Bid To Boost School Superintendent’s Power Stalled

Sharp disagreement between two deputy attorneys general Thursday convinced a House panel it needs more information on a bid to make the state schools superintendent the executive officer, not just a member, of the state Board of Education.

The House Education Committee put off action on a bill backed by both Superintendent Anne Fox and one of her Republican primary challengers, Rep. Ron Black of Twin Falls, until hearing from more legal experts Tuesday.

The decision came after committee members were whipsawed between testimony from Kevin Satterlee, the deputy attorney general for the Board of Education, and Karl Vogt, deputy attorney general for the Department of Education.

They offered dramatically differing interpretations of the constitutional and legal authority of the schools superintendent and the Board of Education, providing insight to what has become an increasingly bitter turf battle between Fox and the board on which she is a voting member.

“Make no mistake, there is indeed a constitutional crisis brewing,” Vogt said, citing the board’s recent failed attempt to impose its authority over her office’s state budget request.

He said it goes beyond what some have characterized as a personality conflict between Fox and the board’s current members to a question of whether a constitutionally elected official or a constitutionally appointed board has more authority. And the bill Black is sponsoring with Rep. Lenore Barrett should be approved to make it clear the superintendent is dominant, he said.

“I believe it is legally permissible and constitutionally mandated that this be done,” Vogt said.

But Satterlee said the essence of Idaho law on “governance and control” of education in the state has been unchanged since legislation enacting a 1912 constitutional amendment created a single Board of Education.