BOISE - The final remnant of a controversial teacher pay reform plan died Thursday after the Senate Education Chairman pulled back a measure making it easier to fire teachers.

The original legislation would have set up a system that required school districts to have a hearing officer determine whether teachers should be dismissed. But an amendment that won the support of the teacher's union was opposed by the Idaho School Boards Association, so Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, pulled the bill he was sponsoring.

"I hope I don't ever have a school board trustee complain about the cost and time it takes to fire a teacher ever again, because I'll remind them of what happened today," he said during a committee meeting.

Lawmakers last month rejected iSTARS, Superinten-dent of Public Instruction Tom Luna's controversial plan to increase teacher salaries in exchange for reduced job security. Then, facing a fall in state revenues, lawmakers broke the system in two: One bill, dubbed "iSTARS Lite," gave pay raises with no change in job security. The job security portion was siphoned into Goedde's bill.

In the past, school officials have said it is too difficult to fire bad teachers. Legislators - particularly backers of Luna's plan - say that's why teacher pay needs an overhaul.

The Idaho Education Association, which was originally opposed to Goedde's bill, was comfortable with the amendment that would give a choice of either go to binding arbitration or go to court.

"The issue at the center is it takes too long and is too costly to fire a teacher," said Sherri Wood, president of the union that represents 13,000 of Idaho's 15,500 teachers. Just 18 cases went to court between 1995 and 2006.

The amended version had fewer limitations and could have been less costly. Under that plan, a teacher appealed a board's decision directly to the court.

The state budgeting panel has approved $24.7 million for teacher salary increases.

Jared S. Hopkins may be reached at 420-8371 or jhopkins@magicvalley.com.