Facts about the education propositions are:
PROPOSITION 1
If you vote yes on Proposition 1, you will put the school boards and the parents who elect the boards back in control of the schools. Teachers’ unions will be limited to open one-year negotiations for wages and health insurance, and must be backed by over 50 percent of the teachers. Parents can give feedback on teacher performance evaluations.
If you vote no on Proposition 1, you will keep the teachers’ unions in control of schools as the teachers unions can continue to negotiate for all management decisions (even deciding when the bell rings) behind closed doors with less than 50 percent of the teachers. The school boards will continue to lose control, having to agree with them. Parent feedback on teacher performance evaluations is not required.
The National Education Association has spent $1.1 million to defeat these propositions. The state can’t be spending that much taxpayer money to counteract the false ads. The Idaho Education Association has spent at least $2 million.
PROPOSITION 2:
If you vote yes on proposition 2, effective teachers will be rewarded with bonuses. Effective teachers and effective schools will be rewarded based 70 percent on how the children progress during the year, only 30 percent on grades. Tenure will be phased out with the new teachers coming in.
If you vote no on proposition 2, then teachers will continue to be paid by how long they teach. Tenure will continue and school boards will not be able to fire teachers who are not effective.
The misinformation from the unions is that the $38 million for pay-for-performance is just a transfer of money from teacher’s salaries within the education budget. The truth is that the $38 million is extra money added to the education fund from the general fund.
PROPOSITION 3:
If you vote yes on Proposition 3, you will guarantee that each student will have a laptop to use and there will be a two-credit online course required for graduation. Seniors can take a year’s worth of state funded college credits.
If you vote no on Proposition 3, there will be no required laptops and the state will have to come up with more money to buy the more expensive textbooks. The two credits of online learning are still required by law. College credits must be paid for by parents or the students.
The claim is that computers replace teachers. The truth is that they do not replace teachers, but give teachers more time to help struggling students. Our students have become visual learners. It has been proven that students are motivated by computers.
The assertion is that the local district pays for the upkeep of the computers. The truth is that the state requires the contractor to maintain the upkeep of the computers. Textbooks in the long run are much more expensive than computers.
All of these reform education laws have been enacted in part by some other states so they are not new. Idaho has the most comprehensive reforms so the teachers’ unions are fighting the hardest in Idaho. Teachers are paid with taxpayer money to attend many union functions. The union bosses are paid wages that are in the hundreds of thousands.
If you have questions, please call (208) 962-7718, or go to websites: www.idahofreedomfoundation.org, www.ice-pac.net, or www.yes4idaho.com.
Sheryl Nuxoll is an Idaho senator for District 8 in Boise.
Next Post
Luna Laws: High Cost, No Results
Wed Oct 31 , 2012
There were good reasons why some 75,000 Idahoans signed petitions last year ¬to overturn three education-related laws enacted by the legislature: the Luna Laws are bad education policy and bad fiscal policy. They impose top-down, one-size-fits-all mandates that tie the hands of local school boards, divert money from our already […]
