Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, a former school principal who has a son and two daughters-in-law who currently are teachers, spoke in favor of SB 1418, the public school budget bill. "I have taught and run schools in Idaho and in Washington for over 30 years, and during that time we had tough times," he said. "This is not the first time - it's the worst. ... But we have had tough times before. And yet we as administrators and we as teachers rallied, and we still did our best to work with those children and do our best for them." Hammond contended that class sizes won't have to rise under the proposed budget. "Actually, I am optimistic that this is not a long-term problem for us, that we will turn it around," he said.

Said Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, "I believe it is the very best that we can do." He said, "Our economy has put us in this position. ... Our constituents expect us to balance our budget and to do the very best that we can."