Transparency | Education | Solutions
By Darrel Deide
Chairman, Idahoans for Choice in Education
This year marks my 50th year in Idaho education as a teacher, counselor, administrator, legislator and advocate. I taught science in the 1959-1960 school year, the year that the microchip was invented, the year that the first rocket escaped Earth’s gravity and the year the Mercury program launched Sam the Monkey into outer space.
Idaho taxpayers employ the equivalent of more than 27,000 full-time workers in the state's public school system. Of those, about 55 percent are teachers - a decrease of about 5 percent of the pie since the state implemented its school funding law in 1994. On the surface, that's not so troubling. But the problem is the burgeoning fleet of non-teacher staff flooding the ranks of school employees. Over the last 15 years, the state has added administrators and other school employees at a much faster clip than teachers or students.
In March 2008, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice conducted a survey of 1,000 likely voters in Idaho to measure public opinion on a range of education issues. What the survey found is "nearly half of Idaho voters are not satisfied with the state's current public school system - 47% rate Idaho's public school system as ‘poor' or ‘fair.'" The poll also revealed that "Idahoans like school choice reforms - 67% express favorability to charter schools."
The Coeur d’Alene city government spends thousands of taxpayer dollars every year to show city employees they are appreciated. In fact, according to public records obtained by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, expenses under the heading of “Employee Recognition” totaled $4,489.42 in FY2009.
You may not realize it, but your taxes help pay the salaries of some Statehouse lobbyists. Many pubically funded organizations and agencies contract with outside lobbyists, or send staff members to the legislature, to push their agendas. Among them are city urban renewal districts, school systems, universities and highway districts.
Idaho has an Open Meetings Law, but what exactly is meant by the words “open meeting”? That question is at the heart of a battle brewing in Owyhee County.
From the Coeur d'Alene Press
In Part 2 of this series, we’ll look at the projected numbers of both Little Rock and Boise’s streetcar systems, and how they’ve shaken out five years later. We’ll compare how the Little Rock River Rail is financed, and how Boise would finance its proposed streetcar system. Finally, we’ll look at how development and business has evolved in Little Rock since November 2004, when the River Rail went into operation.
State lawmakers would have you believe they're doing something pretty spectacular by passing a ban texting while driving. Are they? We don't know. The problem is there's no data that show that a ban on texting actually decreases accidents. We also don't know whether a lack of a ban increases the number of accidents.
State lawmakers last week very nearly fumbled on an issue with massive implications for taxpayers. It happened Wednesday when the House State Affairs Committee voted 13-5 to reject a proposal to block a 1 percent cost-of-living increase for retirees on the state’s pension program, the Public Employees Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI).
In 1999, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne made raising childhood immunization rates a central component of his first-year legislative agenda. He pushed a bill to create a statewide immunization registry. The measure sailed through the Senate 26-6. But his proposal ran into stiff opposition from House members, who protested the government's increasing dictatorial involvement in the family. So lawmakers amended the legislation to add provisions declaring that the new vaccination registry was to be strictly voluntary.
At the Statehouse, lawmakers are split on whether to uphold the state Department of Agriculture's new rules governing raw milk. The department has come up with rules intended to protect the public. But the rules go too far, restricting farming operations doing business with consumers who willingly and knowingly consume unpasteurized milk.
Nostalgic sentiment for government television is no reason to continue funding it. Imagine, if you will, a brand new state called Idaho, born in the year 2010. What government services should this new state offer? Would this new 21st century government really include a taxpayer-funded television network? Probably not, and the reason is simple: It's not needed. It's government waste.