Goedde pulls teacher firing bill

Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, pulled his bill this afternoon that sought to streamline the process for firing teachers. Goedde had reached agreement with the Idaho Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, on an amendment to the bill, SB 1437, to bring binding arbitration into the process. But the Idaho School Boards Association opposed the bill. “I hope I don’t ever have a school board trustee complain about the cost and time it takes to fire a teacher ever again, because I’ll remind them what happened today,” Goedde said.