Karen Echeverria, executive director of the Idaho School Boards Association, is the final education stakeholder called to speak on SB 1184 to the House Education Committee. The hearing has now run for three hours - half an hour past the House's scheduled time to convene its floor session today.

“We believe that we have proven to you that we can handle the responsibility that was given to us through the financial emergency statute," she told the lawmakers. "Unfortunately, we believe that this legislation as written takes some of that flexibility away from school districts by putting some of the funding into line items over which school districts have very little say and may not be needed due to … technology already in place.” She said trustees want a survey of existing technology in use in Idaho schools before purchasing more. And, she said, “A law that forces a reduction in funding over a five-year period” is “an unprecedented move, and one that we cannot support.”

Answering questions from committee members about where school districts will cut when their funding is cut, Echeverria said, "When 85 to 90 percent of school districts' budgets are made up of teacher salaries and benefits ... that's exactly where most of these cuts are probably going to be made."