This week, the Idaho Freedom Foundation demanded that the Idaho Education Association detail the Association's expenses to help educators attend the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee meeting in Boise on January 21.
We will not comply with the Freedom Foundation’s demand for information. Our refusal is made with the knowledge we have of the Idaho Freedom Foundation's aggressive campaign against the neighborhood public schools that most Idaho children attend. The IFF promotes narrow ideological views that are not shared by the majority of Idahoans, and it is pushing a plan that Idahoans did not vote for in November. In fact, if it gets its way, we will see Idaho taxpayer dollars siphoned to out-of-state, for-profit online education vendors while more than a thousand Idahoans lose their jobs.
For the sake of Idaho's children and their teachers, the Idaho Education Association will spend its resources to uphold the Constitutional right of Idaho's 275,000 public school children to a quality education.
We invite everyone who values Idaho's children and their teachers to email or call their legislators, especially those on the Senate Education Committee, which will hear legislation the week of February 7 that could potentially increase class sizes, trade teachers for laptops, and take away basic job rights for Idaho's teachers.
Members of the committee include:
John Goedde, Chairman jgoedde@senate.idaho.gov
Dean Mortimer, Vice Chairman dmortimer@senate.idaho.gov
John Andreason jandreason@senate.idaho.gov
Monty Pearce mpearce@senate.idaho.gov
Russell Fulcher rfulcher@senate.idaho.gov
Chuck Winder cwinder@senate.idaho.gov
Mitch Toryanski mtoryanksi@senate.idaho.gov
Edgar Malepeai emalepeai@senate.idaho.gov
Nicole LeFavour nlefavour@senate.idaho.gov