Idahoans for Choice in Education

Expanding Educational Choice for Idaho Families

More Money for Schools in Idaho?

Why is it that whenever problems and shortcomings with our public schools in Idaho are mentioned, the leaders of the Idaho Education Association has one solution and one solution only: throw more money at the schools.?

This is in response to an article by Sherri Wood, the president of the IEA, which has appeared in various newspapers throughout Idaho. The article is entitled “Schools Cannot Do Students JustICE-PAC Without Proper Funding.”

Having just retired from 41 years as an educator in the public schools, I must take issue with the comments and ideas proposed by Ms. Woods in her article.

Although Ms. Woods discusses the various needs of many students who “come from disadvantaged families in which toothaches are common and flip-flops are the footwear year-round,” she implies- if not explicitly stating- that the TEA stands for and exists only to represent all 250,000 school-age children in Idaho. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Idaho Education Association is a “union,” which represents the teachers in the public schools and exists for the purpose of raising teachers’ salaries, and improving benefits and working conditions for teachers.

The IEA and its affiliate, the NEA (National Education Association) rarely, if ever, offer positive suggestions for changing schools in America without asking for more tax money. The traditional, bureaucratic public schools in America have a monopoly on education, and there a lot of things that could be done to improve schools without more money. But the NEA and the TEA have such a hold on the schools that the general public is not aware of it.

Education expert Terry Moe, writing in the Wall Street Journal on January 13, 2005 states it best:

“The teachers unions have more influence over the public schools than any other group in American Society. They influence schools from the bottom up, through collective bargaining activities that shape virtually every aspect of school organization. And they influence schools from the top down, through political activities that shape government policy. They are the 800-pound gorilla of public education. Yet the American public is largely unaware of how influential they are and how much thy impede the efforts to improve schools.  The problem is not that the unions are somehow bad or ill-intentioned. They aren’t. The problem is that they simply do what all organizations do- pursue their own interests. They are inevitably led to do things that are not in the best interests of children.”

The Idaho Education Association has great political muscle which has enabled it to pass its self-serving legislation such as:
(1) legislation that enables its non-educator union employees to benefit from the Idaho Public Employees Retirement System (PERSI).
(2) legislation that requires us taxpayers to pick up the tab so that hundreds of TEA Directors (teachers) can leave classrooms and their students to come to Boise each year during the legislative session to further its self-serving agenda.
(3) legislation that makes it almost virtually impossible for school boards to fire incompetent teachers.

All TEA Directors have to pay approximately $600.00 per year and that adds up to over $100,000.00 annually to advance the IEA agenda. Do you really think it’s about the kids?

Rather than asking the taxpayers of Idaho to throw more money at the public schools, why not start asking legislators for substantive changes in the structure and operation of schools? There are already hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on Idaho schools. What about changing the way those dollars are spent? Personally, I think there’s already enough money being spent on schools in Idaho. The problem is how that money is being spent.

Holland Johnson
Member ICE-PAC (Idahoans for ChoICE-PAC in Education)
Web site: (ICE-PACPAC.ORG)

ICE-PAC

P.O Box 933

Boise, ID 83701