to bend lawmakers' ears about what they see as inadequate and unfair funding.

More than two dozen people, mostly from Sage International Charter School located just a few blocks from the Capitol, criticized an Idaho law that prevents the state's 44 charter schools from getting state support to help them fund their facilities. That forces them to direct money to buildings that otherwise would go toward education.

Graham Hill, a Sage student, told the committees that students like him benefit from moving to a nontraditional education environment.

"If charter schools around the state were given equal funding, just imagine how far we would go, and how well we would do," Hill said.

The Idaho Charter School Network, a lobbying group behind the state's charter schools, is drafting legislation to help bolster theirwinter." "The signs were everywhere." "In the high country, the morning frost would sometimes last until afternoon." "Buffalo were feeding ravenously." "Beaver were damming and storing with strange vigour." "Horses and dogs were becoming shaggy-haired as never before." "And it could be sensed in the booming, bustling mining town of Denver." "Most historians agree that the events leading to the Battle of Whiskey Hills and the subsequent disaster at Quicksand Bottoms began here in Denver, at a miners' meeting." "Such meetings were frequent and held as part of the political fabric of the town." "But the meeting of November 4th had a marked air of grim foreboding." "Quiet!" "I got an announcement I gotta make." "In 10 days from now the city of Denver will be bone dry."