As the Senate was voting 34-1 in favor of the budget for the coming year for the office of the state superintendent of schools today, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Boise, sounded a warning. Citing restrictive “intent language” in the spending bill, the Boise Republican suggested the Senate might need to take a second look at Ybarra’s budget, Idaho EdNews reports. Winder’s comment was a thinly veiled reference to the Statehouse impasse over a reading test, known as the Idaho Reading Indicator.

While Ybarra wants to launch a new statewide reading test in 2018-19, JFAC’s intent language forbids Ybarra from issuing or pursuing a contract for a new assessment, EdNews reporter Kevin Richert writes. Some key legislators are questioning the need for a statewide test, and would prefer to allow local districts to pick a test. House Education Committee Chairwoman Julie VanOrden has drafted a bill to allow local districts to choose a test — but the bill’s prospects are uncertain. It was originally slated for a committee hearing Friday, but it was abruptly pulled from the agenda Thursday.

You can read Richert’s full report here. The reading test dispute has emerged as a major sticking point to adjourning the 2018 legislative session. Lawmakers hope to wrap up their business next week. Winder still voted in favor of the budget bill; only Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, voted against it.

Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, said this afternoon, “We’re working diligently to try to find a compromise – we have been all session.” Horman, who leads the crafting of the public school budgets in JFAC, said, “The current IRI has been fully funded for the coming year. … Regardless of what else happens, the funds are in place for that to still happen.”

As far as the development of a new test, she said, “It’s just incredibly fluid right now.”