On Thursday morning, legislative leaders will hand out some homework assignments for the summer.

They will appoint members to eight task forces and “interim committees” that will spend the summer taking a deeper dive into some complicated issues.

Two of the interim committees are of particular interest to public education.

• One will focus on K-12 issues — including, but not exclusively, the labor bills that were pushed this winter by the Idaho School Boards Association and put back into state law, on a one-year basis. But this interim committee has a broad focus — it can look at all issues pertaining to K-12 education. (Here’s an earlier blog post handicapping potential interim committee members.)
• The second interim committee will look at federal management of public lands — and whether Idaho should demand a transfer of these lands to state jurisdiction. Supporters of the transfer, which has generally enjoyed party-line support in the Statehouse, believe a transfer would generate more money for the state’s endowments, including the public schools endowment.

The state’s Legislative Council will make the committee assignments during a daylong meeting at the Statehouse Thursday. The group’s meeting will begin at 8 a.m., in room WW17 of the Statehouse.

Here’s a look at the council’s full agenda, which also includes a recap on the new law to partially repeal the “personal property tax” on business supplies, equipment and furnishings.