The second motion in the public school budget, for the teachers division - which includes a cut in base salaries -  passed on a 14-6 vote in JFAC, with two Republicans, Sens. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, and Mitch Toryanski, R-Boise, joining the committee's four Democrats in opposing it. "I have been pleasantly surprised that we are were we're at today with this budget," said Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, who supported the motion. He noted that the overall-funds decrease in the school budget as a whole, as proposed, is only 1.3 percent, though that figure is skewed by the inclusion of the second year of a federal jobs allocation even though the first year wasn't counted into the budget, since it came in after the budget was set; a more accurate percentage may be a drop of 3 percent. Even so, Mortimer said, that's "amazing to me." He said, "I want to compliment all those that have worked so diligently to find the funds necessary to protect our K-12 education budget."

Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, countered that the budget could have avoided the cuts to schools by setting a different revenue projection figure that she said would have been more realistic. Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, noted that the pay cuts will hit some teachers harder than others, depending on where they are on the state's salary grid. Now, the joint committee is moving to the operations portion of the school budget.