0:13

Welcome to Idaho

0:13

Education Association's HOTLINE

0:16

podcast, a weekly discussion

0:16

about what's happening at the

0:18

Idaho legislature around public

0:18

education and the policy

0:21

priorities of IEA members. IEA

0:21

members are public school

0:24

educators from all over the

0:24

state. They're Idaho's most

0:27

important education experts, and

0:27

they use their influence to

0:30

fight for a free quality and

0:30

equitable public education for

0:33

every student in the state. I'm

0:33

Mike journee, communications

0:36

director at the IEA, and I'll be

0:36

your host for this episode of

0:39

HOTLINE. The Idaho Legislature

0:39

adjourned last week and the

0:42

results for public education and

0:42

IEA members are nothing short of

0:45

monumental historic pay raises

0:45

for both certified educators and

0:49

education support professionals.

0:49

And the defeat of seven voucher

0:52

bills proved the influence of

0:52

IEA members is real and

0:55

important for public education

0:55

policy in Idaho. In our final

1:00

hotline podcast of the year,

1:00

political director Chris Parri,

1:03

and Associate Executive Director

1:03

Matt Compton join me for an

1:07

analysis of the sessions

1:07

results, and next steps for

1:10

education policy in Idaho. Well, Matt, Chris, thanks a lot

1:13

for joining me for the last

1:17

edition of the 2023 hotline

1:17

podcast. Of course, we'll be

1:22

getting this back up and running

1:22

again, next legislative session.

1:25

But we finished up the

1:25

legislative session last week.

1:28

And like we've been telling our

1:28

members, this has been just a

1:32

phenomenal session for public

1:32

education. As Paul likes to say,

1:39

for all the things that happened

1:39

and all the things that didn't

1:41

happen. The pay raises that came

1:41

forward 145 million for

1:47

certified educators. It's a huge

1:47

number. It's going to put Idaho

1:52

and near the top 10 for

1:52

competitive teacher pay, and

1:55

that's in the country. 97

1:55

million for education support

2:01

professionals. It's going to go

2:01

in, it's been great, you know,

2:03

and then the seven voucher bills

2:03

that were defeated. Chris, you

2:07

did fantastic work on that...you

2:07

too Matt, both you guys,

2:10

everybody. The whole lobby team

2:10

was in there working on those

2:13

and and it's it was it was

2:13

pretty phenomenal. Right up to

2:16

the end. I think our members are

2:16

going to be really happy we're

2:19

moving into new session into

2:19

into the delegate assembly, I

2:22

think we're going to hear a lot

2:22

of a lot of positive thoughts

2:25

about that. What do you what do you guys think?

2:26

I mean, not to be

2:26

insufferably humble. But none of

2:29

those voucher bills would have

2:29

gone down without our members

2:32

taking action throughout the

2:32

entire session to I mean, it's

2:35

it's a humbling experience going

2:35

through that session. Matt's

2:38

been through more than I have,

2:38

I'm sure he can talk about it

2:40

too. But it is definitely

2:40

humbling to know the impacts

2:44

that you are capable of having

2:44

alone. And then looking at how

2:48

it just explodes when you

2:48

actually have good educators in

2:51

the building talking to

2:51

legislators throughout the whole

2:53

course of the session, big Lobby

2:53

Day and little local lobby days

2:57

to

2:57

So that I can be the Debbie Downer and talk about, you know, the things that

2:59

didn't get discussed in the

3:01

building that should have, you

3:01

know, leading into the session,

3:05

the most prominent conversation

3:05

that we heard from members had

3:09

to do with behavioral issues in

3:09

schools. And we made that a

3:13

focus and a feature. For lobby

3:13

days, our members almost

3:17

exclusively spoke about that

3:17

topic area. And there wasn't a

3:20

single piece of legislation that

3:20

was drafted to even take into

3:23

consideration or to address the

3:23

issue. I was at lunch the other

3:29

day. And I was, I guess I was

3:29

feeling a little feisty, I

3:33

thought, you know, there were

3:33

more bills to distinguish the

3:37

rattlesnake as a predatory

3:37

animal, then there were pieces

3:40

of legislation to address the

3:40

mental health issues in schools.

3:43

And I just think that that's obscene.

3:45

Yeah. Where are the

3:45

priorities for some folks in

3:48

that building? Looking at? It

3:48

was, yeah, rattlesnakes becoming

3:52

predators? Almost a dinosaur

3:52

announced we do, but that's

3:56

awesome. I highly support that.

3:56

I'm glad they took time to do

3:59

that. But yeah, I mean, it was

3:59

it's interesting to know, just

4:03

like, because all of those

4:03

conversations that that our

4:06

members had with those legislators during lobby day in the local lobby days to had some

4:08

aspect of talking about how

4:11

difficult it is, in terms of

4:11

classroom management, with

4:15

behavioral and mental health

4:15

problems plaguing schools, and

4:18

students in their colleagues

4:18

everywhere. And yeah, I mean, we

4:22

knew looking at the makeup of

4:22

the education committees, that

4:25

there was gonna be a push on

4:25

policy, basically a stalemate on

4:28

policy. But I hoped that this

4:28

was something that was universal

4:33

and, you know, visible enough

4:33

for everybody that there would

4:38

be some political will to get it

4:38

through. But it really is a huge

4:42

disappointment that we didn't

4:42

see any policy on that front,

4:44

that's for sure. Yeah.

4:45

Facilities was

4:45

something else that didn't get

4:47

talked about too. So that

4:47

that's, that's a huge need. We

4:49

all know it. All of our

4:49

education stakeholders that work

4:52

with us at the Statehouse are

4:52

eager for something to be done.

4:56

So I mean, it's there's there's

4:56

a lot that needs to be done

4:58

still in public education. All

4:58

that said still was a great

5:02

session. Fantastic.

5:03

Very true.

5:05

I, so So that

5:05

money is on the table now.

5:09

Right? So so just for a little

5:09

bit of background, when the

5:12

legislature allocates money for

5:12

Educator pay, or for education

5:17

period, that money goes to the

5:17

school districts and a large

5:21

percentage of that money is what

5:21

they call discretionary funding.

5:24

It's and school districts have

5:24

some leeway as to how they use

5:28

that funding, right? Lawmakers

5:28

put that money that we just

5:32

talked about into school

5:32

budgets, specifically for

5:36

Educator pay raises. But now,

5:36

it's up to our locals, so to our

5:41

local education associations to

5:41

go and negotiate with the school

5:44

districts and going get that

5:44

money for pay raises in their

5:48

school district in their right. Yep.

5:50

So negotiations

5:50

will likely kick off here pretty

5:54

soon in all of the different

5:54

school districts. One of the, I

5:58

guess, significant features of

5:58

of the Idaho Education

6:05

Association is yes, yes, we do

6:05

provide do you ensure that due

6:08

process is provided, but in the

6:08

collective numbers of our

6:11

members, that's where the power

6:11

comes from. And when you when

6:15

you have a large and robust

6:15

local association, that that

6:21

makes negotiations ever more

6:21

stronger for the educators who

6:25

are at the table. And this is a

6:25

great opportunity, I see two

6:29

opportunities here, increased in

6:29

salaries for everybody in the

6:33

building. And with the

6:33

additional discretionary money,

6:36

some of that, which has a great

6:36

amount of flexibility, some of

6:39

it, which is earmarked for

6:39

insurance should continue to,

6:44

you know, help pay down those

6:44

burdening costs of insurance.

6:49

And so folks should see an

6:49

increase to their paycheck in

6:52

several different ways. One, you

6:52

know, better pay, and, and two,

6:56

they're paying less out of pocket for insurance.

6:59

Which is extraordinarily important. You know, we've seen a huge exodus

7:01

of educators and our public

7:04

schools in recent years, and a

7:04

large part of that is due to

7:09

pay, and the fact that and not

7:09

not just certified educators,

7:13

but but all educators, even

7:13

education support professionals,

7:17

especially the education support

7:17

professionals, the ones who, who

7:21

are making the lunches and, and

7:21

taking temperatures and, and

7:25

doing all the things that that

7:25

that helped make the school run

7:29

driving buses. So those folks

7:29

are going to get should get a

7:33

good pay raise. And that's, that's going to be important to the, to the cohesion.

7:37

Yeah, the governor

7:37

hung his hat on teacher pay

7:39

during the State of the State by

7:39

saying that this is supposed to

7:43

attract and retain highly

7:43

qualified educators and from you

7:46

know, from the jump, this was

7:46

designed to do just that to keep

7:51

the teachers that we have and to

7:51

attract new teachers out to

7:54

university, to either come to

7:54

Idaho or stay in Idaho once they

7:58

graduate. So that we have the

7:58

again, highly qualified,

8:02

skillful educators at the head

8:02

of all of classrooms in Idaho.

8:07

Right, I think, you

8:07

know, you look at one of the

8:11

governor's signature pieces of

8:11

legislation this year, the

8:14

launch program, as well. And

8:14

early on. Part of that, that

8:18

will essentially the launch program will provide scholarships to in demand

8:20

career, people who are like

8:25

headed to college for in demand

8:25

careers. So nurses, for example,

8:29

and educators. So this will help

8:29

pay some of those high cost of

8:34

college tuition for aspiring

8:34

educators, as a way to kind of

8:37

supplement the other injections

8:37

of funding to the career ladder

8:41

and other places too. So you do

8:41

see see kind of a holistic

8:45

approach to addressing this

8:45

issue. Obviously, a lot more has

8:48

to be done. But I think that you

8:48

are seeing folks address kind of

8:52

this across the board,

8:54

right? And our

8:54

locals are going are the IEA has

8:57

been holding training for a

8:57

number of locals to go and learn

9:01

how to bargain to do it. We do

9:01

it every year as part of of the

9:06

benefit of being an IEA local.

9:06

And, and so they've been engaged

9:11

with that our region directors

9:11

have been highly engaged with

9:14

that training. And they're

9:14

they're helping all their locals

9:17

in the various regions, prepare

9:17

for those conversations and have

9:21

the right numbers in their head

9:21

when they sit down and negotiate

9:24

those contracts. So Chris, this

9:24

session wouldn't wouldn't have

9:27

been possible without

9:27

extraordinary allies for public

9:31

education. Over at the State

9:31

House, of course, Governor Brad

9:35

little top of the top of the

9:35

heap by far. Matt mentioned that

9:41

during his State of the State, he brought forward these proposals, almost all of his key

9:43

proposals for public education

9:48

went through the legislature.

9:48

fully intact. It's fantastic and

9:54

all along he had had our members

9:54

back Senator Dave Lent in the in

10:01

the Senate Education Committee,

10:01

God bless him. And that

10:05

committee was a very, very

10:05

difficult committee, this

10:07

session...a lot of members who

10:07

want to dismantle public

10:10

education on that committee, and

10:10

got elected specifically to do

10:14

that. And so our members are

10:14

going to be engaged in that.

10:18

Going forward on elections. And

10:18

then on the House side,

10:21

Representative Julie Yamamoto,

10:21

the chairman of the House

10:24

Education Committee, a lot of

10:24

allies. There's a lot of allies

10:26

in that committee, that that you

10:26

probably want to give a little

10:29

shout out to here.

10:30

Yeah, let's, you

10:30

know, I think some of them came

10:32

out of the woodwork for sure. I

10:32

mean, like Representative Dan

10:35

Garner, for example. He's a

10:35

former school board member. He's

10:37

from Clifton, Idaho, in

10:37

southeastern Idaho. And he

10:41

wasn't really on our radar at the beginning of the session, but he turned out to be such an

10:43

excellent advocate for public

10:46

schools. And just a reason

10:46

another great reasonable voice

10:49

on a committee that was really

10:49

kind of full of them. You had

10:52

the vice chair of House

10:52

Education, Lorie McCann...Rep.

10:56

Lori McCann from Lewiston.

10:56

Fantastic. You had

11:01

representative Greg Lanting out

11:01

of Twin Falls, who became a

11:05

extremely like, just a great

11:05

fighter for for these issues,

11:09

and really calling out BS where

11:09

it showed up. And we know when

11:12

the legislature shows up in quite a few places, but he wasn't having any of it. Jack

11:14

Nelson out of Jerome also a

11:18

great advocate, particularly on

11:18

vouchers spoke up quite a bit in

11:21

those hearings where we heard,

11:21

you know, seven voucher bills or

11:24

whatever they were Mark Souter

11:24

out of soundpoint. And then, of

11:28

course, Representative Steve

11:28

Birch represents Sonia Galaviz

11:32

and Representative Chris Mathias

11:32

all of Boise. The Democrats on

11:36

the committee doing great work

11:36

as well. So that committee I

11:39

think, really provided me a ton

11:39

of hope, as like a model of

11:43

where the legislature could be,

11:43

you could have collaboration,

11:46

not only across party lines, but

11:46

geographic lines as well. I

11:50

mean, we're talking about, you

11:50

know, allies from Sandpoint all

11:53

the way down to Clifton, right.

11:53

Like these are, this is a

11:55

massive range of folks. And I

11:55

don't know, House Education was

12:00

such a bright spot this year.

12:00

And I'm so grateful that we have

12:05

awesome relationships, and they

12:05

have our members back.

12:08

And it's going to be important for members to actually reach out to these

12:10

folks between now and the legislative session. Because the

12:12

next the next legislative

12:15

session, these folks, you know,

12:15

they took a tremendous amount of

12:19

heat from the enemies of public

12:19

education, they were subjected

12:24

to a lot of name calling, and

12:24

they were threatened on on

12:29

social media. And, you know, the

12:29

kind of the radical fringe of

12:33

their party is doing all that

12:33

they possibly can to diminish

12:38

their reputation. And, you know,

12:38

they stood tall, in the face of,

12:43

of some pretty horrible name

12:43

calling and nonsense during the

12:47

session, it'd be great for

12:47

educators to reach out and thank

12:50

those folks.

12:51

And these should be role models, I think, for the rest of the legislature to I

12:52

mean, they stood up to, like you

12:55

said a ton of pressure from the

12:55

far right. And we know the far

12:58

right represents a extremely

12:58

small minority of people, they

13:02

just happen to be the loudest.

13:02

And over the years, I've seen

13:05

the legislature kind of give

13:05

them and a disproportional

13:09

amount of their time that far

13:09

right and contingent. So House

13:13

Education Committee was not having it. I think they did a great job representing...

13:16

They were the

13:16

bulwark against those seven

13:18

voucher bills...

13:19

I mean, they really

13:19

were, of course, Governor little

13:21

played a big role in those in

13:21

those as well. But but but it

13:25

was, they were the they were the

13:25

ones who who did the hard work

13:29

right there on the front line of it.

13:30

And I didn't mean

13:30

to skip over any of the allies

13:32

on the on the Senate Education Committee, if you wanted to mention a couple of those, too,

13:34

because there were some others

13:36

on the committee other than Senator Dave Lent.

13:38

Well, yes. And

13:38

yeah, obviously, Chairman,

13:41

Chairman, Dave Lent went did a,

13:41

yeah, he did God's work this

13:45

this sessopm. I mean, he really

13:45

handled a tough committee and

13:50

did so professionally. He didn't

13:50

just, you know, end every bad

13:54

bill that came through, he

13:54

allowed them to have hearings as

13:57

needed, and kind of played the

13:57

politics on the committee, I

14:02

think, really smartly, not that

14:02

it won him any favors from the

14:04

others. They came after him just

14:04

as hard as anyone we've already

14:08

mentioned. But, you know, I

14:08

think he struck a good balance

14:12

on on being the chair, a

14:12

professional chair and sticking

14:16

up for public education, as he

14:16

has done over the years, so he's

14:20

a great one. Obviously, also,

14:20

Senator Janoie Ward-Engelking,

14:24

longtime educator....

14:25

And IEA member...

14:26

An IEA memberr.

14:26

she, she had some really

14:29

incisive questioning, obviously,

14:29

Senate Education, so a lot of

14:33

these bad bills would appear

14:33

first, and she just would cut

14:37

through them. devastatingly not

14:37

that it ended many of these

14:41

bills because they there's such

14:41

a huge majority of the far right

14:43

on that committee, but she did a

14:43

great job. And then Senator

14:47

Kerry somewhere off and

14:47

particularly when it came to

14:49

special education, because you

14:49

hear a lot is particularly on

14:52

the voucher bill stuff about how

14:52

this would be great for for kids

14:56

who need special education

14:56

services. And she was like, huh,

15:00

Actually, I am a special

15:00

education educator and y'all are

15:05

so wrong. And I hope you're just

15:05

wrong and not lying, because

15:08

that's dark. But she did a great

15:08

job sticking up for those

15:12

students. And yeah, I mean, they

15:12

deserve a medal or something.

15:16

They're awesome.

15:17

Those those strong

15:17

folks on on Senate Education

15:19

deserve all the respect and

15:19

attention as well. I'll again

15:23

have to say this. It's almost

15:23

like ridiculous. It's obscene

15:27

that Senator Brian Lenney, who

15:27

is a member of the Senate

15:30

Education Committee, voted

15:30

against the teacher

15:33

appropriation pay bill, when it

15:33

actually went through the

15:37

Senate, he was only one of two

15:37

votes to vote against the

15:41

teacher pay bill, including

15:41

Senator Dan Foreman from Moscow.

15:45

And so I really do hope that

15:45

educators hold these folks

15:48

accountable for those their

15:48

unspeakable votes.

15:51

Right. Two people

15:51

voted against those teacher

15:54

appropriations out of 105.

15:54

Legislature, less than 1%, or

15:59

sorry, less than 2% of the

15:59

legislature. Yeah, that was a

16:04

wild vote to take. And I think

16:04

he needs to hear from our

16:07

members about it, because she's,

16:09

And along those

16:09

lines, you will be working on

16:11

some legislative accountability

16:11

work around around the results

16:14

of this session, putting putting

16:14

our member weight behind those

16:22

who served Public Schools well,

16:22

and against those who didn't.

16:27

And so there's going to be a lot

16:27

of that coming up. Of course, we

16:30

don't have a legislative

16:30

session, or sorry, we don't have

16:32

a legislative election coming up

16:32

this November. That'll be the

16:36

following November. But we do

16:36

have some other elections coming

16:39

up this year that are going to be important for our members to be paying attention to, we get

16:41

the first one coming up in May,

16:45

we've got some bond and levy

16:45

elections coming up, that are

16:48

going to be essential. Many of

16:48

these bond levies that are gonna

16:50

be on the ballot in May, were

16:50

ones that were on the ballot in

16:53

March and didn't, didn't pass.

16:53

So these folks are going to have

16:57

to go back and take another

16:57

another pass at trying to get

17:00

this very essential. funding for

17:00

our schools. Again, it's a shame

17:06

that we have to rely on these

17:06

bond levee elections to get

17:08

there, because we're our school

17:08

systems is chronically

17:11

underfunded, has been for

17:11

decades. And it's creating a lot

17:14

of challenges for local

17:14

districts to pay the bills. So,

17:18

so those these bonds elections

17:18

are very central.

17:20

They're huge. So

17:20

we've harped on it quite a bit

17:23

in the in some previous

17:23

episodes, but the particularly

17:26

in quarter lane, Post Falls and

17:26

Lakeland. There's some massive

17:31

levee and bond elections up

17:31

there to determine you know, up

17:33

to 30% of some of the school

17:33

district budgets.

17:36

And of course,

17:36

some failed in Marchj. And so I

17:40

think folks are really

17:40

redoubling their efforts to try

17:42

to get him past

17:43

and, you know, we

17:43

were talking a little bit about

17:45

some some of the awesome folks

17:45

that are in the legislature

17:48

looking out for public

17:48

education. In during that March

17:52

election in Couer d'Alene, in

17:52

the levy, there was a group that

17:56

was pushing back against the

17:56

levy and the treasurer of that

17:59

group, putting out some pretty

17:59

gross mail and, and advocating

18:03

to basically defund Couer

18:03

d'Alene schools, the treasurer

18:07

was Representative Elaine Price

18:07

who sits on the House Education

18:09

Committee. It's just wild to me,

18:09

that you have folks sitting on

18:14

House Education, or Senate

18:14

Education who actively work

18:17

against your public schools,

18:17

when your public school district

18:20

says we need you know, 30% of

18:20

our budget, if we lose 3% of our

18:25

budget, we're going to cut

18:25

school sports, music, teachers,

18:28

all of it, you're gonna end up

18:28

with bigger class sizes. These

18:32

these people who are fighting

18:32

against public school education

18:34

on the committee's and those insane.

18:36

Five senators on

18:36

the Senate Education Committee

18:39

that either homeschool their

18:39

kids or send them to a private

18:41

parochial school, so not even

18:41

engaged in public education

18:44

whatsoever. And hope you're

18:44

homeschooling is great, it's

18:48

fine, fantastic. But it just

18:48

seems it's lost in translation

18:54

for me as to why these folks are

18:54

the center point of making

18:57

education policy for public education.

18:59

And it of course,

18:59

it doesn't preclude or predict

19:01

the way you're going to vote on

19:01

some things if you homeschool

19:03

your kid versus, you know, not,

19:03

but it would be one thing to be

19:07

at least intellectually curious

19:07

and like, bring good faith to

19:10

these conversations. But man,

19:10

boy howdy. Sometimes you just

19:15

gotta shake your head.

19:16

So so as

19:16

collective bargaining is

19:18

happening, this, this May

19:18

election is going to be

19:21

happening as well, then we're

19:21

going to be looking to back to

19:24

school, we're gonna be looking

19:24

to school board elections in

19:26

November. So back to school is a

19:26

huge part of of our circle of

19:31

work here at the IEA and how we

19:31

we work on the year and that's

19:36

when, when a lot of new

19:36

educators are coming into school

19:40

buildings. They're being

19:40

recruited by by members to be

19:43

part of the of the association.

19:43

So that's coming up, we'll be

19:46

supporting our members as best

19:46

we can and all the work that

19:49

they're going to be doing to

19:49

recruit new members, which in

19:52

turn, gives us more influence at

19:52

the local level and at the state

19:56

level. The more members we have

19:56

the stronger under that there is

20:00

the more that they're engaged,

20:00

the stronger our association is,

20:03

and the more we can do for

20:03

public education. But but we do

20:08

have school board elections

20:08

coming up in November. And,

20:11

Chris, you've been, you've been

20:11

reaching out to folks, we've

20:13

been talking a lot about that.

20:13

That's almost as important as as

20:17

having a strong education

20:17

committee in either the House or

20:20

the Senate, having a strong

20:20

local, pro public education

20:23

school board is essential. And

20:23

we're seeing the effects of of

20:26

and many schools around the

20:26

state where they don't have a

20:29

strong one. And it's been it's

20:29

it's a real challenge.

20:31

Yeah. I mean, your

20:31

local school board is a rubber

20:34

hits the road on both

20:34

legislative policy and your

20:37

local policies. Right. And I

20:37

think, the most visible I think,

20:41

disruption to the local

20:41

education policy over the past

20:44

couple of years has been these

20:44

fights over library content, for

20:47

example, right, I think a lot of

20:47

our members have seen and grew

20:51

really frustrated by and those

20:51

can be ended pretty quick, if

20:55

you have a good professional

20:55

school board who understands

20:58

education. One of the problems

20:58

we ran into, or at the very

21:01

least, believes that public

21:01

education is a public good.

21:04

That's right. You know, one of

21:04

the problems we're running into

21:08

is that some of these folks who

21:08

got elected last time around in

21:12

2019, or sorry, 2021. They were

21:12

elected purely based off this,

21:15

like CRT conspiracy, you know,

21:15

anti library, whatever, get

21:19

there and realize they're

21:19

completely unprepared to

21:21

actually do the job of local

21:21

governance, and pass good policy

21:25

running a school district. So of

21:25

course, they want it, you know,

21:29

of course, when those like blow

21:29

ups happen on social policy, or

21:32

libraries, or whatever, that

21:32

kind of suits them, but it

21:35

doesn't suit anybody else in the

21:35

state, in their community, anything.

21:39

And we've seen and

21:39

we'll continue to see a

21:42

concerted effort of those

21:42

enemies of public schools

21:46

running for school board out and

21:46

coming this November, you can

21:51

rest assured that the folks who

21:51

voted no on the public educator

21:55

appropriation or voted no on the

21:55

classified staff, yeah,

21:59

appropriation, those folks are

21:59

actively recruiting individuals

22:03

to sit and run on on school

22:03

boards. So I'll make a pitch.

22:07

We're both going into this

22:07

election and the next November

22:12

election. I think too many of

22:12

our members are unfamiliar with

22:16

the Political Action Committee

22:16

for Education. This is the like,

22:20

what it's it's, it's the

22:20

financial resource that the IEA

22:24

has, in order to elect pro

22:24

public education candidates,

22:28

regardless of what their party

22:28

affiliation is, and going into

22:33

these bond elections, it would

22:33

be fantastic to be able to use

22:37

resources to win those races, or

22:37

those issues. And then in

22:41

November, it will be mission

22:41

critical that we have the

22:45

financial resources at our

22:45

disposal, so that we can have

22:49

the greatest impact on trustee

22:49

elections that we can have. And

22:53

so I suggest that I think pace

22:53

membership is as important as

22:58

IEA membership. And so you can

22:58

log into idahoea.org, under the

23:02

advocacy tab, and then it says

23:02

PACE. And that's where you can

23:06

go make a one time contribution,

23:06

or you can, you know, be a

23:11

sustaining monthly contributor

23:11

as well.

23:13

Right. And I mean,

23:13

I'm glad you brought that up,

23:16

because PACE is where we can

23:16

make these critical changes that

23:20

have systemic impacts and the

23:20

source of the resources to make

23:24

those changes. It's the only

23:24

place that we draw resources

23:27

from to get those elected

23:27

electoral and political work

23:30

done. And we expend almost all

23:30

of it during those state

23:34

legislative races, particularly

23:34

in the primary elections. And

23:37

there isn't a ton of leftover

23:37

for the local election side. Not

23:41

that they aren't important. Of

23:41

course they are. But we really

23:45

need more members, more Ira

23:45

members to take an active role

23:48

and pace to get us to a point

23:48

where we can do the good work

23:52

that we're dying to do.

23:54

Our members, there

23:54

is a misconception that their

23:56

dues dollars go to pay for these

23:56

elections. And they simply

24:00

don't, we can't use US dollars

24:00

for electoral activity. And so

24:03

that's why there's such a

24:03

reliance on PACE

24:06

And one of the

24:06

ways that we're working to try

24:09

to get a little bit more money

24:09

into pace this year. Delegates

24:12

to the Delegate Assembly are

24:12

being asked to bring $55 to

24:16

donate to pace in addition to

24:16

whatever they're already given

24:20

to pace. That's a that's a great

24:20

way and I know that having

24:23

attended a couple of local lobby

24:23

days, I'm sorry, local delegate

24:28

assemblies around the regional

24:28

delegate assemblies around the

24:31

state. I know that there's

24:31

they're really pushing that hard

24:35

and making sure that people are

24:35

aware of it. Of course, any

24:39

member could jump on and provide

24:39

some some some extra funding for

24:43

that if they if they so choose.

24:43

So exactly. It's important work

24:47

and it's it's it's great for

24:47

public schools and our students.

24:51

We need to need to do more of it

24:51

and and do more at the local

24:55

level like you're talking about

24:55

Chris. Well, guys, I don't have

24:59

anything else

25:02

I don't either. I

25:02

mean, I'm so glad it's over. And

25:05

I'm so glad that we have a net

25:05

positive on on school for huge

25:09

net loss. It's great. Right.

25:09

It's historic investments that

25:12

were led by, you know, pro

25:12

education. Governor. I think

25:15

Idaho we mentioned, you know,

25:15

killing seven voucher bills.

25:19

That is unique. That is my

25:19

that's a good point to talk

25:22

about. Talk about that a little

25:22

bit. I mean, so we had seven,

25:25

seven voucher bills that we were

25:25

able to stop. One of them was

25:28

kind of a massive Arizona style

25:28

one that died on the Senate

25:31

floor resoundingly two to one

25:31

vote, which is surprising,

25:34

right? Like, you look at

25:34

Arizona, and you see here, so

25:38

many folks on that side of

25:38

politics saying this is the

25:40

model, this is great. And then

25:40

you you look right underneath

25:44

that that rhetoric and you see

25:44

these massive budgets that are

25:47

exploding and, and property

25:47

taxes going up and all of money

25:51

from public schools. Yeah,

25:51

exactly. I mean, they blew a

25:54

shotgun hole in their, in their

25:54

budget, with a really bad policy

25:59

pushed by, like, you know,

25:59

insane think tanks from

26:02

Washington, DC. So

26:03

These are these

26:03

are national groups that have

26:06

made national pushes this year,

26:06

and states all across the

26:09

country have have adopted many

26:09

of these these policies. Idaho

26:13

chose a different path. So the company,

26:15

Yeah, the Betsy

26:15

DeVos, the former secretary of

26:19

education from a handful of

26:19

years ago, she runs the

26:22

Federation for American

26:22

children, the American

26:25

Federation for Children. And she

26:25

had her lobbyists and spokes

26:29

people come to Idaho and host

26:29

these really fancy dinners for

26:33

lawmakers to encourage them to

26:33

vote in favor of one of these

26:37

big Arizona style voucher bills.

26:37

And they were also on the ground

26:41

in so many other states across

26:41

the country where they were

26:45

successful. But here in Idaho,

26:45

they didn't find success,

26:49

Right? I mean, you

26:49

can almost imagine a rural

26:52

legislator, just kind of looking

26:52

at them and be like, and how

26:55

does this actually benefit

26:55

anyone in my district at all,

26:59

you know,

27:00

And unfortunately,

27:00

people go but unfortunately,

27:02

other legislators aren't doing

27:02

the same thing. So, so fantastic

27:06

work by, you guys and alleged to

27:06

the lobby team, fantastic work

27:10

by our members, fantastic work

27:10

by public education allies in

27:13

the statehouse and in the

27:13

legislature. It's been it's been

27:16

a great session and, and looking

27:16

forward to doing more great work

27:20

for you guys. There's plenty to

27:20

be done. We're still our public

27:24

schools are still chronically

27:24

underfunded. We've made a step

27:27

and a half turn in the right

27:27

direction. Hopefully Governor

27:31

little can do more next year and

27:31

make more recommendations that

27:34

are that are going to help add

27:34

to our public schools and make

27:38

them stronger. But we'll see

27:38

where things shake out shakeout

27:41

in the summer in the next fall.

27:43

Yeah, we're

27:43

leaving this legislative session

27:46

with a remarkable amount of

27:46

success. I'm really momentum and

27:49

momentum. Yeah,

27:50

We've got to keep

27:50

it going. All right, gentlemen,

27:53

thank you. Sign off for the 2023

27:53

legislative session. We'll be

27:56

back next year. Perfect. Thank

27:56

you. Thank you for listening to

28:00

Idaho education Association's

28:00

hotline podcast, and this

28:03

discussion about the 2023 Idaho

28:03

legislature. Thanks as well to

28:07

my colleagues, Chris Perry and

28:07

Matt Compton, for joining me. In

28:10

the coming weeks, please watch

28:10

for information about other IEA

28:14

podcasts on the horizon. And

28:14

keep an eye on our social media

28:17

channels and our website at

28:17

idahoea.org. For more news about

28:21

and for IEA members. I'm Mike

28:21

journee. And as always, I hope

28:24

you join me in thanking Idaho's

28:24

public school educators for

28:28

everything they do for our State

28:28

students, families and public schools.