The Senate has voted unanimously, 32-0, in favor of SB 1331, Sen Dean Cameron's bill to reverse the portion of last year's "Students Come First" school reform law that requires cuts each year in the teacher salary funds that the state sends out to school districts, to pay for the reform plan's technology boosts and teacher merit-pay bonus program; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com. "This is, in my opinion, a very important public policy decision," Cameron told the Senate. "This bill is a sign of good news - good news that the economy has shown some improvement, good news that we can adjust the public policy so that we can address the new money directly toward those items ... and at the same time provide security for our public school teachers and school districts."

The bill would reverse $34 million in legally required cuts to teacher salary funds over the next five years; it now moves to the House side.

Sen. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, spoke out in favor the bill. He said when he talked with his local school district officials about it, "Their eyes lit up a little bit." The change will allow school districts to budget and plan with more certainty about their state funds, he said.

Cameron, who opposed last year's reform bills, said his measure wouldn't change the state's obligation to fund them; it just wouldn't require that the money be taken away from teacher salary funds. Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, said she'd support the bill, but still had concerns. "This may be a step in the right direction because it doesn't mandate that we cut the support for teachers, but sadly it doesn't guarantee we won't have to anyway," she said.