Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, said this year's school budget marks many firsts, including the first time, he said, that education stakeholders were brought in to help legislative budget writers craft the budget, and the first time that public testimony was taken on the budget. Though the Legislature's joint budget committee doesn't take public testimony, Goedde said his Senate Education Committee did. Goedde said he agreed with Sen. Dean Cameron's earlier comments that this is the best lawmakers can do for schools this year. "I agree, it isn't going to get any better if this one doesn't go through," he said.

Testifying in opposition to the bill, Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, said, "Our public schools have been on a starvation diet for a decade - they are just hurting." He said some school districts will try to pass property tax levies to make up for some of the cuts, but that'll make the state's school system less uniform "and potentially less constitutional." He also suggested the budget will leave Idaho "packing our students into classrooms like sardines."