(1) The department shall contract with a vendor, in partnership with a district, to create a quality teacher recruitment program to recruit, select, train, and retain highly qualified teachers to teach in public schools and in school districts in the state that can demonstrate a historic difficulty in recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers. In contracting with a vendor in partnership with a district, the department shall ensure that the vendor will place highly qualified teachers in the district by the beginning of the 2014-15 school year.

(2) In awarding a contract pursuant to subsection (1) of this section, the department shall take into consideration the number of districts in which the vendor will place highly qualified teachers, the number of highly qualified teachers that the vendor will place, and the potential number of children who will be taught by the highly qualified teachers. The department shall ensure that it awards the contract to one or more vendors that satisfy the following criteria:

(a) The vendor commits to working with one or more school districts in the state for at least two years to recruit and place highly qualified teachers;

(b) The vendor has a documented history of recruiting, training, and retaining highly qualified teachers in areas of Colorado or other states that have had historic difficulty in recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers;

(c) The vendor commits to placing only teachers who are deemed highly qualified;

(d) The vendor can demonstrate that the teachers it has placed in public schools and school districts in the past, either in Colorado or in other states, achieve high academic growth from their students based on state achievement data or independent studies;

(e) The vendor has a documented history of providing professional development for teachers, including induction, training, on-going support, and evaluations; and

(f) The vendor commits to matching no less than one hundred percent of any moneys that the department pays through a contract entered into pursuant to subsection (1) of this section. A vendor that responds to the department's solicitation for a contract issued pursuant to subsection (1) of this section shall provide written documentation from one or more private or corporate donors that pledge to make gifts, grants, or donations to the vendor that, in total, equal at least the amount that the department has specified will be available for the purposes of a contract pursuant to subsection (1) of this section for the applicable fiscal year. The written documentation must also include the date by which the vendor will receive the gifts, grants, or donations to be used in furtherance of the requirements of this article.

(3) The vendor with which the department contracts to operate a program pursuant to this article shall use any moneys paid to the vendor in connection with the contract to recruit, train, and place highly qualified teachers to teach in public schools or school districts in Colorado that have had historic difficulty in recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers. The vendor shall provide the necessary administrative services to operate the program and shall not use any state moneys for these purposes.