Reps. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, and Branden Durst, D-Boise, are presenting their education "mastery" pilot project bill, HB 493, to the Senate Education Committee. Midway through the presentation, senators called on state Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna, who was in the audience, to answer some questions about the bill, and he spoke favorably about it. "I understand that this bill is just a step toward what we've been working on for the past couple of years," Luna said, including "awarding high school credits based on mastery of subject and not just on seat time." He said, "I think it fits well in with what we are doing."

The bill would encourage students at all levels to test out of classes by passing end-of-course exams, and would offer college scholarships as an incentive to students who graduate from high school at least a year early. It'd start off with a limited number of school districts and charter schools participating, for a pilot project. The idea, Thayn and Durst said, is to provide incentives for learning and save money at the same time. "We need to start to innovate in education - the things that we've ben doing haven't worked as well as we would have liked," Durst said. Said Thayn, "This bill isn't necessarily going to make it easy to move ahead through school, we just want to make it possible."

So far, senators have lots of questions about the legislation, which earlier passed the House on a 61-7 vote.