Panel Rebuffs Schroeder’s Bill On Background Checks

Senate Education Committee Chairman Gary Schroeder’s bid to exempt university employees who teach high school students from criminal background checks and fingerprinting was blocked in its first review by lawmakers.

Schroeder, R-Moscow, abruptly adjourned his committee’s meeting Thursday after Sens. Darrel Deide, R-Caldwell, and Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, made a motion not to introduce the bill.

It is unusual for a committee to balk at introducing a bill proposed by its chairman. And that wasn’t all.

Sen. Don Burtenshaw, R-Monteview, a former school board member, asked Schroeder what he thought about requiring criminal background checks for all higher education employees.

“That would be a firestorm in my district like you have never seen,” said Schroeder, whose territory includes the University of Idaho. “We should be penalizing the people who commit crime instead of penalizing the people who have done nothing.”

“Somebody has to explain to me why it is derogatory to have a background check,” Burtenshaw replied.

Schroeder said he and Rep. Maynard Miller, R-Moscow, will refine his proposal and try to introduce it in the House Education Committee. The bill may only require criminal background checks for faculty members who leave campus to teach at the public schools, he said. , DataTimes