More than 500 educators from across Idaho voted this afternoon to support the referendum campaigns to overturn the three main harmful education bills passed by the 2011 Idaho Legislature.
The vote was taken during the Idaho Education Association’s 119th Delegate Assembly. The IEA filed preliminary petitions against Senate Bills 1108 and 1110 in March, and a new parent-led political action committee, Idahoans for Responsible Education Reform, did the same with Senate Bill 1184 an hour after Gov. Butch Otter signed it into law last week.
“Idaho educators are fully in support of getting the 48,000-plus signatures needed on each of three petitions to overturn these laws,” said Idaho Education Association President Sherri Wood. “We will be working with parents, grandparents and community leaders to be sure that Idahoans have a chance to vote on these laws in November 2012.”
“Although top state officials and most members of the Legislature disregarded citizen opposition this winter, Idaho voters will have the final say next fall,” Wood added. “By then, we will have had more than a year of evidence showing how harmful these laws are. We’ll also have seen three full school years of historic budget cuts that these laws make even worse with their unfunded mandates for online classes, mobile computing devices and bonus pay schemes.”
The signatures must be delivered to the Secretary of State’s office by June 6, 2011.
