The Senate has given the same vote - 26-7 - to the third public school appropriation bill, HB 325, for the operations division, matching the vote on the two earlier divisions. Again, there was emotional debate. "I'm very sad to be part of the first legislature to cut funding for our public school system," Senate Minority Leader Kate Kelly, D-Boise, told the Senate. "We're doing something that we've never done before, and we're leaving our kids behind." Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, countered, "Our children are important and they deserve the best, and of all budgets that we have set for every agency, education got the best. ... This is not being driven by this legislature, this is being driven by the economy."

After that, the final two pieces of the school budget, HB 326 on children's programs and HB 327 on facilities, passed the Senate easily without debate (the votes: 33-0 on HB 326, 32-1 on HB 327). Those two pieces don't contain the controversial cuts that are centered in the first three school budget bills. Now, all five school budget bills have passed both houses and are headed to the governor's desk - a key move toward ending the legislative session. All five actually emerged on the House calendar two weeks ago, but they hung there without action while the two houses battled on education funding and other issues.

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