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Huckleberries Online

GOP Solons Bringing Back Luna Laws

The House Education Committee has voted 12-3 along party lines to introduce legislation reinstating two more provisions from the voter-rejected Proposition 1: Requiring that teacher contract negotiations be conducted in public, and allowing school districts to unilaterally impose contract terms if an agreement isn’t reached in negotiations with local teachers unions by a June 10 deadline. The panel's three Democrats opposed the move. Rep. Janie Ward-Engelking, D-Boise, (pictured) said, “It bothers me that this particular bill was basically on the ballot and our constituents, voters spoke about this. I don’t think I had a real problem with the public negotiations. But it seems to me that when you’re negotiating and one side can enforce the last best offer at a given point, it kind of puts all the marbles on that person’s side”/Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise. More here.

Question: In most other states, legislators who continue to flirt with voter-rejected law would be run out of office. In this state, Republican lawmakers can ignore the clear-cut will of the people and get re-elected handily. So is there anything to do about the chutzpah of Republican legislators who are bringing back the Luna Laws — other than shake our fists and gnash our teeth?


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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.

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