This afternoon’s joint House-Senate “listening hearing” on education issues has wrapped up with only half a dozen people testifying, in addition to three education stakeholder groups who gave a joint presentation endorsing all 20 of the governor’s school improvement task force recommendations. Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, said, “I guess I read into it that we don’t have large objection to the task force recommendations.”

House Education Chairman Reed DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, said, “We obviously knew that Idaho Common Core was a concern for some folks, so by isolating that and setting it up in a forum, I think we were able to address a lot of people’s issues.” If that issue had been included today, he said, the tone of the session might have been different. DeMordaunt said the three stakeholder groups’ agreement was reflected in the overall testimony. “There is substantial unanimity on what the path forward is.”