Complaint says education board violated Idaho Open Meeting Law
A complaint filed Wednesday morning asks the Idaho attorney general’s office to investigate whether the state Board of Education violated the law by having a closed meeting to decide to stop standardized tests this spring for Idaho ninth-graders.
The Spokesman-Review filed the complaint alleging that the board violated the Idaho Open Meeting Law by discussing the testing matter during a closed session at its Pocatello board meeting last Thursday. The law allows closed meetings only for specific purposes.
The complaint further alleges that the board didn’t keep minutes of the executive session and discussed public policy issues, including student testing and the board’s budget, in the closed meeting.
“Important matters of public policy in our state should be decided in public, as our law requires,” reporter Betsy Z. Russell wrote in the complaint.
Bob Cooper, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, confirmed that the complaint was received Wednesday morning.
“We will review the complaint and determine how to proceed,” Cooper said. “It’s always fact-driven.”
The testing change is controversial because students must pass the 10th-grade version of the Idaho Standards Achievement Test to graduate from high school. Critics say the ninth-grade test helps assure that students are on track to pass the following year’s test.
State Board of Education President Milford Terrell said in a press release Tuesday that the state decided to drop the ninth-grade standardized test because of a budget shortfall.
Idaho will save $826,320 by not testing ninth-graders this spring, the board estimated. Annual testing of third- through eighth-graders is required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, though Idaho chooses to test those students twice a year, in spring and fall. The state board voted in September to eliminate second-grade testing, and some educators are pushing for the elimination of the fall tests for all grades, saying there’s an overemphasis on testing.