On Friday, after 89 punishing days, the contentious and increasingly fractured Sixty-Eighth Idaho Legislature finally accomplished something everyone could cheer.  

They went home.  

Anti-public education lawmakers may have fled, but the devastating legislation they pushed through will follow Idaho educators and students for years to come.  

“The 2025 session of the Idaho Legislature is without a doubt the worst legislative session for public education in recent memory — if not in the history of our state,” Idaho Education Association President Layne McInelly said in a statement released to the media on Friday after the Legislature adjourned.  

The anti-public education bills introduced during the session ranged from frivolous to punishing, but they all had one thing in common: the backing of a new breed of hardline lawmakers, many of whom have been elected in the past several years.  

Their influence — and their success — has increasingly undone the Idaho Legislature’s reputation for common-sense, pragmatic legislation.  

“Our lobbying team has never encountered an environment like this,” said IEA Assistant Executive Director Matt Compton. “Just a decade ago, the Statehouse used to be filled with lawmakers who truly wanted what was best for Idaho. Our members could have conversations about what’s best for the students in their classrooms, and lawmakers would listen. But now, the voices of everyday Idahoans are drowned out by out-of-state big interests.  And now, with IEA’s May Matters campaign, the union must work to restore common sense to the Statehouse.”  

Now, the loudest and most destructive voices are intent on bringing down institutions, like public education, that Idaho voters have spent more than 100 years building up. And they have the backing of opaquely-funded groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the Freedom Foundation and Mountain States Policy Center.  

In all, legislators introduced 890 pieces of legislation this year. For context, in 2022, the Legislature introduced 784. Many of the bills, such as those tackling prayer in schools, are cut-and-paste legislation from out-of-state think tanks.  

Here is just a sampling of the bills that siphon money from public schools, erode local control and dictate how educators must teach:  

House Bill 32. Public schools can no longer require masks during a disease outbreak.  

House Bill 41. K-12 schools will no longer be allowed to display pride flags, or any other “political” flags or banners, in schools or classrooms. Exceptions include tribal flags, state and national flags and school mascots. National flags are only acceptable if the United States is not in current conflict with the country.  

House Bill 93. The private school voucher scheme, which Gov. Brad Little signed into law, will grant up to $7,500 in taxpayer-funded credits per private school student. Idaho was one of the last conservative-leaning states in the country to implement vouchers, and an astonishing 37,000 messages flooded Gov. Little’s office between HB 93’s passage and its signing. Thirty-two thousand of those messages were in opposition, public records requests revealed. Although the program currently includes a $50 million cap, lawmakers are already plotting to expand the program during the 2026 legislative session.  

House Bill 239. Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R-Idaho Falls), one of the Legislature’s staunchest anti-sex education advocates, introduced this bill requiring parents and guardians to opt their student into sexual education (the state currently has an opt-out policy). House Bill 239 also includes its own definition of “human sexuality.” Sen. Tammy Nichols (R-Middleton) co-sponsored House Bill 239. Gov. Little signed the bill in late March.  

House Bill 243. The Legislature effectively eliminated local control over day care centers. House Bill 243 puts daycare regulation squarely in the hands of the Legislature. The bill is less stringent than an earlier version, which would have allowed daycares to self-regulate, but still loosens the worker-to-child ratio.   

House Bill 352. This “parental rights” bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Dale Hawkins (R-Fernwood) and Sen. Cindy Carlson (R-Riggins) prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in K-12 public schools.  

Senate Bill 1007. School trustees will now be required to allow public comment about any topic at school board meetings.  

Senate Bill 1046. Any public 5-12 instruction on contraception, sexually transmitted infections or other diseases, or human biology must now be accompanied by a “high-definition ultrasound video.”  

Senate Bill 1142. It is unclear whether Gov. Little will veto this bill, which will end the Empowering Parents program in 2028. The state will stop offering new grants on July 1, 2025, and all current grant recipients must spend their funds by the 2028 phaseout date. The repeal is one to watch: pro-voucher legislators have already indicated they intend to use the money from a repeal to expand the new voucher program.  

Senate Bill 1210. This bill — passed after Gov. Little vetoed a different “medical freedom” bill that also targeted schools — expands what qualifies as a “medical intervention” and bans public schools and daycares from requiring vaccines as a condition of employment or attendance. This law will apply even during disease outbreaks such as the current measles and whooping cough outbreaks or the recent coronavirus pandemic. The law also applies to businesses and venues, such as sports arenas.  

Plenty of other anti-public education and anti-union bills stalled this year. IEA was able to hold off a union-busting bill, sponsored by Rep. Judy Boyle (R-Midvale), that targeted the union’s ability to collect dues via payroll deduction.  

Members of the Professional Fire Fighters of Idaho union stood up for IEA during the debate and were subsequently met with a retaliatory bill to strip PFFI of its collective bargaining rights.  

Lawmakers also failed to update Idaho’s antiquated funding formula, which was first used in 1994 and no longer reflects the realities of the state. They failed to pass a paltry $3 million bill to address Idaho’s huge gap in special education funding — currently $82 million and counting. School districts won’t be able to ask for larger bonds or extend tax levies from two to six years.  

There were wins, too. All state employees, including educators, will have access to a 5% pay increase. Mandatory classroom Bible reading, school chaplains, and displays of the Ten Commandments didn’t make the cut. Neither did an especially contentious bill that would have forced public schools to collect their students’ immigration status.  

“This session is a prime example of why IEA’s May Matters campaign is so important,” said IEA Political Director Chris Parri. “Some of this legislation passed by very narrow margins and could have been prevented if we had just a few more pro-public education lawmakers in the Statehouse. And some of the bills we need to make public education stronger failed by heartbreakingly thin margins.”  

Organizing for May Matters, IEA’s campaign to elect a pro-public education majority to the Statehouse in May 2026,  is happening right now. Every IEA member has a role to play in this campaign. If you would like to get involved, speak to your local union president, your region leader, or simply visit the May Matters page. There, you’ll discover how to check your registration status, learn about upcoming town hall meetings, contribute to the Political Action Committee for Education (PACE) or sign up for the May Matters email list.