Missed Opportunities

In the closing hours of the recent adjourned legislative session two important bills never had a chance.  Both were “game-changers” in that they injected some competition into our k-12 education system.  Perhaps in 2012 they will again surface and hopefully have a better fate.  Following is a brief description of the two bills that few outside of the legislature have even heard about.

House Bill 694 is pro-teacher legislation that will ensure an equitable, safe process of informing teachers about associations providing liability protection and legal representation that best align with their beliefs and budget.  It supports Idaho’s right to work principle and the freedom of association.  HB 694 establishes a free and fair marketplace of ideas in which educators can learn of and choose the professional associations that best help them advance as classroom professionals focused on students as their highest priority.  HB 694 supports equity and teacher choice.

HB 670, A GOOD BILL, DID NOT PASS
For many, many years I have been and advocate for school choice as I have determined from over 50 years as a traditional school educator that school choice is the only true path to school improvement.  We have studied and tweaked the system and funded it generously and what has been the result, a mediocre system at best.  Now we have an opportunity with HB 670 to inject some competition into the system that will help drive school improvement that students, parents and taxpayers deserve. This bill may not be the “silver-bullet” but it is a step in the right direction.

“Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.”
Herbert Hoover

THANKS! I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to our legislators who have supported efforts in many ways to make our schools better for kids, for their parents and of course for the taxpayer as well.  Change is hardly ever easy, but it is necessary if we are to continue on the route to school reform.

“You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures.”
- Charles C. Noble