Committee grills education nominee

BOISE – An outspoken member of the state Board of Education weathered a stormy reappointment hearing on Monday in the Senate Education Committee.

Karen McGee, a former Pocatello City councilwoman and Republican Party activist, was nominated to a second term earlier this year by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne.

McGee has been a controversial figure because of her strong support for charter schools and her connection to an organization that provides alternate computer certification to teachers.

The board also took testimony from Jim Hammond, Kempthorne’s appointment to the state’s new Public Charter School Commission.

Charter schools were approved in 1998 but continue to be a source of dissension in Idaho. Supporters say they foster new and innovated education methods. Detractors say they sometimes amount to a private education funded by taxpayer dollars.

Last year, charter school laws were extensively reformed, giving organizers more latitude in launching the schools without the consent of local school boards. Instead, the state board created the Charter School Commission.

McGee took the heaviest fire from Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, who formerly was chairman of the committee until his own Republican leadership ousted him from the position this year.

Schroeder hammered McGee about her views on the duty of the state board, as outlined in the Idaho Constitution.

“I think the state Board of Education as set forth by the Constitution is to set policy and to make sure we’re accountable for that policy that we set,” McGee said.

“I don’t find the word ‘policy’ in the Constitution. I find the words ‘general supervision,’ ” Schroeder retorted.

Over the past several years, Schroeder and others have argued that the state board has upstaged the Department of Education, headed currently by Marilyn Howard, the only statewide elected Democrat in Idaho.

Schroeder, a moderate who often sides with Democrats, brought up as an example the state Board of Education’s decision two years ago to redirect funds allocated by the Legislature to the Idaho Virtual Academy, an Internet-based charter school. The board voted 7-1 to transfer the funding, with Howard as the lone dissenting vote.

“We were looking at charter schools as a whole, we felt that they were underfunded,” McGee said. “We were told we should not have done that, that that was for the Legislature.”

The committee will vote later on whether to recommend McGee and Hammond to the full Senate. However, the committee cannot stop either appointment from advancing to the Senate, even if they vote against recommendation.