Rep. Bob Nonini, House Education Committee chairman, said there is a page and a half of people signed up to testify on HB 481, the bill to lift the charter school cap. Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, immediately made a motion to send the bill to the full House with a recommendation that it "do-pass." There was a pause, and then Nonini said he'd hold the motion and call on those who have signed up to testify first, plus allow for committee questions. Penni Cyr, president of the Idaho Education Association, was the first called to testify; she opposed the bill, though she said the IEA does support charter schools to promote innovative practices in education.

However, she said, "Charter schools do take resources away from neighborhood schools that most of our children attend. With resources still so scarce, now is not the time to divert more resources away from those schools."