Lawmakers focus on education

COEUR d’ALENE — "A Balanced Plan For Idaho's Future," put together by the Idaho Democratic Legislative Committee, was the topic of conversation Saturday morning at Java on Sherman.

Three members of the committee discussed the plan and responded to questions and concerns at "Politics and Pastries." About 40 people attended the event hosted by the Kootenai County Democrats.

The guest speakers included House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston; Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow; and Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise.

The plan was put together after extensive polling and focus groups, speaking with Idaho communities about Idaho's future, Rusche said.

"People care about education, they care about economy — generally, but more specifically household economy wages and the fact that they're not keeping up with the growth and productivity and inflation," Rusche said. "They want government to be responsible and accountable ... they want a good quality of life."

One topic that arose in conversation repeatedly throughout the morning was Idaho education, which happened to be first on the list within the plan Rusche laid out.

Schmidt, who is on the Joint Finance and Appropriation Committee, said "where you spend your money reflects you values," adding that Idaho spends two-thirds of the general fund on education.

"I think we can do better, but we are currently spending a lot of our tax dollars on education," Schmidt said.

While the "plan" outlines help for public schools, a question was asked by a local charter school teacher regarding taking money from what she had called "education savings accounts," which would divert money from education to put toward private schools. She said she had "heard talk" of this.

Rusche said there had been talk early on in the legislative session to change the constitution and allowing state money to be used for private and religious schools.

"I don't think that is going to go anywhere," Rusche said. "But it is clear that the powers-that-be in the legislature are strongly supportive of private charter schools and religious schools, and they will look to ways to divert money from the public school budget to those."

He added that charter schools work well in some areas, but are "not an alternative to public education."

Erpelding said Coeur d'Alene High School is a "great" high school and so is the district.

"But you also have the best charter school in the state as well," Erpelding said, referring to the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy. "So this is an example of where a school district can do really well and a charter school can do really well, so we need to recognize that the two can coexist."

He said the Blaine Amendment, which failed in many states, was really about moving state money to parochial schools.

"As a general rule, even Democrats believe that charter schools have real potential and charter schools are examples of where innovation can take place," he said.

Where Erpelding said his concern lies is with districts such as the Silver Valley — Mullan, Wallace and Kellogg — where they talk about having a charter school when "Mullan has to petition the state to get eighth-graders to play on their varsity basketball team." He said there is other discussions that need to take place first, like how to consolidate school districts and make them financially solvent.

Another topic of conversation was the local minimum wage ban, a bill that moved forward in the Idaho Legislature last week.

Erpelding said the bill will get signed and cities and local municipalities will be unable to raise minimum wage at the local level. He said Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d'Alene, is a "good friend," adding that Malek carried the bill. Erpelding then said he is "critical" of the local Democrats for not recruiting someone to run against Malek because they "kind of like him."

"You take away the ability of a local community to raise the minimum wage — that's wrong," Erpelding said.