As a child, I witnessed kids pushing each other on the school playground. It is to be expected when you are 10. Imagine my disbelief this past week when dozens of grownups became an out-of-control mob at the Idaho State Capitol. State troopers, Capitol security, and legislative staff barred the door to a House committee room where House Bill 93 was on the docket. Their courageous attempt to bring order to the entering mass was futile at first. My 84-year-old colleague was shoved by an angry man; Audrey, 80 and visually impaired, was jammed against a table, and a tall school superintendent attempted to shield the weakest of us from the horde. The committee chair’s decision to disallow online sign-up for in-person testimony was at the root of the conflagration, made worse by the decision to place the sign-up sheet inside the committee room door where a bottleneck squeezed people against the doors, the walls, and each other. I whispered to the superintendent, “testimony as blood sport” as the House Sergeant at Arms and law enforcement finally organized the crowd and ushered us in. If the issue of vouchers wasn’t emotionally charged before, it certainly was after that.
The bullying did not end there. This time it was from committee, and House, leadership. Several audience members, including me, were taken aback by the dismissive tone taken by committee leadership toward members of their own party who dissented from what would become the majority view. Many of us are accustomed to this tone when directed toward minority party members, but leaders ignoring and rebuking anyone who registered a critique was jarring.
In stark contrast, two groups were immune from any metaphorical pushing. Under the terms of HB 93, parents who would benefit from taxpayer funds going to private schools are reserved utmost deference as are the non-public schools and loosely defined learning environments that would receive the cash. The hypocrisy of voucher bills is not lost on members of the League of Women Voters of Idaho. Several legislators are currently forwarding proposals to heap additional regulations and make further demands on public schools as they argue that parents should drive policies impacting their children. Either the Legislature is in the business of telling parents what to do with their children or it is not.
Where was the trust in parents when the Legislature was dictating what content libraries can carry?
Where is the trust in parents in proposals ordering public school teachers to remove certain images from their classrooms and commanding them to read the Christian Bible to students in specific ways. If the Legislature has determined that parents should chiefly dictate what kind of education their children should receive, why is it requiring school districts to address cell phone use in the classroom and ordering schools to teach cursive writing? Proponents of HB 93 seem fully comfortable not requiring criminal background checks of private school employees, but they see themselves as judge and jury over the smallest policy details in public schools.
Which parents do they trust? Which parents are they willing to push around? It seems, in Idaho, you are either the pusher or the pushed. This is who we have become?
