A bill to move the college and university presidential search process almost entirely behind closed doors is headed for the Senate floor.
The Senate Education Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1225 out of committee Monday afternoon — without taking testimony from a media group opposed to the proposal.
The bill won’t immediately come up for a vote, however. The bill is headed to the Senate floor for amendments, at the sponsor’s urging. “We’ve had a lot of moving parts at play,” Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, said during a brief committee hearing.
SB 1225 would allow search committees to do most of their work — the work of finding presidents for the state’s public four-year schools — in private. After screening candidates behind closed doors, a committee would submit the name of a single presidential finalist to the State Board of Education. The board would then have to wait at least 10 business days before making a hire.
This 10-day public phase has become a sticking point, however.
The bill refers only to “president searches … for state institutions of higher education.” The language about the 10-day waiting period appears in another section of the bill. Other groups, such as the Idaho School Boards Association, are worried that the waiting period language could be applied to other high-level hires, Den Hartog said.
Den Hartog said this section of the bill could be amended to explicitly limit the 10-day public phase to college and university presidents’ hires.
The current law — and its public disclosure requirements — has become a focal point 10 months into the stalled search for a new Boise State University president.
In essence, the law requires the State Board to release a list of five presidential finalists. The finalists generally come to campuses for public meetings with students, staff and the community.
State Board leaders have lamented this public phase of the process. They have indicated that applicants for the Boise State post have withdrawn from consideration, because they didn’t want to be identified publicly as a finalist.
Two people were signed up to testify on the bill, but were not given a chance to speak. One was Ken Burgess, who lobbies for the Idaho Press Club, and was signed up to speak against the bill.
After the meeting, committee Chairman Dave Lent, R-Idaho Falls, said he did not mean to exclude public testimony.
“I blew past that. That was my mistake,” Lent told Idaho EdNews. “Certainly, if I was doing it again, there’d be no question.”
Samuel Lair of the Idaho Freedom Foundation was also signed up to testify. But after the hearing, Lair told Lent he had planned to speak in favor of the bill.
So far, SB 1225 has appeared to be on a legislative fast track. Senate Education introduced the bill last week. With the bill on the way to the floor, it could be amended at any time, and could come up for a Senate vote any time after that.
If SB 1225 passes, the bill would go into effect immediately, and would be applied to the stalled Boise State search.
Disclosure: Idaho EdNews reporters are members of the Idaho Press Club, a statewide media organization. However, EdNews Statehouse reporters do not testify on open meetings or public records legislation.
LC State name-change bill makes its debut
A bill to rebrand Lewis-State State College made a quick debut Monday.
Without discussion, the Senate Education Committee introduced a bill that would rename LC State as Lewis-Clark State University.
LC State officials have pushed for the name change for months.
They say university status would help the Lewiston-based school recruit students and student-athletes. They also say it would put LC State on the same level with Idaho’s three other four-year schools, which are universities — while distinguishing it from Idaho’s four two-year schools, which are colleges.
However, LC State President Cynthia Pemberton has said the rebrand would not change the school’s mission, or its niche as a small school targeted toward in-state residents, first-generation students and students with high financial need.
The rebrand bill, sponsored by Sen. Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins, could come back to the committee for a full hearing.
Critchfield: Feds could give Idaho leeway on testing requirements
After more than a decade of talk, states could finally see some leeway from federal education mandates, state superintendent Debbie Critchfield said Monday.
Idaho will seek two specific test waivers, Critchfield told the House Education Committee Monday.
Third-grade testing. The feds require third-grade standardized tests in several topics, including English language arts. But Idaho also administers the Idaho Reading Indicator to all K-3 students. Idaho would like to use the IRI to replace this section of its third-grade Idaho Standards Achievement Test.
High school testing. The feds also require a high school exam, so Idaho requires 11th-graders to take the ISAT. Critchfield said she would like to give students alternatives — such as the SAT for college-bound students, career-technical exams or the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a test geared toward students considering the military.
Neither of these waivers will happen immediately, Critchfield told lawmakers. But Critchfield, first appointed to the State Board of Education in 2014, said the states’ relationship with the U.S. Department of Education is changing, which makes waivers a real possibility.
“The conditions have presented themselves,” she said.
‘We’ve got something going here:’ Teacher of the Year touts Launch, scholarships
About 9,000 students have passed through Laron Johnson’s high school classrooms over 29 years.
And Idaho’s teacher of the year urged lawmakers to continue to make opportunities for high school graduates — through the Idaho Launch and Idaho Opportunity Scholarship programs.
“We’ve got something going here,” Johnson, a Rigby High School teacher, told the House Education Committee Monday.
Launch could face another round of tight scrutiny at the Statehouse this session. The program provides high school graduates with up to $8,000 for college or career-technical programs. But hardline lawmakers have opposed Launch since Gov. Brad Little unveiled it in 2023. As Idaho faces a shortfall that could run in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Launch’s $75 million budget could end up in legislators’ crosshairs.
College financial aid has made a difference in Johnson’s family. He told lawmakers that his daughter was able to stay in state and attend Idaho State University, where scholarships are readily available.
And Johnson’s students can go to college debt free, they have a better chance of returning to their community.
“You know what keeps seniors up?” he said. “It’s affording a house in Jefferson County.”
Proposal urges feds to step up special education funding
Fifty-one years ago, the federal government pledged to pick up 40% of states’ additional special education costs.
That has never happened. Idaho now receives a 12% federal match.
A nonbinding memorial would urge Congress to meet the funding commitments in its Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
“In my opinion, it’s become an unfunded mandate,” said Rep. Ben Fuhriman, R-Shelley, the memorial’s sponsor. “It’s taking resources away from all children.”
The memorial piggybacks onto a federal bill, the bipartisan IDEA Full Funding Act, which calls for the feds to hit the 40% budget benchmark by 2050. “Fully funding IDEA is not only a moral and legal obligation but also a wise financial investment,” the memorial reads, in part.
The House Education Committee voted unanimously to introduce the memorial, which could come back to the panel for a full hearing.
