IEA HOTLINE Podcast

This episode’s topic is Week 10 of the 2023 legislative session. With adjournment likely next week, lawmakers are done with committee hearings and working through a long roster of legislation so they can go home. The Idaho Legislature is winding down its business for 2023 and, absent any last-minute surprises, this session’s outcomes for students, educators and public education promise to be historic. Those bills include pay raises...

In this episode of Idaho Education Association's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss Week 6 of the Idaho Legislature’s 2023 session. Our panel's discussion centers on:

• The real fiscal impact of the session’s first voucher bill
• A bill requiring school districts to provide separate bathrooms and locker rooms based on students’ gender at birth
• A legislative committee’s rejection of expanded protections from abuse for school employe...

In this episode of IEA's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss Week 5 of the Idaho Legislature’s 2023 session. Our panel's analysis centers on the advancement of the session’s first voucher bill earlier in the week, the outlook for Gov. Brad Little’s proposals on educator pay, attempts politicize traditionally non-partisan institutions in the state and a renewed effort to censor libraries. 

Joining  today’s conversation are:

• IEA’...

In this episode of IEA's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss Week 4 of the Idaho Legislature’s 2023 session. Our discussion centers around bond and levy elections on March 14 and proposed legislation to limit school district opportunities to put such measures before voters (House Bill 58). We also discuss legislation (House Bill 114) expanding protections for educators from physical violence —  a problem educators face all to often — ...

In this episode of HOTLINE, we discuss the first three weeks of the Idaho Legislature’s 2023 session. There’s been quite a bit action around education at the Statehouse as those with a wide variety of perspectives about public education begin bringing their proposals forward. 

Our panel discusses:

• Three key factions among lawmakers looking to influence education policy
• An unlikely proposed amendment to the Idaho Constitu...

This episode of IEA's HOTLINE Podcast discusses Jan. 16's  2023 IEA Lobby Day, IEA members’ annual opportunity talk directly with Idaho lawmakers about their legislative priorities for making Idaho public education the best it can possibly be for Idaho’s students and families. 

This year, more than 150 IEA members came to Boise for this year’s event, which was one of the most successful ever. Our panel also discu...

In this episode of IEA's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss Idaho Gov. Brad Little's recommendation to bring starting teacher salaries into the top 10 among all states — an extraordinary commitment to public education and the future of the state. 

Our  panel discusses Gov. Little's recommended pay raise for both certified educators and classified school employees and the positive impact such an investment will have...

In this episode of IEA's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss vouchers — taxpayer funded government subsidies for private schools or vendors that syphon scarce and desperately needed tax dollars away from public school classroom. The panel discusses how voucher proponents cloak voucher schemes in benign language like "school choice" or "scholarships" and how other states that adopt the concept have not seen promised...

In this episode of IEA's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss Idaho's decades of chronically underfunding Idaho public schools and cascading impacts it has on students, learning and public school educators. The panel discusses the Idaho Legislature's continued failure in meeting its constitutional mandate to provide an equitable public education to all Idaho students, how that failure creates uneven learning outcomes for stud...

In this episode of Idaho Education Association's HOTLINE Podcast, we discuss the growing, critical crisis of student mental health and wellbeing and how its impacting Idaho students, classrooms and educators. 

The panel discusses what's behind this crisis, the need for increased school staffing to help ease its impacts, how student learning and the teaching environment are affected, and how growing expectations f...

In our inaugural episode of Idaho Education Association's HOTLINE podcast, we discuss the political landscape for public education on the cusp of the 2023 regular session of the Idaho Legislature. 

Coming off of historic investments for K-12 public education during the 2022 session and another record $330 million earmark made during a special session in September, lawmakers face important questions about the need for ...