Robert Mayer told the Senate Education Committee that in his view, any teacher who can't handle 19.8 kids in a classroom, or even 30 or 35, is "in the wrong business." He added, "I think you ought to ... support Steven Thayn's concept to severely limit or defund entirely the kindergarten system."

Laurie Kiester, a teacher at Parma High School, told the senators, "You've been given piles of research that show increasing class sizes is bad for education. You have been given petitions from students." She said online classes are not right for all students. "Mr. Luna has touted choice in education, and yet you want to mandate to us the type of education we give our children."

Sen. Russ Fulcher, responding to a comment from Kiester, said, "If there's others in the group that somehow think that the fix is in and that we already know what vote counts are, for what it's worth Ms. Kiester, I don't know."

Renee Sinclair of Apple Inc., told the committee, "Technology needs to be treated as a tool, not a curriculum area." She said the Luna plan does that. "Research suggests that classroom technology initiatives are only as effective as their teachers. It's when teachers use the technology tools to connect students to resources ... that students become more engaged." She added, "One of the things I like best about your legislation is that it provides funding for teacher professional development."

Kaitlyn Lange, a Meridian high school student who noted that she's not on a class assignment, spoke forcefully against the plan. "If you want students to succeed, put more into the curriculum and increase the standards," she told the lawmakers.