State Policy
Analysis: How Idaho’s troubled Empowering Parents vendor expanded its national brand
Odyssey made its Idaho work a centerpiece of its successful bid to run Iowa’s education savings account program. At least publicly, Odyssey gave no inkling of the problems plaguing Idaho’s Empowering Parents microgrant program.
State Board to address ‘alleged’ open meeting violation
In June, Attorney General Raúl Labrador sued the State Board over a series of closed-door meetings this spring, involving the University of Idaho’s proposed purchase of the University of Phoenix.
State Board steps up legal battle with Labrador
The State Board of Education says it will have to hire an outside attorney to defend itself in a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Raúl Labrador. And the board plans to forward its legal bills to Labrador’s office.
State review finds up to $180,000 in improper Empowering Parents purchases
The contractor has agreed to reimburse the state for the ineligible purchases. The contractor has also indicated it will reimburse the state for nearly $500,000 it collected in interest from taxpayer funds.
A new law requires transparent levy elections — but the results are mixed
Some districts write sketchy ballot language, which means voters can’t tell where their money is going. These districts are taking a big risk. The law would allow a judge to nullify an election over flimsy ballot language.
Districts lean on short-term levies to pay for long-term investments — people
School districts use the bulk of voter-approved supplemental levies to cover their single biggest expense: salaries and benefits. That allows schools to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes, or keep experienced educators in the classroom — as long as voters say yes to the levy.
All politics is local, and levy elections can be contentious or routine
It took five months, and two loud elections, for Coeur d’Alene to convince their patrons to keep a supplemental levy on the books. But in many other communities, voters quietly and reliably support levies.
Lawmakers rewrote the school election calendar. What happens next?
Starting next year, school districts have only three dates when they can run a levy. But the schools also will have more state money — designed to offset bonds and levies. It’s a classic tradeoff, and a hard one to handicap.
No-confidence vote targets Little, House GOP members over library bill
The vote took place at a GOP Central Committee summer meeting in Challis over the weekend. The flap dates back to the waning hours of the 2023 legislative session.
Labrador lawsuit challenges closed-door, U of I-Phoenix purchase discussions
“The people of Idaho deserve to know about a transaction of this magnitude before it happens, not to have it presented to them as a fait accompli,” the attorney general’s office said in a lawsuit, filed Tuesday.