a child in full-day kindergarten will be easier to develop a schedule for taking her to and picking her up from school.

Emma Johnson, a high school junior from Anaconda, said she intends to study at college to become a teacher, and that the cost of attending college is daunting. The scholarships in the bill and the loan-forgiveness program for teachers can help ease that load, she said.

Knight, whose bank has scores of offices throughout Montana and Wyoming, said anything the state can do to enhance and educate its workforce is good for business. He said Wyoming has been using its budget surplus to invest heavily in education and is using that to try to attract business to the state, and suggested that Montana could and should do the same.

Knight also noted that he started attending school when he was four years old.

Bob Ream, a former forestry professor at the University of Montana, said he watched during the 1980s and 1990s as tuition costs consistently rose, making it difficult or impossible for many people to work their way through college.

Ream, also a former legislator and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, said the bill is a “good start” toward alleviating the high cost of college for many Montanans.

“Many of our students incur huge, huge debt, and that’s unconscionable,” he said.