Gov. Butch Otter has vetoed his first bill of the 2015 legislative session, taking his red VETO stamp to HB 126, a measure sponsored by Rep. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, to change the way support units are calculated in the school funding formula. “This legislation seeks to address the issue of how best to enable state funding to ‘follow the students’ who move from one school to another at various points in the academic year,” Otter wrote in his veto message. “But the result of the measure actually will be double funding of some students while other funding priorities remain unmet.”

The change would have cost the state general fund $1.7 million next year. Otter noted that both the Idaho Association of School Administrators and the Idaho School Boards Association opposed HB 126; he said his education stakeholders task force has a committee working on the issue and hopes to present a “better, broader, more equitable solution” next year. You can read Otter's veto message here.