COEUR d'ALENE - House Democrats in Washington, D.C., approved a measure Thursday that would divert $800 million from President Barack Obama's education reform initiatives to help create a $10 billion fund to avert educator layoffs in the nation's struggling public school districts.

To become law, the Senate must approve the bill.

Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick voted in favor of the measure, which passed 239-182 in a vote generally split along party lines.

"America cannot afford to curtail investment in education if our nation is to compete in a global economy. At the same time, neither can our nation afford to add to the national debt or continue to keep running up the credit card. I was pleased to invest in our children by supporting teachers, as well as Pell grants for college students, without adding to the deficit," said Minnick, on Friday.

The $10 billion K-12 jobs bill, and another $5 billion to help fill a shortfall in the Pell Grant program, will be funded by skimming money from current appropriations, including $500 million from Race to the Top, one of the Obama administration's main education-overhaul programs.

The education provisions are an amendment to a supplemental appropriations bill that includes $80 billion in defense spending.

Funding the education jobs bill has sparked intense debate, with teachers' unions lobbying hard for it, and charter school advocacy groups denouncing it.

Sherri Wood, the president of the Idaho Education Association, praised Minnick's action.

"Because of his support and the successful House vote, students will be able to attend classes that aren't bursting at the seams and receive the individualized attention they need," Wood said in a prepared statement.

According to a National Education Association analysis, the funds will save the jobs of approximately 138,000 educators.

The White House issued a statement Thursday that if the final bill includes cuts to education reforms, the president will likely veto it.

"It would be short-sighted to weaken funding for these reforms just as they are beginning to show promise," the statement said.

A group of 13 senators, all Democrats, announced their opposition to the bill in a letter sent Friday to Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, urging him not to remove funding from the education reform pots.

An earlier move supported by the Obama administration, to create a $23 billion emergency fund to save school employee jobs, hit an impasse in May when Senate Republicans balked at adding the amount to the national debt.

It's unlikely that pulling funds from Race to the Top, a $4.3 billion competitive grant program that rewards states for innovation in education, would have much of an impact in Idaho.

The state's Department of Education announced in May that Idaho would not participate in the next round of the competition.

Idaho Superintendent of Instruction Tom Luna said, at the time of the announcement, that while he believes Race to the Top has some merit, he would not "ask Idaho schools and districts to spend their precious time and resources competing for an unrealistic goal that has been set by the federal government, not by the state of Idaho."

The "edujobs" bill also calls for shifts of $200 million from the Teacher Incentive Fund, a grant program that supports teacher pay-for-performance initiatives, and $100 million from a pot that funds charter school start-ups.

"I'm an advocate of charters, and it would be disappointing if this move stymied the charter movement," said Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene.

Goedde, who chairs the state's Senate Education Committee, said the growth of Idaho charters could be protected by existing support from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation.

Before the start of school last fall, there were 12,000 students enrolled in 38 charter schools in Idaho, and 7,000 more students were on waiting lists for those schools.

If the final bill is fully approved, Goedde said it's likely state legislatures will have to have special sessions to readjust their budgets.