Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on the public school budget set in JFAC today, which, at $1.48 billion in state funds, matches Gov. Butch Otter’s call for a 7.4 percent increase and fully funds the first year of a five-year plan to boost Idaho teachers’ salaries.

Two Democrats on the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee pushed for a larger boost, saying because of big growth in its student population, Idaho still isn’t boosting school funding back up to where it was in 2009; they cited 4-day school weeks to bolster their argument. In 2007, Idaho had just 19 public schools across the state on four-day school weeks, according to Idaho Education News; today it has 54 in 14 school districts.

But Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, argued that four-day weeks in schools aren’t all bad. “Although there are people that have concerns about that, also having one of those districts in my legislative district, the majority of the community has come to see some advantages to that for teachers and teacher preparation time, for students and the opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities,” she said. “And it really has ended up being embraced.” She called the budget set by JFAC “responsible.”