Longtime Boise school trustee Janet Orndorff told the House Education Committee, "Please remove sections 6, 10, 11 and 12 from SB 1108. Sections 10 and 11 impose rules on districts that are heavy-handed and impose unnecessary bureaucracy. Section 10 removes the 99 percent floor. ... Removing the 99 percent floor and terminating teachers in October with a stipend equal to 10 percent of their salary would devastate rural districts." She said, "Teachers know that if they lose their job in October, they will have almost no chance of finding openings that time of the year. If this happens to a new teacher with three months or less of employment, he or she won't even be eligible for unemployment insurance." She said, "These sections of the bill will make it almost impossible for rural districts to hire teachers, great or otherwise."

Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, said that provision is a problem for Mountain Home, where students leave because of military transfers of their parents. Those students don't go to other Idaho school districts, he said, so the state is not "double funding" the now; that's been state schools Supt. Tom Luna's criticism if the 99 percent funding provision.

Orndorff said lawmakers might wonder why a Boise trustee is so concerned about rural districts. "I care and I know each one of you cares about every student in this state," she said. "I am very, very concerned that the students in these districts that are losing the teachers and losing the possibility of having great teachers will be terribly adversely affected." Forty percent of the school districts in the state receive funding under the 99 percent provision, she said.

Other sections of the bill, she said, impose onerous, bureaucratic requirements on school districts on things like paperwork certifying that all teachers have been notified about available liability insurance providers and that they've signed and certified, on the first day of school each year, that they'd received the list. Orndorff said simply posting the list on the state Education Department's website would accomplish the same goal. Asked about the performance pay bill, SB 1110, Orndorff said there's no funding for it, except to perhaps cut teacher pay to fund bonuses - which she said would make no sense.