Johnson: IEA Knocked Out Of Ring

On Tuesday, the Idaho House approved the most political piece of State Superintendent Tom Luna’s “education reform” effort and sent it on to receive a sure signature from Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. Idahoans who care about schools - and politics - may look back on the vote to strip collective bargaining rights from the state’s teachers and make tenure more tenuous for new teachers as a true watershed moment. Like the great Jack Dempsey, knocked out of the ring in a 1923 title fight, the Idaho Education Association’s once-powerful role in the state’s politics has been knocked for a loop, perhaps never to recover. Dempsey somehow pulled himself back in the ring against Luis Firpo and eventually won his famous fight. The IEA has rarely demonstrated that kind of agility/ Marc Johnson , The Johnson Report. More here .

Question: Marc Johnson brings up a great point later re: the failure by the teachers union to organize its 13,000 foot soldiers throughout Idaho to fight back against anti-education legislators. Why hasn’t the IEA been able to do so?