Cameron may co-sponsor Nonini’s new teacher-pay bill…

House Education Chairman Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, said he met with Senate Finance Chairman Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, and he was supportive of Nonini’s new compromise version of Cameron’s legislation to cancel future teacher pay cuts required by the “Students Come First” school reform laws, while also writing in that the reform law’s provisions, including laptop computers, would be top funding priorities within the school budget. “Everyone seems to support it,” Nonini said, saying Cameron likely will co-sponsor the bill.

Cameron said, “He asked me if I would, and I said I would be favorably disposed, but I wanted to check with my Senate colleagues. … I don’t want to be the only senator on board.” Cameron said he’s checking with the co-sponsors of his bill, SB 1331, which passed the Senate unanimously and had 15 co-sponsors; Nonini never held a hearing on it in the House committee. “I suspect we will end up being co-sponsors,” Cameron said.