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During the legislative session, Boise School District administrators work daily with legislators, as well as statewide associations such as the Idaho School Boards Association, Idaho Association of School Administrators and the Idaho Education Association to monitor potential legislative changes and the impact those changes may have on our students, families and staff.
Our team also provides our legislative allies with our position, either for or against, on legislation that directly affects our ability to provide a high-quality education in a welcoming and safe environment. This session alone, our team tracked more than 124 bills either directly or indirectly related to public education. In many cases, stopping harmful legislation is as important as supporting legislation that strengthens our schools.
The Good News
The good news is that a number of bills that would have severely limited the ability of our locally-elected school board trustees to make decisions based on the needs of our community were unsuccessful. For example, a bill that would have mandated bible readings in school and another that would have allowed more guns on school grounds both failed.
The Not-So-Good News
News related to public school funding was mixed. While we are appreciative of a small increase for staff salaries and employee health insurance, there was no increase in operational funding. As costs for district operations such as utilities and maintenance continue to rise substantially, we’ll have our work cut out for us this budget cycle. Also, there continues to be a struggle between legislators over how to update Idaho’s antiquated formula used to determine how tax dollars are distributed to schools. The current system provides funding based on attendance rather than enrollment. Given that schools have fixed costs regardless of how many students show up on a given day, we have long favored moving to an enrollment-based approach. Unfortunately, the legislature was also unwilling to address the $82 million gap in special education funding.
Of course, school vouchers dominated much of the conversation this year. Despite overwhelming public testimony against the program, Idaho passed legislation diverting $50 million in public funding to non-public school students. The assumption from most pro-public education leaders is that, much like what we’ve seen in other states with similar programs, this amount will grow rapidly over time.
If you would like to learn more about what did or did not happen during this year’s legislative session, please check out the articles linked below.
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