Senate Ed finally passes HB 65

Just as soon as the Senate Education Committee convened this afternoon, Sen. Branden Durst, D-Boise, moved to approve HB 65 and send it to the Senate with a recommendation that it pass. Sen. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, seconded the motion. “It seems to me that for the benefit for the students in our schools, this is probably the time that we should get this done for them so they can have some certainty in this school year,” Durst said. “I’m glad that we finally had a chance to make a motion on it.”

The bill, which passed the House unanimously more than a month ago, keeps school funding whole for the current school year; otherwise, the failure of Propositions 1, 2 and 3 would have put $30 million of current-year funding in limbo. “I’ve gotten a lot of emails saying we shouldn’t put anything in that the props took out,” Thayn said. But he said those emailers don’t seem to understand that the $30 million is part of the current year’s school budget, aside from the controversial reforms on which the propositions focused. “I think this is the thing to do,” Thayn said. “This is just this year’s fix.”

Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, complimented committee Chairman John Goedde on his work on the bill. “The largest school district in the state is mostly in my backyard,” he said. “I know this has had a big impact and is extremely important to them. Your work and persistence on this is not lost on me and my school district.”

The bill was approved on a unanimous voice vote and now moves to the full Senate.