Every Lobby Day, hundreds of educators new to political advocacy descend on the Statehouse – but you’ll also find stalwart, retired educators who have attended year after year. For these dedicated amateur lobbyists, the fight didn’t end once they left the classroom.
JoAnn Harvey and Greta Shay, North Idaho Education Association – Retired Chapter
Harvey: I’m a retired educator now, but when I was teaching Idaho was much different, and so was our Legislature. So whenever you lobbied, you were able to meet people that were much more for public education … that just isn’t the case anymore, and that’s made it very difficult. But I believe in public education. … We’ve always belonged to the union. We’ve held practically every office that the union has and have worked on all the committees, and I was on national committees. It’s just in my blood that I continue to do this.
Shay: Thomas Jefferson set up a public school system because the majority of kids didn’t go to school. Only the wealthy could go to private school or have a tutor come in. But he set up public schools for all the kids so that everybody could be educated. The Constitution says that: free, appropriate public education. But I don’t believe that tax dollars should go to private anything. Public dollars are for public schools.
Michelle Tanberg, Southwest Education Association – Retired
I’ve been coming for oh, golly, probably upwards of 10 years. When I was a teacher, I taught in an alternative school and my students were all young mothers and pregnant girls out at the Nampa Teen Parent program. So every year I would wear the same outfit (to Lobby Day). I’d have a purple turtleneck and my mother’s pearls on. And I wasn’t confrontational because (lawmakers) get enough of that elsewhere. I would always say, “This is where I teach. Can I answer any questions?” And I had a guy curl his lip one time and say, “Why do those girls even go to school?” I said, “I love your question, and that’s why I’m here on their behalf.” … Now I’m retired, and I’m here to encourage anybody like students, the aspiring educators.
Mary Lee Ruch, North Idaho Education Association – Retired Chapter/IEA Retired Council
My first Lobby Day was in 1980. … The IEA goes on. We’re still here. We’re still fighting. They can’t run us out of here. … We have to maintain our activity in the political area. If not, then we’ve given up and we’re going to drown. We need to have a voice in the game. And if it takes coming down here and listening to some people who don’t support me, at least they hear the people in the area that they represent don’t believe the way they do. They have to hear the other side, and if we don’t show up, then we’re letting down the kids and our fellow teachers, but also taxpayers. If you have to keep raising your taxes because the state won’t do its part, that affects everybody.
