IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Local teachers are responding to a new law signed by Governor Brad Little that restricts the activities of teachers’ unions in Idaho.
“The big thing that this bill tries to do is to punish teachers’ unions for having what they call teachers’ union activities on school grounds. I don’t really know what it is that members of the Legislature think that we’re up to in the schools,” said Jake Snarr, a Taylorview Middle School teacher and member of the Idaho Falls Education Association. “I can tell you a lot of what we do is we hang a bulletin boards and talk about our upcoming events.”
The law prohibits taxpayer funding to support teachers’ unions. It does not allow school districts to provide paid time-off for union activities or permit unions to deduct dues from paychecks, according to Idaho Ed News.
Teachers fear they will no longer be able to use schools for teacher association meetings without being charged to rent the facility.
In arguments before the Idaho Senate on April 1, House Bill 516 amendment’s sponsor, State Senator Brian Lenney, (R)-Nampa, said, “This doesn’t prevent teachers from joining a union, from participating in union activities. It doesn’t prevent collective bargaining or anything like that. It answers one thing. It answers whether Idaho taxpayers should be asked to fund a private, Washington D.C.-based political organization [the National Education Association],” he said. “If this bill passes, what we’re basically saying is that you can’t give away taxpayers resources to do the teachers’ unions work for them.”
He argued that $4.4 million in Idaho teachers’ union dues were being automatically deducted through taxpayer-funded payroll systems.
The original bill had died in committee in the Idaho Senate, so Lenney “radiator capped” the bill by emptying the contents of another education bill, and inserting the language of this bill inside it, in accordance with Senate rules on the floor. It was then heard by the Idaho Senate.
State Senator Dave Lent, (R)-Idaho Falls, moved that the bill be sent to the Senate Education Committee for a public hearing, but that motion died on the floor.
The bill passed Idaho’s Senate 20-14 and cleared the House on the final day of the session in a 43-24 vote.
In an interview Monday, Snarr argued that teachers and the associations that represent them feel demoralized and unheard. He said some teachers will look outside of Idaho to continue their careers.
“We help teachers advocate for themselves if they don’t feel their evaluations were fair. We help teachers file grievances based on our collective bargaining agreement with the school district. It’s not like we’re in the schools, you know, promoting woke ideology or anything like that,” he said. “We’re just trying to make sure that teachers get a fair shake and our school district is a good place to work.”
Gov. Brad Little signed the bill Friday, with an accompanying letter stating he “strongly supported teachers’ ability to advocate for their profession.”
“However, while local and state teachers’ associations do important work, they remain private organizations that currently receive taxpayer-funded support not extended to other private entities. House Bill 516a addresses that imbalance,” Little’s letter stated.
However, he called on the Legislature to address “some of the new definitions in the bill [that] are overly broad and ambiguous and will lead to increased scrutiny of a teacher’s actions purely based on their affiliation with their local association.”
He also warned the bill “may have a chilling effect on school districts’ ability to collaborate with their local association on professional development and charitable work in the community.”
Snarr said the Idaho Falls Education Association offers a “Children’s Fund” – a no-questions asked resource where teachers can submit requests for books, glasses, bedding, clothes, coats, help with heating bills and other supplies for students in need.
“If we can’t collaborate with the district on that, it’s hard to identify the needs of our students,” he said.
