When Idaho Education Association Executive Director Robin Nettinga asked a group of Boise and Meridian teachers for their biggest concerns, the first two words that rang out were “jobs” and “demoralization.”
About 40 Treasure Valley teachers gathered at Boise High School on Monday for a public forum before lunching with lawmakers. Similar forums, minus the legislative lunch, were planned in five other cities across the state to discuss the impact of state schools chief Tom Luna’s Students Come First package and their hopes to overturn those “Luna laws” viaballot referendums in November.
Things are particularly tough for new teachers, several speakers at the forum said. One of the new laws eliminates tenure for teachers and, while educators who already have multiyear contracts can continue under those arrangements, all future teachers will be limited to one- or two-year contracts at the discretion of their school districts.
“I live in fear that I’m going to lose this. There’s no security at the beginning of this profession,” said Stacey Day, a teacher at Boise’s Riverglen Junior High in her fourth year of teaching. “We’re just expendable. I feel like I’m constantly working hard to be not disposable.”
Job anxiety is also widely felt by longtime teachers, others said.
Shannon Decker, a second-grade teacher at Meridian’s Ponderosa Elementary School, said she has always told herself she would quit teaching when she lost the joy of it, and “there’s no joy this year.”
Decker said the notion of retirement has become more attractive to her and other teachers in the year since the education reform package passed. She mentioned colleagues who are considering new careers in real estate or nursing.
“Over 1,200 teachers left the teaching field last year in Idaho, half because of personal reasons,” Nettinga said. The IEA plans to research what those personal reasons are, she said.
The three Students Come First laws passed by the Idaho Legislature last year restrict teachers’ collective bargaining rights, call for pay-for-performance plans in each school district and will require future Idaho high school graduates to take at least two credits from online classes.
State and local teachers’ unions have opposed all three measures and plan to push for their reversal in November. Luna says the bills will benefit Idaho teachers by rewarding excellence and providing more classroom technology. Both sides say their primary goal is to provide the best possible education for Idaho students.
Teachers said they looked forward to getting together with lawmakers Monday so they could share their experiences and concerns.
Nettinga encouraged teachers to “ask the lawmakers what they need from us … what we can do together.”
Numerous bills affecting education have come up during this year’s legislative session, including several that would tweak the Students Come First laws. But union leaders have their eye on eliminating the new laws altogether.
“We’re going to be working very hard to make sure Mr. Luna’s laws go down,” IEA Region 7 Director Kathy Yamamoto said, encouraging teachers to volunteer to help.
Kristin Rodine: 377-6447
