Nonini Goes After Idaho Schools

57 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

• 

  Aerie on February 12 at 9:54 a.m.

  With the awesome team of Luna and Nonni, how can Idaho not have a better public education system in short order? We’re blessed to have these two working for us.

• 

  JamesBond on February 12 at 9:58 a.m.

  I do not believe that public employees should be given contracts. This belief of mine holds true for teachers, cops, department heads, all “front office” employees, etc. So, I support Nonini in this regard. However, he has more work to do, because we have all kinds of public employees that have contracts.

• 

  thomg57 on February 12 at 9:59 a.m.

  WOW! I suspected that Bob was anti-education and anti-union, but I didn’t really expect him to try and legislate his narrow, nasty views. I wonder if his views would be different if he had ever had first hand, personal interaction with our local schools?

• 

  DFO on February 12 at 10:06 a.m.

  ThomG; don’t forget that Nonini & Henderson are the tag-team that is fighting the proposed NIC education corridor. He’ll have quite a resume, if he can ax a good portion of public education and hamstring the corridor. Do you suppose he wants to take on Luna in the next primary for state education chief. In some corners, people would be impressions. Not this one. But some corners.

• 

  thomg57 on February 12 at 10:08 a.m.

  I’m thinking he’s eyeballing the First CD primary.

• 

  thomg57 on February 12 at 10:14 a.m.

  Speaking of Henderson, I love his quote in today’s Press about the President’s Recovery Act and how it could benefit Idaho’s transportation needs.

  “He (Henderson) estimates $180 million to $200 million could come to the state for transportation projects.
  “That’s double (ITD budget)”, he said. “That’s a lot. That would create a lot of jobs.”

  Imagine that, the Recovery Act creating a lot of jobs in Idaho!!

• 

  Dennis on February 12 at 10:17 a.m.

  Thank God I got my kids out of the Idaho school system.

• 

  BethB on February 12 at 10:19 a.m.

  Why is it that school funds are the first to get cut? The same thing happened with the (federal) stimulus bill - and the cutting was on school construction and repair (an immediate job-generating item) so the cutting cannot be justified as cutting non-jobs-generating items.

  Not only do these state bills seem scary, but the method used to introduce them sounds pretty disrespectful to teachers. Idaho seems to be working hard to convince its teachers that they’d be better off finding work elsewhere.

• 

  Arpie on February 12 at 10:20 a.m.

  A meat-head with a meat-ax. There is no way he will run for Superintendent. I’d bet he doesn’t even have a degree in weights and measures, yet alone an administrator’s certificate.

• 

  Joker on February 12 at 10:25 a.m.

  How come the Dems can never beat these “jokers?” in Idaho.

  Must be gross incompetence to let one party so dominant a state. What gives?

• 

  MamaJD on February 12 at 10:42 a.m.

  When does the demonstration group set up shop outside Nonini’s house and/or business?

  Anybody hearing where The Bear stands on this issue?

• 

  thomg57 on February 12 at 10:46 a.m.

  What gives?- joker

  You answered your own question: “in Idaho”

  ;-(

• 

  thomg57 on February 12 at 10:50 a.m.

  Thank God I got my kids out of the Idaho school system.—Dennis

  Dennis,
  I think that’s a reason why Nonini has such a dim view of education; he has never had kids in the public schools, yet in its infinite wisdom our legislative leaders put him in charge of the Education Committee.

• 

  moscow_minidoka on February 12 at 10:55 a.m.

  I don’t know whether to cry or to move to another state. That people like this actually hold office in Idaho makes me ashamed and despondent over the future.

  And then people wonder why the best teachers move elsewhere? Is anyone actually puzzled by low teacher retention in the state among new teachers?

• 

  Whippersnapper on February 12 at 11:05 a.m.

  Barf.

  All this handwringing is so short-sighted. Except for field trips, has Nonini proposed any cuts? All of your simplistic arguments against these changes are based on assumptions you make:

  Nonini is anti-education, has some ulterior motive, the people of Idaho are incompetent for voting for him, and these proposals will ruin or degrade Idaho schools.

  Could it be that maybe Nonini is trying to give school districts the power to control their budgets????

  It’s sick that trying to control government spending has become a crime to you people. WAAAAAAAhhhh!

  When I see all this knee-jerk reaction to these control measures, I know that spending would be out of control in a Democratic legislature and there would be no controls for fear of upsetting people.

  Only simple-minded people believe that spending equals quality, cutting equals hate.

  Barf.

• 

  Whippersnapper on February 12 at 11:07 a.m.

  Yes, I have kids in Idaho schools. They’re fine, thanks for asking.

• 

  toadman on February 12 at 11:11 a.m.

  All I know is, if I had a name like Nonini, I’d be looking for ways to keep it out of the news.

  ;-)

• 

  DFO on February 12 at 11:11 a.m.

  Welcome back, Whipper. Now, for a knee-jerk reaction. I blame ThomG for Nonini being in the Legislature. If the D’s had better candidates — and could hire King County tabulators to count the District 5 votes — we wouldn’t have to deal with Nonini as the anti-education chairman of the Senate Education Committee. Get ‘er done, ThomG. ;-)

• 

  Whippersnapper on February 12 at 11:34 a.m.

  I don’t like the wide ranging nature of these proposals, but you only have to look to Washington to see what happens in a down economy following several years of Democratic legislatures. There will be mass layoffs in all state departments.
  The reason school costs have to be controlled is that is nearly one half of the entire state budget. Most of the quality requirements for buildings, transportation, food, special ed and working conditions come from the federal government, not the state, so there is little leeway for the legislature to shift or control costs.
  At least the state can’t borrow money to pay for this stuff or we’d be SOL like our federal government. I don’t like Nonini, but having a few budget hawks in government is a good thing.

• 

  Bob on February 12 at 11:54 a.m.

  This is a deviated septum of a proposal.

• 

  idawa on February 12 at 12:01 p.m.

  You get what you pay for, I suppose.

  I am always amazed by the anti-public education wing that has developed in some conservative circles. A strong public education system has always been a priority, it was important enough to Idaho’s founder that they enshrined the right in the State’s constitution. So, we have this new radical right that wants to exploit an economic crisis to push us away from our roots and values (sound familiar), I don’t think it is wise or very long term thinking.

  I am also amazed to hear the notion that government employees should not be allowed to contract…wow, taking away the right to contract is also a radical idea. I might agree if the government did not have monopolies in fire, police, and education, and the workers could use their market power to force terms, but as it is, the right to collectively bargain is the only power that workers have when their employer is a monopoly. I am not a big union supporter, in most situations I think they are actually harmful to employees, but in most government situations I think they are vital to the employees welfare. If a politician primary motivation is to get reelected, when they are faced with an employee who has no recourse they will always exploit that employee to cut costs and cut taxes to get re-elected.

• 

  Sisyphus on February 12 at 12:05 p.m.

  Wow, if Nonini doesn’t have an agenda and this is just a response to the current crisis why didn’t he put sunset provisions in the bill? Are you saying that higher teacher pay doesn’t attract higher quality teachers, Whipper? Isn’t that a primary tenet of the free market system, to pay what they’re worth?

• 

  Bob on February 12 at 12:17 p.m.

  Nowini, like many of his foamed lipped ilk of the extreme xtrianist right, have as an agenda to destroy public school systems and force parents to send kids to religious based schools or homeschool them in their ramshackle tarpaper Idaho shacks.
  Same reason Idaho is the worst state in the nation for child protection and welfare. Why Idaho is probably the only state in the galaxy that does not require background checks on daycare workers.

  Nowini and others like him do not want any incentives for mothers to cast aside the will of the Invisible Bearded Sky Giant and go forth into the satanic workplace and earn a living allowing them the opportunity one day to cast aside the Godly authority of their husbands and fathers (sometimes in rural Idaho that is the same person).

• 

  Sisyphus on February 12 at 12:23 p.m.

  Oh God thank you Bob. Finally an apt term. That’ll stick.

• 

  Bob on February 12 at 12:31 p.m.

  Oh since it seems to be the day everyone named Keith is humping posts and claiming they’d read it before, I have to confess I was chatting up a hooker out at the Stateline and she told me that’s what all the chicks used to call him in the hot tubs.

  Back in the day, man.

  Just kidding, I just made it up. Glad you like it. To steal a line of my old man’s he’d always use after telling some kinda dumb joke “I got a million of em”

• 

  thawtfulreader on February 12 at 12:35 p.m.

  “I’d bet he doesn’t even have a degree in weights and measures”
  -Arpie

  Now that’s not fair, Arpie.

  Lunatic has a CORRESPONDENCE (on-line) “degree” from an accredited diploma mill!

• 

  BlueinIdaho on February 12 at 1:36 p.m.

  Thank Gawd for Nonini! We don’t need the government imposing their will on Idaho schools, we need Nonini to do that. If it weren’t for Nonini, we would have Dems in there doing irresponsible things like increasing funding for education and making sure the buildings are up to code. Gawd bless Nonini.

• 

  Nick_Adams on February 12 at 2:44 p.m.

  Nonini is just doing his part to fulfill the extremist wing of the Idaho Republican Party’s plan to keep Idahoans as dumb as possible. That way they’ll keep voting for brilliant folks like Nonini and Harwood.

• 

  Callisto on February 12 at 7:25 p.m.

  Apparently the charter and virtual school issue has not hit Huckleberryland. Otherwise, you would not be so surprised at what is happening to public education in Idaho.

  Tom Luna received his largest single campaign contribution ($10,000) from K-12 Inc., a corporation started by William Bennett so he would be assured of getting his piece of the No Child Left Behind pie. (And yes, I refer to the William Bennett who wrote the book about America’s moral failings, only to be exposed as a compulsive, high-stakes gambler soon thereafter.)

  Since 2004, 31 charter schools and four virtual schools have suddenly appeared in Idaho, and while Mr. Luna whacks away at public school funding, he’s promoting an even more rapid pace of charter school development. By the way, the cuts that will apply to traditional public schools won’t affect funding for Idaho’s charter and virtual schools.

  A review of the finances of Idaho Virtual Academy (which is run by K-12, Inc.) by a reporter at the Twin Falls Times-News found that 70% of the money received by IDVA goes directly to its parent corporation, which is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. And the list of ‘educational,’ for-profit corporations that gain a toe-hold in Idaho grows every year. Thanks to our former and current governors, and the Tom Luna approach to education, Idaho is ripe for the pickings.

  But as soon as charters have appeared, so have the problems. Charters and virtuals have not improved student performance. The Gooding school district has been hit especially hard by the emigration of students to a new charter school, causing the Times-News to report that the schools are now essentially segregated by class and race. A charter school in the Hidden Springs development outside of Boise is unable to meet the debt obligation on its building, and is now asking the state to reincorporate the school into the traditional school system.

  Neither the IEA nor the Idaho Democratic Party has openly and directly addressed the issue of Idaho’s systematic and rapid state-subsidized privatization of education. And the latest actions by Mr. Nonini and Mr. Luna shouldn’t have been a surprise to either group.

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