School reform clears Senate hurdle

The Idaho Senate just passed one of the three bills making up the comprehensive education reform package proposed by Idaho public school chief Tom Luna and Gov. Butch Otter.

The measure, now headed for the House, passed by a 20-15 vote split along party lines.

This section of Idaho’s Students Come First legislation relates to labor relations and employee entitlements.

An early motion to indefinitely postpone debate on the bill was struck down by a party-line vote of 28-7.

During the two hours of debate, Senate Education Committee chair, Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene,said the legislation returns decision-making powers to locally elected school boards.

Some key points of the comprehensive bill include:

* phasing out of continuing contracts for all current and future teachers who have not yet earned it, to be replaced by one- or two-year contracts;

* a requirement that parental input be considered in teacher evaluations;

* the elimination of job protection for teachers with seniority;

* gives principals more control over which teachers they accept to work in their buildings;

•  requires that school districts provide liability insurance options for teachers.

• Eliminates the 99 percent average daily attendance protection feature of the state funding formula and replaces it with a 10 percent severance fee to be paid to any professional staff whose positions must be eliminated due to lost enrollment;[

• eliminates the early retirement incentive program;

• limits the length of negotiated labor agreements to one year;

• eliminates "evergreen" clauses, that protect decisions made by previous school boards, from negotiated labor agreements;

• requires that unions provide documentation that they represent more than 50 percent of employees in order for collective bargaining to take place;

• limits collective bargaining to salaries and benefits;

• requires that all labor negotiations be conducted in public meetings.

-- Maureen Dolan