Among testimony so far at this morning's House Education hearing on SB 1108 and SB 1110, the teacher contract and teacher merit pay bills:

Ryan McFarland, a tax attorney and parent from Boise, decried "fictions" about the bills, including that existing teachers' contracts would be protected or meaningful collective bargaining rights would continue. He said of teachers, "This legislation makes them targets."

Grace Owens, a retired Spanish teacher, said, "These two bills scare me."

Shawn Dygert, an ag teacher from Kuna and the head of a state association of ag teachers, pointed to technical problems in the contract bill that he said need correction. "Every time I try and read it, I find more questions ... than I have solutions," he said. Committee members asked him several questions about the specific points he raised, as well as about the teaching of agriculture in Idaho.

Mike Steiner, a retired Nampa High School teacher who spent 44 years in the classroom, said the bill "seems to conflate separate issues ... budgetary issues with structural issues. ... I don't see how one will solve the other. I'm not convinced of that. ... Hopefully the financial crisis will eventually work itself out, but these changes are permanent."

Lobbyist Jane Wittmyer, speaking on behalf of the Coalition of Idaho Public Charter School Families, urged support for the reform bills, calling them "beacons of hope." Asked by Rep. Brian Cronin, D-Boise, how SB 1108 and 1110 benefit charter schools, Wittmyer said, "My statement was very broad in support for the entire package ... (to) bring needed changes to the educational system as a whole in Idaho."

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