Session is Over, But We Can't Rest Yet

Idaho legislators have finally left Boise and gone home. But we can’t rest yet. We need every Idaho Education Association member, as well as their friends and family, to tell Gov. Brad Little to protect your rights and relationship with your district by vetoing House Bill 516. 

House Bill 516 is an anti-union bill written by the Freedom Foundation that has been farmed out in many other states and passed in seven. If it seems familiar, it’s because your advocacy has successfully held it at bay for three years.

But in the final days of the session, hardline lawmakers used an arcane procedural move to bypass public hearings, testimonies and feedback. That was by design. As lawmakers said themselves, this bill is retribution for your May Matters work.

• Sen. David Leavitt (R-Twin Falls) argued members shouldn’t be telling people that “everything that does matter happens in the primary election.”

• Sen. Josh Kohl (R-Twin Falls) said IEA is “an organization that is actively involved in lobbying and political activities.”

• Sen. Camille Blaylock (R-Nampa) recalled the union’s successful opposition to the Luna Laws pushed forward by her father, Tom Luna, and questioned why educators were reaching out to her about House Bill 516: “That’s coordinated outreach.”

• Sen. Brian Lenney (R-Nampa) said IEA should be stripped of its carefully negotiated rights because the Wall Street Journal called the union’s parent organization, the National Education Association, “a powerful wing of the Democratic Party.” He then said his mom, a retired teacher in his home state of California, supported the bill.

These lawmakers are terrified of the way you organize, mobilize, and the respect you have earned in the communities you serve. They are afraid of losing their power.

These lawmakers don’t know us. They don’t know that we are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, independents, and more. They don’t know that our own Peggy Hoy formed the NEA’s Rural Educators Caucus. They don’t know that we band together with other heavily rural states, the Northern Tier, at the national level so our concerns are represented. 

They just want you to be quiet. Let’s get loud, IEA.

Call Gov. Little. Make your voting plan for May 19. Get involved in May Matters. This is the year we end anti-public education lawmakers’ endless onslaught, one vote at a time.

Unlike them, we have a higher purpose than power: Idaho’s children. And because of that, they’ll never keep us down.  

Layne McInelly is president of the Idaho Education Association and a professional certified educator who taught in Idaho public schools for 12 years.