On Friday, Gov. Brad Little signed legislation to help educators in high-need and rural areas with various educational costs. Senate Bill 1290, sponsored by Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking (D-Boise) and Rep. Sally Toone (D-Gooding), establishes a rural educator incentive program for educators who work in high-need or rural school districts and charter schools. It would provide the maximum amount of eligible …
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On Thursday, a majority of House Republicans voted to defeat the appropriations budget for the Idaho Commission for Libraries. House Bill 824 died in a 33-36 vote. The legislation had been reworked twice, and objections from legislators led to $307,000 being cut from the commission’s budget, which would eliminate a statewide e-book collection. The ongoing money had been used annually …
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The 2021 session was disappointing for a number of reasons, but the legislature rejecting a $6 million grant to develop early-learning initiatives for children might have been the lowest point. That money would have helped communities build and fund preschool programs in accordance with local needs and values. But Republicans were bullied by the Idaho Freedom Foundation into voting against …
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On Friday, the Senate passed a bill to help educators in high-need and rural areas with various educational costs. Senate Bill 1290, sponsored by Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking (D-Boise) and Rep. Sally Toone (D-Gooding), establishes a rural educator incentive program for educators who work in high-need or rural school districts and charter schools. It would provide the maximum amount of eligible …
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On Friday, a bill enabling Idaho school districts to access federal funding to purchase low or zero emission school buses unanimously passed the Senate. Senate Bill 1319, sponsored by Sen. David Nelson (D-Moscow), fixes a flaw in state code that was a barrier for some of Idaho’s bigger school districts and charter schools to apply for funds from the Federal …
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Idaho public schools are the backbone of our local communities. But for many districts, facilities are crumbling due to age and a lack of resources needed to make repairs. This issue is further compounded by Idaho’s extreme population growth in recent years, leading to significant overcrowding in many schools, which can now only be fixed with new construction. The Idaho …
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A bill to reduce supplemental levies for school districts was introduced in the Senate Education Committee Thursday. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. David Nelson (D-Moscow), would enable the Idaho Legislature to appropriate additional funding to K-12 schools. Per the bill, if a school has a supplemental levy in place, 75% of the allocated money must go to reducing the levy. …
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Senate Republicans forwarded House Bill 436 to the governor’s office in a party-line vote. All Democrats voted against the legislation, advocating instead for more critical tax solutions, such as reducing property taxes or repealing the sales tax on groceries, and using state funds to plug the holes in school budgets that must be filled by supplemental levies. Under the bill, …
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The following is a conversation between Sen. Melissa Wintrow and Boise High student Shiva Rajbhandari on the exclusion of students in discussions about public education. Wintrow: You were in school when allegations of teachers indoctrinating students started to circulate this year. How did you react? Rajbhandari: It was like, “Wow, they are attacking teachers when they are already putting in …
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When I was elected to the Idaho House of Representatives in 2018, I requested, and was assigned to the Education committee. Given the challenges facing education, such as endless school bonds and levies, a teacher attrition crisis and childhood illiteracy, I was eager to start working toward the goal of solving these problems. After three years on the committee, my …
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