Status Quo on Education?
After the defeat Monday of S1038, the Education Savings Account bill, some figured more moderate bills would fare better. However, on Thursday, one of these bills suffered the same fate in the House Education Committee and two other bills were pulled back by their sponsors perhaps to find an easier route to a vote on the floor.
The lack of any changes in the area of education choice is not only happening in Idaho, but as the article above shows, other mountain states are seeing the same thing. There is considerable energy to change the education system but tremendous inertia to overcome for that to happen.
ESG Bills Pass House
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is a controversial means to score companies on non-financial areas that are intended to convey their commitment to improving society. Critics point to a lack of any standard as to how the score is determined and that it is used to force companies to adopt leftist political goals.
The three anti-ESG bills passed with a wide margin in the House on Thursday. The Idaho Voter will be doing further research on this topic as the bills move to the Senate.
The Book Debate
In defense of controversial books offered to minors, this article cites “It’s Perfectly Normal” and “Heather Has Two Mommies” to make the case that these 90s era books were radical then, were accused of ‘turning kids gay’, but were helpful to untold numbers of minors struggling with life situations that were difficult to talk about.
On the other side, there have been numerous school board meetings and even testimony in the legislature where parents and other concerned citizens have read passages out of books available in local libraries that minors can access (just search YouTube for porn in school libraries - we won’t link them here). The passages were offensive enough that many were asked to stop reading or had their mics cutoff.
Much of the debate seems to be both sides talking past each other and not addressing the arguments the other side is making. Why not have each side pick a specific book and have the other side defend why it should be kept or removed?
In the legislature, bills to address the removal of inappropriate books did not pass the House Education committee, which led to our next story…
Rep Boyle Steps Down from Education Committee
Representative Judy Boyle (Rep-9) has apparently stepped down from the House Education Committee after a contentious vote on H139 dealing with inappropriate materials in school and public libraries. Boyle stated “This is Idaho, not San Francisco, and I’m a mom and a grandmom.”
Boyle is in her 8th term and as such is one of the senior members of the House.
JFAC Authorizes Audit of Dept of Health and Welfare
The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee (JFAC), which sets and oversees the budgets for all the state departments, authorized an audit of the Department of Health And Welfare over possible disbursement(s) of funds to ineligible organizations.
Last year, $6 million was on the table to fund the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children (IAEYC) but was defeated. An allegation surfaced that money made its way to that organization anyway. The investigation should determine if that indeed happened or if there were any unauthorized payments made.
Legislation Roundup
Green indicates change from last week. Red indicates the bill has died.