Even as the House Education Committee today introduced a bill to raise teacher pay, the Senate Education Committee scuttled a rule to create a tiered teacher licensure system, the Twin Falls Times-News reports. Both the new pay scale, which would pay teachers based on seniority and certification level, and the licensure system itself, were key recommendations of Gov. Butch Otter’s education task force and were envisioned as going hand in hand, reports Times-News reporter Nathan Brown.

This afternoon, the Senate Education Committee voted down the licensure rule, he reported, as Chairman Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, said much of it was already part of the proposed pay law, so if that law passes the state would have to draft new rules to implement it anyway. Mortimer told the Times-News after the meeting that the terms used in the rule don't match up with the ones used in the “career ladder” bill. "With the new legislation, those terms are out of date," he said.

A rule only needs to clear one committee, though, so the House Education Committee could revive it if it so chose, Brown reports; his full report is online here. Idaho EdNews reporter Clark Corbin reports that the Senate committee's vote to reject the rule was unanimous; his report is online here.