Bills Attacking Teachers, Union Fail Four Of Five Measures Held Back By Senate Education Committee

Senators balked Wednesday at a package of five anti-teachers union bills proposed by a Meridian school board member, saying they were a “meat-ax approach.”

The measures, from eliminating teacher tenure to requiring a public vote on any teachers’ contract, were pitched by Steve Givens of Star, Idaho. The Senate Education Committee declined to introduce the package, but did agree to introduce one of the five, a measure dealing with sick leave accumulation.

Sen. Laird Noh, R-Kimberly, said the committee should look into whether laws governing teacher contracts need updating, and possibly consider a study.

One of the five bills would have removed the requirement that school districts negotiate with their local teachers’ union.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, asked Givens, “Do you think school boards of trustees are interested in negotiating with every individual teacher?”

Sen. Don Burtenshaw, R-Monteview, who served on school boards for two decades, said the bills sounded like they’d just stir up bad feelings between teachers and school districts.

“If there’s anything we need to do, it’s not open more controversy, it’s to have harmony,” he said.

Givens was introduced by Sen. Atwell Parry, R-Melba, the powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

“I recognize that some of these will be very controversial,” Parry told the Education Committee. “I’m here to ask you to take a good look at them. I think there’s merit to every one.”

Keough said afterward that she wasn’t comfortable with the proposals, and wasn’t sure of Givens’ agenda.

“I guess I felt we might be launching into an area a little more aggressively than we needed to be,” she said.

She added, “If there is a problem in the process, I would like to hear about it from the local district.”

Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, who also serves on the committee, said he thought the public vote on contracts bill seemed impractical, but he didn’t have enough information to decide on the others.

“I think any employee in any job needs to be accountable,” he said.

Monica Beaudoin, president of the Idaho Education Association, said of the measures, “I don’t think they were well-researched.”

The one bill that won introduction would cap teachers’ sick leave accumulation at 180 days. That issue now is left up to individual school districts. When teachers retire before age 65, they can convert half their unused sick days into health-care coverage, which they otherwise wouldn’t receive during retirement until age 65.

, DataTimes