Senate Democrats have issued a statement calling today "a sad day for educators," after the Senate's two 20-15 votes in favor of the first two school reform bills; you can read their full statement here. Senate Minority Leader Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, said, "It saddens me that my colleages in the Senate would pass these laws knowing full well the extent to which our citizens are offended by Tom Luna's mean-spirited plan." Malepeai also discusses in the statement the Senate Democrats' reasons for forcing the bills to be read in full before they were voted on, a move they hadn't made since the special session in 2006 on eliminating the school property tax levy. "We requested the bills be read at length because we believe that this legislation is being rushed through the Legislature and we had deep concerns that many of our fellow senators intended to vote yes but had yet to read the bills in their entirety," he said.