“I think they understand the gravity, not only of the votes they made, but the situation that we find ourselves in,” Luna said. Years of low tax revenues for schools have forced the need for reforms, Luna said.

Luna’s reform plan is split up into three pieces of legislation, which he says are interdependent. One of those pieces, dubbed a modernization plan that includes upgrades in technology, requirements for online learning, and a change in state funding that could lead to higher class sizes and a drop in 770 teaching jobs, cleared the committee by a 5 to 4 vote.

Sen. John Andreason, R-Boise, joined the two Democrats on the committee in opposing the whole plan, and Sen. Mitch Toryanski, R-Boise, voted against modernization plan. Toryanski said that part of the reform plan isn’t backed by education stakeholders, such as teachers and school boards, who need to buy in to changes to how schools operate.

“At this point, at least where my district is concerned, this plan is not quite ripe,” Toryanski said.

Andreason opposed all the plans, saying that he’d like Luna to meet with stakeholders for several days to improve some flaws in the plan. He said he’s received 1,400 e-mails, with 90 percent opposed to the plan.

The rest of the Republicans on the committee approved all of Luna’s reforms. The money saved from eliminating 770 teaching jobs would to go classroom technology as well as a merit pay system for educators. The plan also limits bargaining between teachers and school boards, as well as some protections in teacher contracts.

“This is the direction that we need to go,” said Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls.

“Now’s the time for reform, and this lays out the parameters for what [Luna] thinks is the avenue forward,” said Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, who chairs the committee.

Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Eagle, said the reform can still be tweaked, either as it moves through the Legislature or, if it passes, by a task force set up to develop the technology portion of the reforms. “We need to give this a chance, and give people a chance to work on it,” Winder said.

Democrats on the committee, who tried to end the plan, repeated some of their concerns. Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said the changes to labor negotiations and teacher contracts could threaten the educational system, saying it could open a Pandora’s box that could cleanse certain types of teachers and spur good teachers to leave the state.

Senate Minority Leader Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, also had concerns with that part of the plan. “This really, really, really hits at the heart of teachers and I believe this is going to be a restraint to those coming into the state and it’s going to have an effect on retention,” he said.

Before lawmakers voted on the plans, educational leaders also voiced some concerns. Byron Yankey, the new interim director of the Idaho Association of School Administrators, said his group was worried about changes to the funding formula for schools as well as funding protections to districts with declining enrollment.

“Do not add new programs and additional expenditures in a time when austerity is required,” Yankey told lawmakers.

Sherri Wood with the Idaho Education Association, which represents teachers, said lawmakers need to heed what they heard during days of public hearings on the plan, which featured a majority of people opposed to the plan. “Many Idahoans simply don’t feel they’ve been heard,” Wood said.

The plan now awaits debate and a vote by all 35 senators. Sen. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, who backed the plan, said he thinks the package will clear the House, though the modernization plan, which Toryanski and Andreason opposed, will have the toughest time on the Senate floor. “It’ll be close, but I think it will be pass,” Pearce said.

On Thursday, the committee will go through the changes in one of the revised pieces of legislation from Luna, which deals with technology and funding changes. It will also hear from leaders of state education groups, who kicked off the formal hearings, and Luna’s office. After that, the committee could recommend the plan for a full Senate vote. That would likely require the support of five of the seven Republicans on the committee, since both Democrats have raised many concerns about the plan.

On Wednesday, the committee heard from one of the education groups, as members of the Idaho School Boards Association (ISBA) filled the Senate auditorium. ISBA President Dallas Clinger said the group supported many of the changes to labor negotiations, but was opposed to other parts of the plan.

“We find our opinions are as varied as the scenery in Idaho,” said Clinger, an American Falls School Board member. He said a poll of ISBA members showed they support many of the spending plans in Luna’s reforms, but not the methods of paying for them or the requirements on local districts.

Luna’s plan would set up bonuses for teachers and increase technology in classrooms. Those added costs would be covered by reducing funding for teachers and staff, which could increase class sizes.

Senators asked Clinger where lawmakers should get the funding for new programs or existing school funding, which could face further cuts due to a budget shortfall. “I don’t know what the answer is,” Clinger said. “I do know that sometimes the answer can be found if enough time is given to deliberate.” He said that there may not be enough time in the legislative session to deliberate on such an answer.

Later in the hearing, Sen. John Andreason, R-Boise, raised concerns about changes in policy that would require districts to look at performance, rather than longevity, when making a reduction in its workforce due to a lack of funding. Andreason said he was concerned that teachers close to retirement could be laid off.

Jason Hancock with the Idaho State Department of Education said that as it stands, newer teachers would likely be the brunt of a layoff. “My heart goes out to the older teacher, but it also goes out to the younger teacher,” Hancock said. He also said policymakers should focus on student achievement, which could be a factor in layoff decisions, rather than teachers’ time on the job.

Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said the change in policy could keep teachers from going to smaller districts, which could be more prone to layoffs. “We still have to attract [teachers] and make it a position they want to stay in,” she said.

The panel has four days of hearings scheduled for the plan, starting on Monday, when Luna and various stakeholders will talk with lawmakers about the plan. Members of the public are invited to testify on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Committee chairman Sen. John Goedde, R-Couer d’Alene,said he’d listen to the testimony, and there are small fixes that need to be investigated. “I’m not married to what we’ve got in front of us,” Goedde said. “Conceptually, I believe it is the right step forward. We just have to make sure that all the mechanics are in place.”

Goedde is sponsoring the two pieces of legislation that make up Luna’s plan. The two other sponsors are the top Republicans in the Idaho Senate and House, Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, and House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale.

Luna’s reforms include bonuses for teachers and increased technology in classrooms, including computers for every high school student and requirements to take online classes. Those efforts would be paid for by raising the ratio of teachers to students, which would lead to 770 teacher jobs being eliminated. The plan also restricts bargaining by teacher unions and ends tenure protections for new teachers.

“I want the bulk of Luna’s plan to go through,” said Sen. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, who serves on the education committee. “I may even have to vote for a part of it that I don’t love.” He said he’s concerned about laptops in schools and online classes, though the online classes could help students take college courses, which would allow them to graduate high school and start college as a junior.

“The kids that are not the high achievers and aren’t sharp, I’m a little concerned about requiring six online classes,” Pearce said. “I have a little heartburn, because some of these kids aren’t going to fit in these online classes.”

Other Republicans on the committee also praised the general idea of Luna’s plan, but wouldn’t confirm that they’d vote for the plan. “There are some questions I had in terminology in the current proposal, and it’s going to take a while to work through those questions,” said Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise.

Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, called the plan innovative, and singled out the performance bonuses for teachers. “We need to pay our good teachers more,” Mortimer said. “The difficult parts, of course, are making sure that we maintain student-teacher contact, and I think that we can do that.”

“I’m going to support some kind of reform,” said Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian. He also said he’s interested in hearing alternatives during the hearings, rather than hearing opponents sit back and throw stones at the plan.

Two Boise Republicans on the committee said they hadn’t made up their mind. Sen. John Andreason, R-Boise, said he’s received more than 500 e-mails in opposition to the plan.

Sen. Mitch Toryanski, R-Boise, said he wants to hear from as many people as possible during the week of hearings. “I know a lot of people have made up their mind already — I haven’t,” Toryanski said. “I try to keep it open until decision-making time’s upon us.” He said that the biggest concern in the plan is the proposed increase in class sizes.

Five of the seven Republicans in the education committee will need to support Luna’s legislation for it to go forward. Both of the Democrats on the committee oppose the plan.

Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said increased class sizes top the list of why she opposes the plan. “I cannot conceive of supporting a plan that increases class sizes,” LeFavour said. “That’s the absolute wrong direction to go.”

Senate Minority Leader Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, said the plan has many problems and could be costly. “I don’t want us to be an experimental station,” Malepeai said. “It’s more expensive to come back and restructure if this thing doesn’t work than to get it right.”

Malepeai said he’d like Luna to collaborate with other education leaders on a new reform plan, which is why he hopes the current plan on the table doesn’t make it out of the Senate committee.

“If it goes down, there’s the potential there to bring all the stakeholders together and figure this thing out,” Malepeai said. “But it appears this thing is on the fast track.”

Using information provide by our sister site, IdahoVotes.com, IdahoReporter.com has determined that Clark, who is retiring from the Legislature and will not seek re-election, missed 122 of the 474 votes taken on the House floor, while Shepherd missed 106.  Andreason far outpaced any other senator by missing 119 votes of the 353 taken in the Senate.  The No. 2 senator on the list of missed votes is Sen. Shirley McKague, R-Meridian, who missed voting 32 times in 2010.

Andreason missed the majority of his votes toward the end of the session on March 24 and 25.  On those two days, in an effort to hasten the end of the session, the Senate voted on a much-higher-normal-amount of legislation, which resulted in Andreason’s elevated vote count.  IdahoReporter.com contacted the senator to inquire about his absence on those two days.  He said his wife was taken to the hospital by ambulance and that he spent two days in the hospital with her.

Likewise, Clark and Shepherd both missed the bulk of of their votes during the last few days of the session.  Clark, in an interview withIdahoReporter.com, said that he missed much of the last three days because he needed to have his blood drawn by his doctor in north Idaho.  Clark said that his doctor requires that his blood be drawn for testing once a year and that his doctor prefers March because Clark often reports high levels of stress during that month, which can have significant effects on test results.  Had he not been able to travel back to north Idaho for the appointment, Clark said that his doctor would have ordered him into a Boise hospital anyway.

“If you look at my record, I’m not a guy who walks away from votes,” said Clark.

Shepherd’s elevated count, like Clark’s, resulted from a necessary medical appointment.  Shepherd told IdahoReporter.com that she had scheduled an eye appointment six months in advance with a doctor in Spokane and that she could not miss it.  She left Boise the Thursday morning before the Legislature adjourned, which meant she missed most of her votes in the last three days of the session, when  House members voted on more than 80 bills and resolutions.

Several legislators in both houses were able to make it through the duration of the session without missing a single vote.  In the House, Reps. Fred Wood, R-Burley, Pat Takasugi, R-Wilder, Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, Bill Killen, D-Boise, and Carlos Bilbao, R-Emmett, all completed the session without any missed votes.  The Senate, though with fewer members than the House overall, saw more members with no missed votes.  Sens. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, Jim Hammond, R-Coeur D’Alene, Lee Heinrich, R-Cascade, Kate Kelly, D-Boise, Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, John McGee, R-Caldwell, Curt McKenzie, R-Boise, Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, Melinda Smyser, R-Parma, and Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, all voted every bill that came to the Senate floor.

Curious as to how many votes your legislator missed? See here.

“We have to adjourn at about 3 p.m. at the latest to allow the northern Idaho people to catch their flights (home),” Geddes told IdahoReporter.com.  “I think we’ll work hard until then … We’ll see how it goes.”  Geddes said if work by the Idaho House and Senate isn’t finished by Friday, it should wrap up on Monday.

Earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, had said lawmakers would be coming back to the Capitol next week to finish the session.  On Thursday afternoon, after a caucus meeting, Davis said on the Senate floor that lawmakers would attempt to close out the session this week.  “It is my intent, and our collective intent, to work aggressively as we can to see if it’s possible to adjourn by tomorrow,” he said.  “We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it is within the realm of reason.”  At the end of the Senate’s floor session, Davis said senators had approved 62 pieces of legislation, but that work might not have been enough to send them home finished on Friday.  “The wheels have kind of fallen off,” Davis said on the floor.

Most of the legislation approved Thursday received little debate and 34-0 votes.  Sen. John Andreason, R-Boise, was absent all day from the Senate.  Each additional day of the legislative session costs the state around $35,000.

Diana Painter, a senior majoring in anthropology, said she wants Idaho lawmakers to change the higher ed budget. “It’s not too late for them to suggest something different,” she said. “I don’t think it’s fair that students are being double teamed by the economy and the state budget.” She said she and other ISU students have met with legislators from southeast Idaho to discuss the budget for state universities and colleges. Lawmakers proposed a budget that includes a $32 million reduction for higher education.  ISU is proposing a 9.9 percent tuition and fee hike. Full-time students would pay an additional $495 a year. “For me, that’s two months’ rent,” Painter said. “It’s just the wrong time for that.”

“We were expecting a lot more (students) and we are disappointed,” said Tom Briggs, a graduate student in education, who has also been a teacher and is a member of ISU’s student senate. He said the group that came to the Capitol represents 16,000 students at ISU. He said proposed fee hikes would be especially bad for ISU students. “We’re an incredibly poor populace … We can’t handle more budget cuts.”

After a short protest on the steps of the Capitol, ISU students attended a Senate Education Committee. ”As you go to decide this budget as it goes to the floor, remember the students that are struggling,” ISU student body president Ross Knight told lawmakers. “I have seen tuition rise quickly.”

“The most difficult part of this job is to not provide enough money for K-12 and higher education,” Sen. John Andreason, R-Boise, told Knight during the meeting. “Our top priority is going to be recover from this and to increase funding for universities.”

“This is a sad day that we as a state need to bring forward this legislation to protect ourselves from an overreaching government,” said Sen. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, who guided the legislation through the Senate.  He said the push for federal health care reform reflects badly on the U.S.  “We have really changed as a nation in 220 years.  People used to come into Ellis Island dirt poor, nothing but the clothes on their back.  And their attitude was ‘give me freedom, that’s all that I ask.’  And they were happy for it.  Today, we want the government to feed us, we want them to guarantee us medical care.  I’m proud of the state of Idaho that we would consider legislation like this.  We’re saying we’ll be independent.  We don’t need you.  We’ll take care of ourselves.  And we can do a better job of doing it.”

Three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the plan.  “In my opinion, this bill ignores the history and the reality of the Supremacy Clause and the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” said Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston.  Sen. John Andreason, R-Boise, also voted against the legislation.

The third Republican who opposed the legislation was Sen. Charles Coiner of Twin Falls.  He said he fears that enacting the Health Freedom Act could lead to costly lawsuits.  The text of the proposal said it could lead to $100,000 in legal fees, but Coiner said it could be more.  “It’s not going to cost us $100,000, because [state lawyers] are going to be forced to defend the state of Idaho to the tune of many hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said.  Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, said on the floor that those legal costs could hire at least three public school teachers.

Pearce responded that the Idaho has already received an offer of free legal counsel from the free enterprise Goldwater Institute  “I guess I would ask you as Americans, what is our freedom worth?” Pearce asked.  “At $100,000, I guess it’s a pretty cheap buy.”

Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d’Alene, said the proposal would send a strong message. “For me, this legislation is an opportunity to tell the federal government to back off,” he said.  “The federal government has overreached for a long time.”  Hammond blamed both parties for extending the federal government’s reach, and said the Legislature’s non-binding memorials and resolutions would have less impact than the Health Freedom Act, which would alter state law.  “We as citizens of this state need to assert our sovereignty (and) need to assert our individual freedom.”

Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise, said the fact that it would alter state law could lead to problems down the road.  “Twice we have found unintended consequences,” she said.  The proposal was amended in the House to allow public universities to require health insurances for college students.  Kelly said the legislation would also affect legal immigrants in Idaho on J-1 visas.  That federal visa also mandates buying health insurance.  “There may very well be other unintended consequences of this bill that we don’t know right now,” Kelly said.

Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, said he favored the proposal because it would encourage Idahoans to make their own decisions about their health and life. “Do you think this government can make decisions for you with respect to your health insurance?” he asked.  “Well I don’t.  I want to make those decisions for myself.”  He also said the federal government has mismanaged the national deficit, public education, forests, and immigration, so it shouldn’t be given control over health care.  “This is a time to stop the intrusion of the federal government into every aspect of our life,” he said.

The Health Freedom Act now heads to Gov. Otter, who has said he opposes federal health care reform.  Read IdahoReporter.com‘s coverage of the Idaho Health Freedom Act here.  The text of the act is available here.

A proposal from Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden, would give give State Tax Commission the approval and authority to look into joining the Streamlined Sales Tax Compact, a 23-state effort to simplify sales taxes and collect from sales to businesses located out of state.   “This is not a proposal to create a new tax,” Jorgenson said.  “In fact, it’s a proposal to broaden the base where taxes might come from and conceivably lower the tax rate.”

“This isn’t about generating taxes,” said Sen Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston.  “This isn’t about raising money.  This is about fairness to local businesses.”  The sales tax compact has been around since 2000.  Wyoming, Washington, and Utah are already part of the agreement.  Gov. Dirk Kempthorne signed an executive order in 2005 to attend meetings for the compact, but that expired last year.  Stegner said that the multi-state agreement wouldn’t affect state sovereignty.  As an example, he said that each state could still choose to tax a Twix candy bar as a cookie, which could have a lower tax rate for food, or as candy.

Sen. John Andreason, R-Boise, said the ultimate goal of the Streamlined Sales Tax Compact is to pressure the federal government to allow states to collect sales tax on Internet sales.  He said he served on the National Conference of State Legislatures, which helped form the compact, when the issue of taxing Internet purchases was first being studies.  Similar measures to join the sales tax compact have failed in the Legislature in the past.  There’s some concern that the House may object to Jorgenson introducing the plan in the Senate, since new tax proposals must start in the House.

Read IdahoReporter.com‘s past coverage of the tax proposal here.  Read Jorgenson’s Streamlined Sales Tax legislation here.

“The resolution is dead for the year and won’t be considered this legislative session by the Senate,” said Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, who serves on the commerce committee. He said Andreason consulted with other Republican leaders before canceling the meeting and said lawmakers were running up against the clock on blocking the increase. “We’re about out of time,” he said. The COLA increase is scheduled to take effect on March 1. Stegner said the Senate would have to approve the resolution by Wednesday, which would require suspending rules and other procedural actions. He said lawmakers will keep an eye on the state retirement fund, but that the 1 percent increase won’t hurt the fund’s fiscal security. “We ultimately don’t think this PERSI COLA will jeopardize that (financial situation), but it’s something the Legislature is going to be involved in monitoring as time goes by.”

PERSI provides monthly income to eligible public sector retirees. Those defined benefits continue throughout the retirees’ lifetime. The PERSI Retirement Board decides every year about adding a COLA to retirees’ benefits. PERSI Chief Investment Officer Bob Maynard has said that money in the PERSI fund, totaling more than $10 billion, belongs to state workers.

Read IdahoReporter.com’s past coverage of lawmakers’ action on the PERSI COLA here. The failed resolution to block the 1 percent increase is available here.