The Idaho Education Association (IEA) is cutting about 13% of its staff and closing its regional offices, leaders of the statewide teachers’ union announced this week. 

The cost-cutting measures come after union members told IEA’s board of directors to take a closer look at the organization’s budget and after a new law restricting taxpayer support for teachers’ union activities took effect. 

IEA is eliminating four union organizer positions, according to Executive Director Paul Stark. It’s also closing five regional offices, “centralizing operations in its Boise office.” And it’s turning Summer Institute, an annual professional development event, into an every-other-year event.  

IEA’s board of directors announced the cuts in an email to union members Monday. The board includes two dozen people, most of whom represent nine different geographic regions of the state. 

“Over the summer, we, your elected Board of Directors, carefully considered several options, asked difficult questions, and made decisions to put IEA on stronger financial footing for the future,” the board’s email said. “These decisions were not made lightly. They affect people. People who have dedicated themselves to serving our members and our profession.”

The cuts followed a directive from IEA’s Delegate Assembly, a gathering of hundreds of local union leaders, the email said. In April the assembly told the board to “thoroughly examine” IEA’s budget and ensure that the union was “operating within its means.” 

The board also considered “the challenges created by recent legislative policies, including House Bill 516,” the email said. Enacted during this year’s legislative session, House Bill 516 prohibited public schools from using taxpayer-funded resources, such as payroll systems, to accommodate union activities.

The Delegate Assembly issued a vote of no confidence in Gov. Brad Little for signing the “union-busting” bill into law. It took effect July 1. 

It’s unclear to what extent HB 516 factored into the downsizing.

Among other restrictions, the law prohibits school districts from using payroll systems to deduct union dues. Districts also can’t offer teachers paid time off to engage in union activities unless IEA reimburses the district. And districts can’t give the union teachers’ contact information without their consent. 

The Freedom Foundation — an anti-union think tank based in Olympia, Wash. — for years lobbied lawmakers to enact the restrictions after it published a report arguing that Idaho unions were benefiting from government funds, facilities, resources and personnel.

IEA leaders have repeatedly said that the union doesn’t receive taxpayer funding. But Stark didn’t provide specifics on how the law factored into the layoffs and office closures. 

“Idaho students and educators are only one month into the new school year, so the full effects of HB 516 on public education and the IEA have yet to be seen,” he said in an emailed statement Wednesday.