A key piece of Gov. Butch Otter’s literacy initiative is on hold for now, Idaho EdNews reports this afternoon, after several members of the Senate Education Committee asked skeptical questions about the plan. The measure, HB 526, is the cornerstone of Otter’s $10.7 million initiative, aimed at getting kids reading at grade level by the third grade. After senators had more questions than they had time, the committee cut off discussion of the bill to adjourn to a late-afternoon Senate floor session, EdNews reports in its daily roundup here. “We want to have a good thorough discussion on this,” said chairman Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls; he said the panel will take up the bill again on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The bill specifies that students in kindergarten through the 3^rd grade who score “below basic,” the lowest score on the Idaho Reading Indicator test, be given at least 60 hours of reading intervention to help them get up to par; those who score “basic,” which still lags below grade level, would get 30 hours. Sen. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, questioned whether the bill would create a perverse incentive for school districts to report more low scores – because that’d bring them more funding. HB 526 passed the House last Friday on a 62-2 vote.