The House and Senate Education committees are opening a joint “listening hearing” this afternoon, to hear from the public on education issues, with the focus on the 20 recommendations from the governor’s education improvement task force. Comments will be limited to three minutes; the House and Senate committee chairmen announced that “citizens will be permitted to comment on other areas of our education system as well, except for Idaho Common Core Standards.” That’s because a separate forum last week address those standards. The listening hearing is in the Lincoln Auditorium; you can watch live here.

"We're going to stay away from Common Core - we spent two hours on that last week," Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, announced at the opening of the hearing. Drawing laughter, he added, "It's been suggested that we have another listening session, the next one to interview state superintendent candidates." Said Goedde, "We'll take that under advisement."