January 10, 2025 • 47 mins
This week we take a brief look at what happened during the 2025 Idaho Legislature's first week, including lots of talk about voucher legislation, and have a conversation with Idaho Education News Senior Reporter Kevin Richert. A 40-year veteran of Idaho journalism, Richert discusses what educators can expect from this year's session, the state of journalism in Idaho, and his observations after four decades of observing the Idaho Statehouse.
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Unknown (00:00):
I
Mike Journee (00:13):
Welcome to the IEA reporter podcast, a regular
discussion about the news andevents important to Idaho
Education Association membersand those who value public
education. IEA members arepublic school educators from all
over the state and members ofthe largest union in
Idaho.They're Idaho's mostimportant education experts, and
they use their influence tofight for a free, quality and
(00:36):
equitable public education forevery student in the state. I'm
Mike Journee communicationsdirector at the IEA, and I'll be
your host for this episode.
Today we'll visit with Idahoeducation News Senior Reporter
Kevin Richert, who's covered theIdaho legislature for four
decades, either as a reporter oras an editor, but first a quick
summary of what happened duringthe first week of the 2025 Idaho
(00:57):
legislature with ieas AssociateExecutive Director, Matt
Compton,well. Matt Compton, thanks for
joining me for this preview ofthe first week of the 2025
legislative session.You know, asusual, the legislative session
starts off with the Governor'sspeech to the legislature, the
(01:20):
State of the State speech, andit was fairly thin on education
issues this year, but the onethat he did drop in to the
speech this year was, was adoozy. Tell us a little bit
about what the governorrecommended.
Matt Compton (01:34):
Yeah, yeah. You know, I would say that this was,
this is a unique year foreducation when it came to the
state of the state, in previousyears, we've heard the governor
make outstanding recommendationslike increasing additional
resources for salaries andbenefits. He wanted to see the
(01:54):
increase in availability ofinsurance for educators across
the state. We sent some reallyawesome measures. But this year,
the governor in his State of theState called for a $50
millionline item holder for avoucher.
Mike Journee (02:11):
Yeah, and that was, it wasn't something that
necessarily was, was, we've beenhearing rumblings that might be
the case, that he was going tocome forward with one, so it
wasn't a complete surprise, but,but you know, in years past, the
governor'sleadership on this has been an
important part of keepingvouchers out of the state of
Idaho, we're one of the fewstates around the country, red
(02:32):
states around the country, thatdon't have a voucher program,
and so I think It was a littledisappointed to some our
members. One thing that he didsay, though, however, was that
any voucher legislation thatcomes across his desk must have
a pretty significant amount ofaccountability and how that
(02:55):
money is going to be spent. Tellus a little bit about about that
and and what we talk what wemean about a com accountability
when it comes to a voucher
Matt Compton (03:07):
program? Yeah, for sure, these voucher schemes are
not new. They have been. They'vebeen popping up in states all
over the country, and we've seenstates like Florida, Utah, a
number of other states that arereally struggling with their
education budgets justballooning over the introduction
of these voucher programs. Sowhen the governor introduced his
(03:31):
concept during his State of theState, he did articulate that it
needed to have some prettyoutstanding accountability
measures in order for him tosign it, that it had to have
similar accountability standardsthat you would see in today's
traditional public schools, andit could not take away money
away from traditional publicschools as well. And that's
something that the governor hassaid since he was elected. He
(03:53):
has been very shy aboutendorsing or looking towards a
voucher program, but in a stateof the state, of the state, he
said that there's a criticalmass around the country. He's
willing to put a budget figurethere and allow the legislature
to come up with some kind ofpolicy, whatever the voucher
program looks like, and if itpasses, and it has all of the
(04:15):
accountability measures that thegovernor requested or required
in a state of the state, thenhe'll sign it. If it doesn't,
then we expect the governor tokeep his word and veto that
legislation until thelegislature brings him a bill
that actually has the stringentaccountability measures that
traditional public schools mustadhere to today.
Mike Journee (04:38):
That's right, and you know, as we all know, public
schools are accountable to anelected board, school board at
every at every district level,and of course, the folks who
manage the money, thesuperintendent, the business
manager in those districts,they're accountable to those
elected boards. In additionwhatever public funding that
that those folks get from thestate, they're held accountable
(04:59):
by. By the legislature for howthe money is spent. And then, of
course, legislators are alsoelected by by the people as
well. If a bill has come forwardwith this kind of
accountability, it would beunique in the country.
Matt Compton (05:12):
It would certainly be unique in the country there
they really are looking at, howcan we attract students from
traditional public schools usetax dollars to pay for their
vouchers for tuition and leaveus alone. There really isn't any
other level of accountabilitymeasures that the state can
point to saying that the moneyis being used wisely, the
(05:36):
students are meeting measurablegrowth, or that that the
standards or the concepts thatare being taught in classrooms
meet state standards. So they'rekind of a world on their own.
Mike Journee (05:50):
Yeah, and I just, I know to our listeners, whether
you're an IEA member or not, youcan go to idahoea.org, backslash
news, and you can read all thelatest news coming from the
legislature. Our communicationsteam here at the IA has worked
very hard to bring that news toyou, and we have a number of of
new articles out there aboutwhat's been going on this week.
(06:12):
We can learn about all thesebills. And I say all these bills
because Matt, the governor, isnot the only one who's been
talking about vouchers. Ofcourse, there was an event held
Monday before the governorspeech, hosted by the Mountain
States Institute. It's a rightwing think tank that is is eager
to to bring vouchers here toIdaho. And they brought some
(06:36):
what, what, some folks youmentioned, Arizona and some
other places where vouchers havebeen put in place and and have a
bad track record of blowing upbudgets. They brought the
governor of Arizona, responsiblefor the Arizona voucher bill,
down to talk up vouchers, tobuild a little bit of momentum
for that. And at that meeting,Wendy Horman, Representative out
(06:58):
of Idaho, falls in here in Idahodebuted a bill that we've been
expecting to be coming allalong. She debuted her bill. It
hasn't been hasn't beenintroduced yet, but she talked a
little bit about it. What didshe
Matt Compton (07:09):
say? Yeah. So on Monday morning, just prior to
the State of the State addressthat the governor gave the
Mountain States policy center,brought in Doug Ducey, the
former governor of Arizona, togive a pretty strong pitch as to
why the Arizona style voucherprogram is the model that the
country ought to be mimicking.
And the IAS lobby team, alongwith most anti voucher lobbyists
(07:31):
out there, have been beating thedrum that the Arizona example is
really the most catastrophicexample that you can use when it
comes to budget busters. Tofollow that up with a
presentation, a press conferencefrom a handful of lawmakers.
Representative Wendy Horman wasone of them that you mentioned
she's been working on, and hasbeen working on for the last
(07:52):
handful of years, a voucher taxcredit that would allow families
to submit the cost of tuition orother educational services to
the state tax commission, andthat you would get a tax refund
for those expenses. And so theprice tag for her plan matches
(08:17):
the governor's. It's $50 millionshe does carve out a special
population of students who wouldget first priority to receive
these resources. But then oncethat opportunity had had closed,
it would be open to anybody. Nowwhat we're seeing from places
(08:39):
like Arizona, is that thefamilies that are taking
advantage of these vouchers,when they're be they're made
available, they're not actuallyleaving traditional public
schools to go to a privateinstitution. They're already in
private schools, and now they'rejust relying on the state to for
the handout to pay for theirprivate school tuition. And
that's that's the message thatwe are warning the Idaho
(09:02):
legislature, that greaterinvestments in traditional
public schools are what we needright now, that defunding,
taking money away from publiceducation to fund a secondary
system of public schools. Thisis not the time to do it right,
right?
Mike Journee (09:21):
And in addition to that, earlier today, we got word
that one voucher bill hasalready been introduced in the
Idaho legislature this year. Infact, it was the first bill
introduced for the 2025,legislative session in the House
side, at least. And it's got amuch more significant price tag.
(09:42):
It looks like I think the factthat it's the first bill out of
the gate this year says a lotabout what we're gonna be
looking at for the session.
Don't you think? Yeah,
Matt Compton (09:50):
I think that if I were to guess how many bills
we're gonna see this year, withregards to voucher legislation,
a minimum of eight. Probablyballpark around 10 that really
that actually get introduced andsee the light of day how far
they make it in the process,that's to be determined. But I
(10:10):
know that that there are ahandful of lawmakers in the
capital right now that are eagerto pass that, that choice
expansion and start sending outtax dollars to private and
parochial schools.
Mike Journee (10:25):
Again, I want to remind our listeners that they
can go to the Idaho EducationAssociation website, idahoea.org
and get all the latestinformation about what's
happening at the legislature. Wepride ourselves on providing
news that's about and for IEAmembers, our public school
educators across the state, andthey can go and they can get the
latest about what's going on atthe state house. So Matt, thanks
(10:47):
again for that quick updateabout what's been going on. It's
been pretty straightforward sofar for education issues, and
we'll be talking about things asthey come up and in the future
weeks, I look forward to it.
Thanks,
Matt Compton (10:58):
Mike. You. Kevin.
Mike Journee (11:06):
Next up on the IEA reporter podcast is Idaho
education News Senior ReporterKevin Richard. Kevin has worked
at Idaho newspapers inPocatello, Idaho Falls, Twin
Falls and Boise, and has beenwith the Idaho education news
since the online education newsoutlet launched in January of
2013 his name and byline isfamiliar to those who follow
(11:28):
education news in Idaho, andhe's a regular contributor to
public affairs programs on Idahopublic television and Boise
State Public Radio. In thisepisode, we'll discuss Kevin's
perspective on the 2025 sessionof the Idaho legislature, and a
few of his long termobservations about Idaho
politics.
(11:49):
So Kevin Richert, thank you somuch for joining us on The IEA
reporter podcast. You know,we're we're here gearing up for
another legislative session, andit seems, from all indications,
that education issues are goingto be at the heart of things
again, as they often are. And I,and I believe you are the elder
statesman of the reporters whoregularly cover the Idaho
(12:09):
legislature, if I'm notmistaken, if I'm doing on my
math correctly. So how manylegislative sessions have you
covered?
Kevin Richert (12:16):
This mic will be my 40th session of watching the
legislature in one way or theother, which has been either as
a reporter or as an editor. Imean, we worked together at the
Times News when you werecovering the legislature. I was
in Twin Fallsas city editor, a bunch of years
at the Idaho statesman aseditorial page editor, observing
(12:40):
the legislature, and this willbe our, this will be our 13th
session at Ida news. So, yeah, Iguess that makes me elder
statesman by by default or byattrition?
Mike Journee (12:53):
Yeah, I think it does. That's That's a long time
to be observing this single bodyand the work that it's been
doing. And I'm going to ask youa few questions about that a
little later, but, and thenwe'll talk about the session
too. But before we get into theissues that we expect to see
this winter, I wanted to take astep back and look a little bit
(13:15):
at the May primary elections,and then, of course, the general
election in November. And ofcourse, you and your colleagues
at the Yahoo education news havewritten a lot about those
results. Do you think you cangive us a bit of a recap of
those results and what they meanfor education issues this year
at the state
Kevin Richert (13:32):
house? Yeah, I think, in the aggregate, I think
this legislature is going to bea little bit more conservative
than we saw in the past coupleof years, we saw a number of big
upsets. In the May primary.
Chuck winder, Senate PresidentPro Tem lost in the primary.
Julia Moto, the chair of HouseEducation, she lost in the
(13:55):
primary. Then you go into thegeneral election, and you had
Republicans pick up a total ofthree seats, one in the Senate,
two in the house. Makes thelegislature even more Republican
dominated than it was before.
Now you've got only 15 Democratsin the legislature out of 105
(14:18):
legislators. And really, whatmaybe is even more interesting
than just those numbers. Onlytwo of those 13 Democrats reside
outside of Boise or garden city.
You have one from the Wood RiverValley, and you have one from
Pocatello. So it is a very smalland very isolated, politically
democratic, democraticdelegation. Yeah, it's gonna be
(14:41):
interesting to watch how thesecommittees look now that we've
had the elections. We've had tworounds of elections, we'll
obviously take a close look atboth the House Education
Committee and the SenateEducation Committee. A lot of
changes in both of thosecommittees. So.
Mike Journee (15:00):
Yes, yeah, there are. And I was going to ask you
about that, you know, just fromour look and count, things have
really kind of flipped. Youknow, when we talk about
lawmakers and policy makers atthe Idaho education association
among our members, we don't, wedon't talk about Republicans or
Democrats. We talk about propublic education policy makers
(15:23):
lawmakers. We talk about antipublic education policy makers
and and lawmakers and and sothat's a I know that's a
different take than probablywhat you guys would take in your
editorial stance. We talk aboutthe politics of education being
political, but not partisan. Andso the changes in the
legislature that you justmentioned are going to be huge.
(15:44):
And as you mentioned, the theyjust completed. The legislature
just completed theirorganizational session, and
which is where they select theleadership and make committee
assignments. And as you know,being a long time observer of
the legislature, those committeeassignments can mean a big deal
for a bill's prospects ofbecoming law. So talk about a
(16:06):
little bit of what you saw shakeout the organizational session
for the education committees andthe houses in it.
Kevin Richert (16:12):
Well, Mike, we were all watching the House
Education Committee because weknew, when Julia mamoto lost in
the primary, we knew that therewas going to be a vacancy, and
the big question was, in whatdirection would speaker Mike
Moyle go in terms of a chair ofthat committee? And they have to
keep in mind, Mike Moyle hasmade no bones about where he
wants education to go in thisstate. He's made very clear that
(16:36):
he wants to see a private schoolchoice a bill pass the 25
legislative session. He saidthat at the end of the 24
session. So we kind of expectedthat Moyle and House leadership
would try to take that committeeand move it a little bit further
to the right. Doug Pickett thethe you know, the new chair of
(17:00):
the House Education Committeeis, to me, anyway, largely an
unknown. I have scarcely talkedto him. I talked to him a little
bit at the end of theorganizational session on
Thursday that Thursday a coupleweeks ago, he didn't serve in
the House Education Committee inhis first term. He's starting
(17:20):
his second term. We don't know awhole lot about his education
politics, his education focus.
We do know that when a privateschool choice bill came before
the House Reverend tax committeelast year, where he was a
committee member, he did supportthat bill. So I would take from
that that, I think that he willprobably move that committee a
(17:43):
little bit further to the right.
But again, we hardly know theguy. We hardly know how his
approach is going to be as a newcommittee chair. So I think
there's a certain amount of waitand see Senate Education. I
thought was really interesting,because as we watched that
committee the past two years,very conservative, very hard
(18:06):
line conservative committee,it's flipped somewhat. Dave land
from Idaho Falls is still thechair of that committee, so that
doesn't change. But as I look atthe roster of that committee, it
looks a lot more moderate thanit was the past couple of years,
so I don't know what that meanspolicy wise, I think it's a
little bit premature to startdrawing too many conclusions,
(18:28):
but I think that could be a muchmore moderate committee than
we've seen in the past. May giveDave lent a chance to get some
of his own legislativepriorities through that
committee, where he's run intoresistance from from his own
committee members. So it'll bevery interesting to watch Senate
Education, because I think it'sgoing to be a different
(18:51):
committee. And certainly houseeducation is going to be
different simply because youhave a new chair, and you know,
you have a very conservativevice chair of that committee,
Dale Hawkins, from up north. SoI short answer. I expect house
education to be moreconservative than we've seen. I
expect Senate Education probablyis going to be more moderate
than we've seen.
Mike Journee (19:12):
Yeah, you know, our take on that has been the
same, you know. And withoutgetting into too many details,
our lobbyists have always here.
In recent years anyway, havehave seen the the House
Education Committee under JulieYamamoto as a as a really
important backstop for stoppingsome of the more challenging
policy ideas that come fromcertain corners of legislature
(19:33):
around education. And of course,Representative Yamamoto defeat
was, it was a, was a big blow toour members and and that place
that she held in thelegislature. Well, let's, let's
talk a little bit about some ofthe issues that we'll be seeing.
So you and your colleagues rightnow are in the Ryan soupy,
(19:54):
specifically, I think, so far,are in the middle of publishing
a series. About what we call inthe Idaho Education Association,
vouchers, a lot of folks callthe call it school choice, but
we prefer to stick to the old,old school term for a lot of
reasons. So do you think thiswill be the top education issue
(20:14):
of the year?
Kevin Richert (20:17):
For sure? I think that all signs point to a big
showdown on this issue. And youknow, first of all, you shout
out Ryan soupy. He's going to beour lead writer on this issue.
He has done, done some greatresearch, done some great
writing and reporting, alreadypublished a story, an in depth
look at Arizona. And anybodywho's paid attention to this
(20:40):
debate has been watching what'shappened with Arizona with its
universal education savingsaccount law, that is, you know,
as his reporting, as he said,You know this is either a
success story or a cautionarytale, depending on where, where
you, where you come down on thisissue. So whatever you call it,
and I know you guys call itvouchers, and I know some people
(21:01):
call school choice, we prefer tocall we prefer to call these
bills private school choice,because we think that that sort
of threads a needle. Becausewhether it is a true voucher
bill or an education savingsaccount or a tax credit, they
all accomplish more or less thesame purpose, or try to
(21:21):
accomplish the same purpose,which is moving public money
into private education. Soanyway, we call it private
school choice by whatever nameit is going to be the education
issue of the session. It couldbe the issue of the session.
Mike Journee (21:36):
Interesting. So even topping water, or some of
the other issues we've beenhearing about, huh?
Kevin Richert (21:41):
I think so. I think I think this issue water,
obviously, is very importantissue to folks who are really,
really engaged in that issue.
But I think for lay people,that's a harder issue to get
your head around. Where you sendyour child to school. That's
that has a visceral connectionwith a lot of people. So I think
(22:06):
when you start talking aboutthis and where your money goes,
in terms of where the kids aregoing to school, I think that
really, you know, yeah, thatthat checks a lot of boxes for
people in terms of, okay, thisis an issue I care about. This
is an issue that I'm passionateabout. Yeah,
Mike Journee (22:30):
I think you get the nail right on the head. I
mean, it's when you when the alarge, large portion of the
state budget goes to publiceducation, and it's something
that people pay attention to,and which rightly so, you know.
So that's, that's, that's areally, that's a very, very
astute point you made. So Idon't know if you paid attention
(22:51):
to this from the news or notrecently, but there was a, there
was a a bit of an event wherethey talked about vouchers and
school of choice at Boise StateUniversity recently. And
Representative Wendy Horman, outof Ottawa falls she's a she's a
voucher proponent, and who she'salso the the powerful co chair
(23:14):
of the legislature's budgetcommittee, and she made an
interesting comment in thatforum where she called vouchers
a major civil rights issue forthe state. Is that something
you've heard from school choiceadvocates before? What do you
make of that?
Kevin Richert (23:32):
Maybe not in those exact words, but yeah, I
think you have seen sort of thatovertone. I go back to when
house Revenue and Taxation tookup representative hormones tax
credit bill earlier this year,and it was back in March, you
had people speaking in favor ofthis, really treating it in
(23:53):
terms of maybe not civil rightsin so many words, but
definitely, You know, this is aparental rights, a parental
choice, you know, a parentalfreedom kind of an issue. And,
you know, I think that kind ofmessaging, we'll see how that
plays out within thelegislature, within a group of
(24:15):
105 legislators. But I thinkthat kind of messaging, I don't
think it's accidental. I thinkthat in a in a state that values
individual freedom, valuesindividual liberties, if you
start to couch anything as a,you know, as a freedom of choice
issue, you know that thatcarries some some weight, but
(24:38):
that resonates with people so,you know, had not heard that
term before, per se, but I'm notsurprised. Yep,
Mike Journee (24:49):
it was an interesting choice of words, and
I agree with you, I don't thinkit was, it was, I think it was
very intentional. So, so whatkind of bills on this issue do
you think we're going to seethis year? Do. Yeah,
Kevin Richert (25:00):
well, that's hard to say. It's hard to say how
many we're going to see, whatflavor, what, what's the scope,
what? What are some of thesideboards, you know? And I
think that's going to basically,that's going to maybe determine
what passes, or if anythingpasses at all. Within the
(25:26):
framework of private schoolchoice, there are a lot of
different ways to go, and Iwould imagine that the debate is
going to come down to, okay,what, what are, are there limits
on how many students, on howmuch money we're talking about?
Because again, Arizona thatprogram grew so rapidly and has
(25:47):
taken up many more millions ofdollars than anybody down there
expected. So size of the programalso the accountability. To what
extent will you haveaccountability metrics built
into a any kind of a privateschool choice proposal, I think,
yeah, to answer your question,Mike, I don't know how many
bills we're going to see. Isuspect we'll start to see bills
(26:08):
float out in the early weeks ofthe session.
Mike Journee (26:13):
Yeah, we were expecting that something
similar, too. So that's, yeah, Ithink you're, you're right on
there as well. The one of theone of the possible choices is,
is some kind of a tax rebatebill that has and, and, you
know, we've talked about theeducation committees and their
makeup, but if such a bill comesforward, is probably not going
(26:36):
to go through one of theeducation committees, and more
likely go through one of therevenues and taxation committees
to revenue and taxationcommittees. Have you guys looked
into those committees at all andthought about them in that
context with with that kind ofbill? I haven't
Kevin Richert (26:51):
taken too close a look at either revenue tax or
the Senate, local government andtaxation committee and how those
changed out in the leadershipelections. Yeah, in the
committee assignments, butyou're right. I think a tax
credit bill like we saw thisyear would more likely go
through the revenue and TaxCommittee on the House side. But
(27:17):
who knows? One thing that Ithink Mike Moyle has made pretty
clear over the past few years asspeaker is he will route bills
around where he thinks he canget the votes and where he
thinks he can get a bill out ofcommittee. I mean, the fact that
we've seen library billsaffecting school libraries going
(27:38):
through not the educationcommittee, but through the House
State Affairs Committee, I thinkthat that tells you something. I
think the fact that he movedthose bills through the state
affairs committee, the fact thathe tried to move the first tax
credit bill this year throughrev and tax it gives you a sense
of anything can happen,especially on the House side in
(28:00):
terms of where these bills getrouted?
Mike Journee (28:04):
Yeah, that was a very interesting thing to watch
as well. Our members paid reallyclose attention to that one too.
Well, let's move on to anothertopic. So let's talk a little
bit about K through 12 publicschool funding. What are you
hearing along those lines? Isthere anything in particular
that that folks are talkingabout yet? Well,
Kevin Richert (28:23):
I kind of wonder.
Is this the year where we'regoing to see any kind of
revision in the school fundingformula? We had a bill come out
at the very end of the sessionlast year, uh, state
supernatant. Debbie Critchfieldwants to make changes in the
funding formula. And what shewants is the idea of some sort
of a weighting based onproviding extra funding for
(28:44):
schools depending on how manystudents they have that have,
that have special needs. Youknow special education students.
You know students from lowincome households or students
with limited Englishproficiency. The idea of a
weighted student student fundingformula. It's not a new idea. It
(29:05):
seems like we've been talkingabout revising the school
funding formula for years,because we have been. The
question is, how do you do aweighted funding formula? You
know, how do you make theweights work? How does that
couple with an enroll a fundingformula that's always been based
(29:27):
on student attendance, not onstudent enrollment. It's a very
complicated issue. Obviouslyyour members know that I will be
interested to see if we get aschool funding formula bill
through. But after all the yearsof talking about a school
funding formula fix, this may bea tough year to do it, simply
(29:51):
because the money is not asabundant as it had been in past
years. I mean, you know, thestate could not really. Buys its
school funding formula in timeswhen we were running surpluses
of a billion dollars, the budgetpicture is not as rosy as it has
been in past years. It's notdire. I mean, I don't think
(30:13):
we're gonna see budget cuts orbudget hold backs or anything
like that, unless the economydoes something really, really
strange, really quickly. Butthis legislature doesn't have as
much money to work with asprevious legislatures, so that
may be an obstacle to getting aschool funding formula change
through, but I know that's beena high priority for Debbie
(30:35):
Critchfield for really eversince she was elected.
Mike Journee (30:41):
It has and, and, and I think we'll know early in
the session, one of those thatfor that bill to is such a huge
lift that for that bill to comeforward toward the end of the
session and try to get make itthrough just it never works. And
that's one of the problems inthe past, is they've always
introduced it almost we werewaiting
Kevin Richert (30:57):
and waiting.
Yeah, it felt like we werewaiting and waiting for a school
funding bill last session, andit finally emerged in the middle
of March, and you could telljust from that print hearing in
House Education Committeemembers who might have been
sympathetic to the general idea,really just had so many
questions about how it wouldwork that there wasn't a lot of
appetite to try to do somethinglike that in the final weeks of
the session. So what is wasCritchfield come out with on
(31:21):
this, and maybe moreimportantly, when does she come
out with
Mike Journee (31:25):
it? So shifting the gears again, Kevin, you've
been covering the highereducation beat for the ideal
education news for here.
Recently, there's been a lot ofnews in that world. Honestly, it
looks like the state's collegesand university are all but
waving the white flag ondiversity, equity and inclusion
efforts on campuses. Do youexpect to see dei issues? This
(31:46):
issue spilled over into Kthrough 12 public education?
Anytime soon?
Kevin Richert (31:52):
That's a really interesting question, because
you have this legislative taskforce that's been looking at
Dei, and this is a reallyconservative committee. We talk
about the differences betweenmainstream Republicans and
hardline Republicans there.
There's no question. As I lookat this committee, this is a
hard line committee, eightmembers in all house Senate.
(32:15):
They've met twice. They'll meetagain first week of the session,
their discussions have beenmostly about higher ed and dei
programs on the higher edcampuses, and that's been the
discussion mostly at the stateboard of education level as
well. But I wonder if this wholediscussion of Dei, this whole
(32:36):
discussion of wokeism inschools. For lack of a better
thumbnail that, you know, peopleuse, I wonder if that sort of
backlash doesn't spill over intoK 12, you know, I think you've
seen elements of it already. Ithink the library debate was
about that to a large degree. Ithink the debate over the
(32:59):
pronouns law from last year wasan offshoot of that. I think
there are folks within thelegislature who think that all
education is is too liberal andtoo out of touch with mainstream
Idaho values. And I think thatthat that sentiment, while it's
focused mostly on higher ed, Ithink it does pervade into to K
(33:20):
12. What that looks likelegislatively, I don't know, but
I think that that that sentimentis certainly there.
Mike Journee (33:30):
Yeah, I think you're, you're spot on with the
library Bill analogy too. Ithink that's, you're exactly
right. That's where that thatwas going. And I, and we would
expect to see something comealong the lines here for long,
but we'll see. I think you'reright. So I want to take a
little step. I want to takeadvantage of your your longevity
(33:51):
as a as an observer the articlelegislature here and and take a
little step back in your timeand covering education politics.
Well, not just educationpolitics, maybe politics
overall, but but specificallyfor our members, education
politics, what are the changesyou've seen, kind of generally,
through the years? Is thereanything you can put your finger
(34:12):
on that if you compare yourfirst day covering the
legislature for the audio,education news and your last day
in 2024 what? What's thedifference there?
Kevin Richert (34:22):
I think one of the things that's different just
in those 12 years is, I thinkthis legislature is it's more
conservative even than it was in2013 and I think it's a
different kind of conservatismwith some lawmakers. And I think
(34:43):
it's sort of changed the way, itsort of changed the relationship
that I see between thelegislature and legislators and
the news media. I think that wehave, I think, an increasing
number of. Legislators. Who are?
They're not just conservative.
(35:03):
They're not just hardlineconservatives. They are. They
are openly skeptical ofinstitutions, and, you know,
skeptical of educationinstitutions, skeptical of
public health institutions,public libraries, and that
skepticism extends to the media.
As a reporter, I don't thinkI've changed very much, and I
(35:24):
don't think that one way that Ihaven't changed is that I would
much rather talk to a legislatoror a policy maker who has a
problem with a story that I'vewritten, who has a question or
criticism or something that theywant us to do, to correct. I
want to have that conversation.
(35:45):
I'm not sure that there are somefolks in this legislature who
want to have that conversationwith, with us or, you know, and
I think that's a change, that's,that's, you know, it's, it's not
a good change. It's, it's kindof discouraging when you know
people don't want to have thatexchange, that that
(36:07):
conversation, that back andforth.
Mike Journee (36:12):
Yeah, I can understand that. I mean, my time
as a reporter there that youknow that that inner that
interchange with reporters was awas a key part of the part of
the process that that lawmakersdealt with and went through
making sure that, and of course,the change in the daily
newspaper business, I think, hasa lot to do with that. Because,
you know, my time in the pressroom, at this at the state
(36:33):
house, every media market in thein the state was represented
down in that bullpen, and havepeople covering committees,
covering the legislature. Andlawmakers paid attention to that
because their their constituentsread their newspaper. There was
a big rack of newspapers rightthere in the lobby that and
(36:54):
every morning that was one ofthe first thing lawmakers did
was they went and saw what, whatthe correspondents were there,
went and wrote about and so thatwas that, I think you're right.
That's definitely a dynamic thatis completely different,
Kevin Richert (37:08):
yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up that,
you know, I should have broughtthat up myself. I mean, in 2013
our first year at Ed news, youdid have a beat reporter from
the Times News, covering thelegislature. You did have a
reporter from Lewiston Tribune,Bill Spence, who've been there
for so many years until hisretirement a couple of years
ago, Idaho Falls post Registerwas sending a reporter over.
(37:30):
None of those newspapers aresending a full time reporter to
cover the legislature. And whatwe have right now, I've kind of
called it kind of a best oftimes, worst of times thing in
Treasure Valley News media, wehave so many really talented
reporters around this valleyright now, I have never worked
(37:55):
with as many really smart,really dedicated, really driven
folks in the news media, in thiscommunity, and that's really
exciting. But the problem, theworst of times, thing here, is a
lot of us are working in ratherspecialized roles. I know
education news, I mean, it'sright there in our right in the
(38:17):
middle of our name is education.
So when we cover thelegislature, it's going to be
Senate Ed, it's going to behouse Ed, it's going to be jfac.
When the budget bills come up,it's going to be revenue, tax.
If we have a tax bill that'srelated to education, lots and
lots of issues that the statehas that we're just not going to
touch, we're not going to cover.
It's not part of our mission,you know. So I'll get a tip, or
just hear something through thegrapevine, or, you know, Ryan
(38:39):
Sue B will, and we'll kind oflook at each other and say, Wow,
that's a that's a great story.
Sure hope somebody gets to it.
We're very specialized. Idahocapital Sun is specialized in
they will look more statewidethan look at individual
legislators and individual locallegislative delegations. And
(39:01):
that's that's really a challengethat's facing the Idaho media
right now. You don't have thatkind of ground level reporting
of the legislature, and you youneed that. You also need that
full, full service newsreporting that I worry that
we're not getting as much ofright now. News organizations
(39:23):
that are covering the wholegamut of public policy issues,
not just education or not justthe legislature, for more of a
statewide perspective, like likewe see from capital sun. So
there are great things happeningin the media. There are also
some things that are nothappening in the media that I I
hope we see more of I hope wesee more coverage like we used
(39:46):
to see. I don't know how it'sgoing to happen, though the
business model right now ispretty challenging for
newspapers in general.
Mike Journee (39:54):
It really is. It really is. But I will say this,
you know, on behalf of of allthe members. The IEA, we really
appreciate that the Idahoeducation news is is there, and
taking such a strong look at atall the policy that's happening
and all, not just, not just herein Boise, it's, you know, you
guys cover all everything that'shappening around the state. And
(40:14):
so, you know, I know, I know Ipersonally appreciate as someone
who cares about publiceducation. And I know that our
members pay attention to you aswell, because you guys do good
job of covering everything. Iappreciate that.
Kevin Richert (40:28):
And and, yeah, I think we're very fortunate that
we have a staff of fourreporters, including one in
North Idaho. We have a new NorthIdaho reporter, Emma Eberly,
who's doing some great stuff upin the panhandle. Carly flandro
has been with us for a coupleyears out of Pocatello covering
Eastern Idaho, and we have,yeah, we have staff that's
specialized in education. We'repassionate about covering
(40:50):
education. We have the resourcesto to do it, and we have the
independence to pursue thestories that need to be pursued.
And, you know, kind of followthem where they take us. So,
yeah, we're really fortunateagain. I want to see more
coverage from more media, youknow, and I, you know, I hope we
(41:10):
get to that point, not just in acovering the legislature, but
also covering education andcovering elections. We need more
journalism that less, I wouldagree.
Mike Journee (41:24):
So my last question, Kevin, you know, I
always try to end on a highnote, if I can. And and so you
know I I've known you for yearsand and I follow you on your
personal social media. And inaddition to being an avid
runner, I also know you havefully embraced the ugly Thai
tradition among reporters whocover the State House. Tell us a
(41:47):
little bit about that tradition.
Kevin Richert (41:49):
Bob Fick, who was the Associated Press's
legislative reporter way back. Ithink he may have started in the
70s, but he was there when I gotthere in the 80s. Bob Fick was a
one of a kind. He was this kindof curmudgeonly old school
reporter that way. But he was agenius in terms of covering
(42:11):
jfac, in terms of coveringbudget committees. I mean, he,
you know, before you had theinternet, Fick was creating his
own spreadsheets to follow thebudgets that were actually
probably more accurate and morecomprehensive than what the
state had. He was that good abudget reporter, but anyway, he
was the originator of the uglyThai tradition, and it was his
way of saying, Okay, guys, it'sthe end of March. We've been
(42:35):
here long enough the ties weresupposed to signify the press
corps desire to get on with lifeand to not be at the State House
day in and day out. So we'vekind of kept the tradition
going. And it's, it's, it'staken on new life. You know, the
longer I've been there, the uglyThai tradition has, has evolved
(42:57):
over time, a tie that I rememberhaving in the mid 90s, when
we're in Twin Falls, that Ithought was really fashionable,
and it was kind of for mid 90s,it is now an ugly tie. It is now
in the in the file cabinet ofugly ties, ready to come out in
in late March. And you know, ifwe're around long enough, in 30
(43:19):
years, it might becomefashionable again, we'll take it
out of ugly tie circulation.
We'll put something else in.
Now, the ugly ties, you know,are one of those legislative
traditions and you know, andreally, it's one of the things
that I enjoy about covering thelegislature, all these little
traditions, all these littlequirks, it is still an
(43:41):
interesting place to be, and itis still a lot of fun to work
with other reporters from otheroutlets. There's a lot of
there's a lot of camaraderie,there's some some gallows humor,
but when we're all workingtogether, covering this, trying
to make sense of this, trying toput it into context, it's good
(44:03):
to be working with other goodreporters, smart referees and
good people, you know, whodoesn't need to, yeah, are
serious about what we're doing,but we don't take it so
seriously that we can't have alittle bit of fun. So, right,
right? Well, we have to bestrategic, though, about when to
bring out the ugly ties, becauseyou, you don't want to rush the
process, but you know when themoment comes, you know when it's
(44:24):
ugly tie time. And you know youalso have to be careful that,
you know you make it clear thatit's ugly tie season, so that
somebody doesn't come up to youand say, Hey, that's a nice tie.
No, that was actually meant tobe an ugly tie. But thanks for
that. You want people to knowthat you're actually
deliberately wearing an uglytie, and it wasn't just a really
bad fashion choice. So there'ssome strategy involved with it,
Mike Journee (44:49):
absolutely. And I do remember Bob Fick very well,
and I remember your marchingorders to me as my former boss.
Whenever you see Bob Fick in aroom, turn around. Around and go
cover something else, because he
Kevin Richert (45:01):
was going to cover it so well, there was no
point best covering it. Yeah, wecouldn't improve on fix. So you
didn't. But you know, yep, yep.
Mike Journee (45:10):
Okay, one final thing. So when do you think
you're gonna be pulling out theugly tie this year?
Kevin Richert (45:17):
Like I say, you'll know. I mean, I think as
far as how long the session isgoing to go, I think the session
goes into April. I think thisjust feels like it's going to be
a long session, because you gotso many new people. It's not an
election year. There's nomotivation to get back and
campaign. I think private schoolchoice could be a really long,
(45:40):
drawn out battle. You mentionedwater. We don't cover it very
much. Yeah, that waterlegislation has a way of slowing
the legislative session down toI just think there are a lot of
things that could make for along session. So with with an
eye towards this session goinginto April, I don't think I want
to bust out ugly ties untilmaybe, you know, third week of
(46:04):
March, maybe is a time to startto send the message a little
bit. All right.
Mike Journee (46:10):
Well, Kevin Richard, senior reporter at the
Idaho education news, thank youso much for your time. We're
excited to get going for thelegislative session, and we'll
be paying attention to, to toyour website and all the stuff
you guys cover. It's been, it's,it's a wonderful website. It's a
great resource for IA members tolearn what's happening on a day
(46:33):
to day basis at the legislature,and broad, more broadly, in
education. So thank you for allthe work that you do, and thank
you for joining us today.
Kevin Richert (46:40):
Oh, thanks, Mike, thanks for having me.
Mike Journee (46:45):
Thank you for listening to this episode of The
IEA reporter podcast, and thanksto Idaho education News Senior
Reporter Kevin Richard forjoining us. Please watch for
updates about new episodes onIEA social media channels or
sign up to receive IA reporteremail updates on our
website@idahoea.org I'm MikeJournee, and as always, I hope
(47:06):
you'll join me in thankingIdaho's public school educators
for everything they do for ourState students, families and
public schools. You
I
Mike Journee (00:13):
Welcome to the IEA reporter podcast, a regular
discussion about the news andevents important to Idaho
Education Association membersand those who value public
education. IEA members arepublic school educators from all
over the state and members ofthe largest union in
Idaho.They're Idaho's mostimportant education experts, and
they use their influence tofight for a free, quality and
(00:36):
equitable public education forevery student in the state. I'm
Mike Journee communicationsdirector at the IEA, and I'll be
your host for this episode.
Today we'll visit with Idahoeducation News Senior Reporter
Kevin Richert, who's covered theIdaho legislature for four
decades, either as a reporter oras an editor, but first a quick
summary of what happened duringthe first week of the 2025 Idaho
(00:57):
legislature with ieas AssociateExecutive Director, Matt
Compton,well. Matt Compton, thanks for
joining me for this preview ofthe first week of the 2025
legislative session.You know, asusual, the legislative session
starts off with the Governor'sspeech to the legislature, the
(01:20):
State of the State speech, andit was fairly thin on education
issues this year, but the onethat he did drop in to the
speech this year was, was adoozy. Tell us a little bit
about what the governorrecommended.
Matt Compton (01:34):
Yeah, yeah. You know, I would say that this was,
this is a unique year foreducation when it came to the
state of the state, in previousyears, we've heard the governor
make outstanding recommendationslike increasing additional
resources for salaries andbenefits. He wanted to see the
(01:54):
increase in availability ofinsurance for educators across
the state. We sent some reallyawesome measures. But this year,
the governor in his State of theState called for a $50
millionline item holder for avoucher.
Mike Journee (02:11):
Yeah, and that was, it wasn't something that
necessarily was, was, we've beenhearing rumblings that might be
the case, that he was going tocome forward with one, so it
wasn't a complete surprise, but,but you know, in years past, the
governor'sleadership on this has been an
important part of keepingvouchers out of the state of
Idaho, we're one of the fewstates around the country, red
(02:32):
states around the country, thatdon't have a voucher program,
and so I think It was a littledisappointed to some our
members. One thing that he didsay, though, however, was that
any voucher legislation thatcomes across his desk must have
a pretty significant amount ofaccountability and how that
(02:55):
money is going to be spent. Tellus a little bit about about that
and and what we talk what wemean about a com accountability
when it comes to a voucher
Matt Compton (03:07):
program? Yeah, for sure, these voucher schemes are
not new. They have been. They'vebeen popping up in states all
over the country, and we've seenstates like Florida, Utah, a
number of other states that arereally struggling with their
education budgets justballooning over the introduction
of these voucher programs. Sowhen the governor introduced his
(03:31):
concept during his State of theState, he did articulate that it
needed to have some prettyoutstanding accountability
measures in order for him tosign it, that it had to have
similar accountability standardsthat you would see in today's
traditional public schools, andit could not take away money
away from traditional publicschools as well. And that's
something that the governor hassaid since he was elected. He
(03:53):
has been very shy aboutendorsing or looking towards a
voucher program, but in a stateof the state, of the state, he
said that there's a criticalmass around the country. He's
willing to put a budget figurethere and allow the legislature
to come up with some kind ofpolicy, whatever the voucher
program looks like, and if itpasses, and it has all of the
(04:15):
accountability measures that thegovernor requested or required
in a state of the state, thenhe'll sign it. If it doesn't,
then we expect the governor tokeep his word and veto that
legislation until thelegislature brings him a bill
that actually has the stringentaccountability measures that
traditional public schools mustadhere to today.
Mike Journee (04:38):
That's right, and you know, as we all know, public
schools are accountable to anelected board, school board at
every at every district level,and of course, the folks who
manage the money, thesuperintendent, the business
manager in those districts,they're accountable to those
elected boards. In additionwhatever public funding that
that those folks get from thestate, they're held accountable
(04:59):
by. By the legislature for howthe money is spent. And then, of
course, legislators are alsoelected by by the people as
well. If a bill has come forwardwith this kind of
accountability, it would beunique in the country.
Matt Compton (05:12):
It would certainly be unique in the country there
they really are looking at, howcan we attract students from
traditional public schools usetax dollars to pay for their
vouchers for tuition and leaveus alone. There really isn't any
other level of accountabilitymeasures that the state can
point to saying that the moneyis being used wisely, the
(05:36):
students are meeting measurablegrowth, or that that the
standards or the concepts thatare being taught in classrooms
meet state standards. So they'rekind of a world on their own.
Mike Journee (05:50):
Yeah, and I just, I know to our listeners, whether
you're an IEA member or not, youcan go to idahoea.org, backslash
news, and you can read all thelatest news coming from the
legislature. Our communicationsteam here at the IA has worked
very hard to bring that news toyou, and we have a number of of
new articles out there aboutwhat's been going on this week.
(06:12):
We can learn about all thesebills. And I say all these bills
because Matt, the governor, isnot the only one who's been
talking about vouchers. Ofcourse, there was an event held
Monday before the governorspeech, hosted by the Mountain
States Institute. It's a rightwing think tank that is is eager
to to bring vouchers here toIdaho. And they brought some
(06:36):
what, what, some folks youmentioned, Arizona and some
other places where vouchers havebeen put in place and and have a
bad track record of blowing upbudgets. They brought the
governor of Arizona, responsiblefor the Arizona voucher bill,
down to talk up vouchers, tobuild a little bit of momentum
for that. And at that meeting,Wendy Horman, Representative out
(06:58):
of Idaho, falls in here in Idahodebuted a bill that we've been
expecting to be coming allalong. She debuted her bill. It
hasn't been hasn't beenintroduced yet, but she talked a
little bit about it. What didshe
Matt Compton (07:09):
say? Yeah. So on Monday morning, just prior to
the State of the State addressthat the governor gave the
Mountain States policy center,brought in Doug Ducey, the
former governor of Arizona, togive a pretty strong pitch as to
why the Arizona style voucherprogram is the model that the
country ought to be mimicking.
And the IAS lobby team, alongwith most anti voucher lobbyists
(07:31):
out there, have been beating thedrum that the Arizona example is
really the most catastrophicexample that you can use when it
comes to budget busters. Tofollow that up with a
presentation, a press conferencefrom a handful of lawmakers.
Representative Wendy Horman wasone of them that you mentioned
she's been working on, and hasbeen working on for the last
(07:52):
handful of years, a voucher taxcredit that would allow families
to submit the cost of tuition orother educational services to
the state tax commission, andthat you would get a tax refund
for those expenses. And so theprice tag for her plan matches
(08:17):
the governor's. It's $50 millionshe does carve out a special
population of students who wouldget first priority to receive
these resources. But then oncethat opportunity had had closed,
it would be open to anybody. Nowwhat we're seeing from places
(08:39):
like Arizona, is that thefamilies that are taking
advantage of these vouchers,when they're be they're made
available, they're not actuallyleaving traditional public
schools to go to a privateinstitution. They're already in
private schools, and now they'rejust relying on the state to for
the handout to pay for theirprivate school tuition. And
that's that's the message thatwe are warning the Idaho
(09:02):
legislature, that greaterinvestments in traditional
public schools are what we needright now, that defunding,
taking money away from publiceducation to fund a secondary
system of public schools. Thisis not the time to do it right,
right?
Mike Journee (09:21):
And in addition to that, earlier today, we got word
that one voucher bill hasalready been introduced in the
Idaho legislature this year. Infact, it was the first bill
introduced for the 2025,legislative session in the House
side, at least. And it's got amuch more significant price tag.
(09:42):
It looks like I think the factthat it's the first bill out of
the gate this year says a lotabout what we're gonna be
looking at for the session.
Don't you think? Yeah,
Matt Compton (09:50):
I think that if I were to guess how many bills
we're gonna see this year, withregards to voucher legislation,
a minimum of eight. Probablyballpark around 10 that really
that actually get introduced andsee the light of day how far
they make it in the process,that's to be determined. But I
(10:10):
know that that there are ahandful of lawmakers in the
capital right now that are eagerto pass that, that choice
expansion and start sending outtax dollars to private and
parochial schools.
Mike Journee (10:25):
Again, I want to remind our listeners that they
can go to the Idaho EducationAssociation website, idahoea.org
and get all the latestinformation about what's
happening at the legislature. Wepride ourselves on providing
news that's about and for IEAmembers, our public school
educators across the state, andthey can go and they can get the
latest about what's going on atthe state house. So Matt, thanks
(10:47):
again for that quick updateabout what's been going on. It's
been pretty straightforward sofar for education issues, and
we'll be talking about things asthey come up and in the future
weeks, I look forward to it.
Thanks,
Matt Compton (10:58):
Mike. You. Kevin.
Mike Journee (11:06):
Next up on the IEA reporter podcast is Idaho
education News Senior ReporterKevin Richard. Kevin has worked
at Idaho newspapers inPocatello, Idaho Falls, Twin
Falls and Boise, and has beenwith the Idaho education news
since the online education newsoutlet launched in January of
2013 his name and byline isfamiliar to those who follow
(11:28):
education news in Idaho, andhe's a regular contributor to
public affairs programs on Idahopublic television and Boise
State Public Radio. In thisepisode, we'll discuss Kevin's
perspective on the 2025 sessionof the Idaho legislature, and a
few of his long termobservations about Idaho
politics.
(11:49):
So Kevin Richert, thank you somuch for joining us on The IEA
reporter podcast. You know,we're we're here gearing up for
another legislative session, andit seems, from all indications,
that education issues are goingto be at the heart of things
again, as they often are. And I,and I believe you are the elder
statesman of the reporters whoregularly cover the Idaho
(12:09):
legislature, if I'm notmistaken, if I'm doing on my
math correctly. So how manylegislative sessions have you
covered?
Kevin Richert (12:16):
This mic will be my 40th session of watching the
legislature in one way or theother, which has been either as
a reporter or as an editor. Imean, we worked together at the
Times News when you werecovering the legislature. I was
in Twin Fallsas city editor, a bunch of years
at the Idaho statesman aseditorial page editor, observing
(12:40):
the legislature, and this willbe our, this will be our 13th
session at Ida news. So, yeah, Iguess that makes me elder
statesman by by default or byattrition?
Mike Journee (12:53):
Yeah, I think it does. That's That's a long time
to be observing this single bodyand the work that it's been
doing. And I'm going to ask youa few questions about that a
little later, but, and thenwe'll talk about the session
too. But before we get into theissues that we expect to see
this winter, I wanted to take astep back and look a little bit
(13:15):
at the May primary elections,and then, of course, the general
election in November. And ofcourse, you and your colleagues
at the Yahoo education news havewritten a lot about those
results. Do you think you cangive us a bit of a recap of
those results and what they meanfor education issues this year
at the state
Kevin Richert (13:32):
house? Yeah, I think, in the aggregate, I think
this legislature is going to bea little bit more conservative
than we saw in the past coupleof years, we saw a number of big
upsets. In the May primary.
Chuck winder, Senate PresidentPro Tem lost in the primary.
Julia Moto, the chair of HouseEducation, she lost in the
(13:55):
primary. Then you go into thegeneral election, and you had
Republicans pick up a total ofthree seats, one in the Senate,
two in the house. Makes thelegislature even more Republican
dominated than it was before.
Now you've got only 15 Democratsin the legislature out of 105
(14:18):
legislators. And really, whatmaybe is even more interesting
than just those numbers. Onlytwo of those 13 Democrats reside
outside of Boise or garden city.
You have one from the Wood RiverValley, and you have one from
Pocatello. So it is a very smalland very isolated, politically
democratic, democraticdelegation. Yeah, it's gonna be
(14:41):
interesting to watch how thesecommittees look now that we've
had the elections. We've had tworounds of elections, we'll
obviously take a close look atboth the House Education
Committee and the SenateEducation Committee. A lot of
changes in both of thosecommittees. So.
Mike Journee (15:00):
Yes, yeah, there are. And I was going to ask you
about that, you know, just fromour look and count, things have
really kind of flipped. Youknow, when we talk about
lawmakers and policy makers atthe Idaho education association
among our members, we don't, wedon't talk about Republicans or
Democrats. We talk about propublic education policy makers
(15:23):
lawmakers. We talk about antipublic education policy makers
and and lawmakers and and sothat's a I know that's a
different take than probablywhat you guys would take in your
editorial stance. We talk aboutthe politics of education being
political, but not partisan. Andso the changes in the
legislature that you justmentioned are going to be huge.
(15:44):
And as you mentioned, the theyjust completed. The legislature
just completed theirorganizational session, and
which is where they select theleadership and make committee
assignments. And as you know,being a long time observer of
the legislature, those committeeassignments can mean a big deal
for a bill's prospects ofbecoming law. So talk about a
(16:06):
little bit of what you saw shakeout the organizational session
for the education committees andthe houses in it.
Kevin Richert (16:12):
Well, Mike, we were all watching the House
Education Committee because weknew, when Julia mamoto lost in
the primary, we knew that therewas going to be a vacancy, and
the big question was, in whatdirection would speaker Mike
Moyle go in terms of a chair ofthat committee? And they have to
keep in mind, Mike Moyle hasmade no bones about where he
wants education to go in thisstate. He's made very clear that
(16:36):
he wants to see a private schoolchoice a bill pass the 25
legislative session. He saidthat at the end of the 24
session. So we kind of expectedthat Moyle and House leadership
would try to take that committeeand move it a little bit further
to the right. Doug Pickett thethe you know, the new chair of
(17:00):
the House Education Committeeis, to me, anyway, largely an
unknown. I have scarcely talkedto him. I talked to him a little
bit at the end of theorganizational session on
Thursday that Thursday a coupleweeks ago, he didn't serve in
the House Education Committee inhis first term. He's starting
(17:20):
his second term. We don't know awhole lot about his education
politics, his education focus.
We do know that when a privateschool choice bill came before
the House Reverend tax committeelast year, where he was a
committee member, he did supportthat bill. So I would take from
that that, I think that he willprobably move that committee a
(17:43):
little bit further to the right.
But again, we hardly know theguy. We hardly know how his
approach is going to be as a newcommittee chair. So I think
there's a certain amount of waitand see Senate Education. I
thought was really interesting,because as we watched that
committee the past two years,very conservative, very hard
(18:06):
line conservative committee,it's flipped somewhat. Dave land
from Idaho Falls is still thechair of that committee, so that
doesn't change. But as I look atthe roster of that committee, it
looks a lot more moderate thanit was the past couple of years,
so I don't know what that meanspolicy wise, I think it's a
little bit premature to startdrawing too many conclusions,
(18:28):
but I think that could be a muchmore moderate committee than
we've seen in the past. May giveDave lent a chance to get some
of his own legislativepriorities through that
committee, where he's run intoresistance from from his own
committee members. So it'll bevery interesting to watch Senate
Education, because I think it'sgoing to be a different
(18:51):
committee. And certainly houseeducation is going to be
different simply because youhave a new chair, and you know,
you have a very conservativevice chair of that committee,
Dale Hawkins, from up north. SoI short answer. I expect house
education to be moreconservative than we've seen. I
expect Senate Education probablyis going to be more moderate
than we've seen.
Mike Journee (19:12):
Yeah, you know, our take on that has been the
same, you know. And withoutgetting into too many details,
our lobbyists have always here.
In recent years anyway, havehave seen the the House
Education Committee under JulieYamamoto as a as a really
important backstop for stoppingsome of the more challenging
policy ideas that come fromcertain corners of legislature
(19:33):
around education. And of course,Representative Yamamoto defeat
was, it was a, was a big blow toour members and and that place
that she held in thelegislature. Well, let's, let's
talk a little bit about some ofthe issues that we'll be seeing.
So you and your colleagues rightnow are in the Ryan soupy,
(19:54):
specifically, I think, so far,are in the middle of publishing
a series. About what we call inthe Idaho Education Association,
vouchers, a lot of folks callthe call it school choice, but
we prefer to stick to the old,old school term for a lot of
reasons. So do you think thiswill be the top education issue
(20:14):
of the year?
Kevin Richert (20:17):
For sure? I think that all signs point to a big
showdown on this issue. And youknow, first of all, you shout
out Ryan soupy. He's going to beour lead writer on this issue.
He has done, done some greatresearch, done some great
writing and reporting, alreadypublished a story, an in depth
look at Arizona. And anybodywho's paid attention to this
(20:40):
debate has been watching what'shappened with Arizona with its
universal education savingsaccount law, that is, you know,
as his reporting, as he said,You know this is either a
success story or a cautionarytale, depending on where, where
you, where you come down on thisissue. So whatever you call it,
and I know you guys call itvouchers, and I know some people
(21:01):
call school choice, we prefer tocall we prefer to call these
bills private school choice,because we think that that sort
of threads a needle. Becausewhether it is a true voucher
bill or an education savingsaccount or a tax credit, they
all accomplish more or less thesame purpose, or try to
(21:21):
accomplish the same purpose,which is moving public money
into private education. Soanyway, we call it private
school choice by whatever nameit is going to be the education
issue of the session. It couldbe the issue of the session.
Mike Journee (21:36):
Interesting. So even topping water, or some of
the other issues we've beenhearing about, huh?
Kevin Richert (21:41):
I think so. I think I think this issue water,
obviously, is very importantissue to folks who are really,
really engaged in that issue.
But I think for lay people,that's a harder issue to get
your head around. Where you sendyour child to school. That's
that has a visceral connectionwith a lot of people. So I think
(22:06):
when you start talking aboutthis and where your money goes,
in terms of where the kids aregoing to school, I think that
really, you know, yeah, thatthat checks a lot of boxes for
people in terms of, okay, thisis an issue I care about. This
is an issue that I'm passionateabout. Yeah,
Mike Journee (22:30):
I think you get the nail right on the head. I
mean, it's when you when the alarge, large portion of the
state budget goes to publiceducation, and it's something
that people pay attention to,and which rightly so, you know.
So that's, that's, that's areally, that's a very, very
astute point you made. So Idon't know if you paid attention
(22:51):
to this from the news or notrecently, but there was a, there
was a a bit of an event wherethey talked about vouchers and
school of choice at Boise StateUniversity recently. And
Representative Wendy Horman, outof Ottawa falls she's a she's a
voucher proponent, and who she'salso the the powerful co chair
(23:14):
of the legislature's budgetcommittee, and she made an
interesting comment in thatforum where she called vouchers
a major civil rights issue forthe state. Is that something
you've heard from school choiceadvocates before? What do you
make of that?
Kevin Richert (23:32):
Maybe not in those exact words, but yeah, I
think you have seen sort of thatovertone. I go back to when
house Revenue and Taxation tookup representative hormones tax
credit bill earlier this year,and it was back in March, you
had people speaking in favor ofthis, really treating it in
(23:53):
terms of maybe not civil rightsin so many words, but
definitely, You know, this is aparental rights, a parental
choice, you know, a parentalfreedom kind of an issue. And,
you know, I think that kind ofmessaging, we'll see how that
plays out within thelegislature, within a group of
(24:15):
105 legislators. But I thinkthat kind of messaging, I don't
think it's accidental. I thinkthat in a in a state that values
individual freedom, valuesindividual liberties, if you
start to couch anything as a,you know, as a freedom of choice
issue, you know that thatcarries some some weight, but
(24:38):
that resonates with people so,you know, had not heard that
term before, per se, but I'm notsurprised. Yep,
Mike Journee (24:49):
it was an interesting choice of words, and
I agree with you, I don't thinkit was, it was, I think it was
very intentional. So, so whatkind of bills on this issue do
you think we're going to seethis year? Do. Yeah,
Kevin Richert (25:00):
well, that's hard to say. It's hard to say how
many we're going to see, whatflavor, what, what's the scope,
what? What are some of thesideboards, you know? And I
think that's going to basically,that's going to maybe determine
what passes, or if anythingpasses at all. Within the
(25:26):
framework of private schoolchoice, there are a lot of
different ways to go, and Iwould imagine that the debate is
going to come down to, okay,what, what are, are there limits
on how many students, on howmuch money we're talking about?
Because again, Arizona thatprogram grew so rapidly and has
(25:47):
taken up many more millions ofdollars than anybody down there
expected. So size of the programalso the accountability. To what
extent will you haveaccountability metrics built
into a any kind of a privateschool choice proposal, I think,
yeah, to answer your question,Mike, I don't know how many
bills we're going to see. Isuspect we'll start to see bills
(26:08):
float out in the early weeks ofthe session.
Mike Journee (26:13):
Yeah, we were expecting that something
similar, too. So that's, yeah, Ithink you're, you're right on
there as well. The one of theone of the possible choices is,
is some kind of a tax rebatebill that has and, and, you
know, we've talked about theeducation committees and their
makeup, but if such a bill comesforward, is probably not going
(26:36):
to go through one of theeducation committees, and more
likely go through one of therevenues and taxation committees
to revenue and taxationcommittees. Have you guys looked
into those committees at all andthought about them in that
context with with that kind ofbill? I haven't
Kevin Richert (26:51):
taken too close a look at either revenue tax or
the Senate, local government andtaxation committee and how those
changed out in the leadershipelections. Yeah, in the
committee assignments, butyou're right. I think a tax
credit bill like we saw thisyear would more likely go
through the revenue and TaxCommittee on the House side. But
(27:17):
who knows? One thing that Ithink Mike Moyle has made pretty
clear over the past few years asspeaker is he will route bills
around where he thinks he canget the votes and where he
thinks he can get a bill out ofcommittee. I mean, the fact that
we've seen library billsaffecting school libraries going
(27:38):
through not the educationcommittee, but through the House
State Affairs Committee, I thinkthat that tells you something. I
think the fact that he movedthose bills through the state
affairs committee, the fact thathe tried to move the first tax
credit bill this year throughrev and tax it gives you a sense
of anything can happen,especially on the House side in
(28:00):
terms of where these bills getrouted?
Mike Journee (28:04):
Yeah, that was a very interesting thing to watch
as well. Our members paid reallyclose attention to that one too.
Well, let's move on to anothertopic. So let's talk a little
bit about K through 12 publicschool funding. What are you
hearing along those lines? Isthere anything in particular
that that folks are talkingabout yet? Well,
Kevin Richert (28:23):
I kind of wonder.
Is this the year where we'regoing to see any kind of
revision in the school fundingformula? We had a bill come out
at the very end of the sessionlast year, uh, state
supernatant. Debbie Critchfieldwants to make changes in the
funding formula. And what shewants is the idea of some sort
of a weighting based onproviding extra funding for
(28:44):
schools depending on how manystudents they have that have,
that have special needs. Youknow special education students.
You know students from lowincome households or students
with limited Englishproficiency. The idea of a
weighted student student fundingformula. It's not a new idea. It
(29:05):
seems like we've been talkingabout revising the school
funding formula for years,because we have been. The
question is, how do you do aweighted funding formula? You
know, how do you make theweights work? How does that
couple with an enroll a fundingformula that's always been based
(29:27):
on student attendance, not onstudent enrollment. It's a very
complicated issue. Obviouslyyour members know that I will be
interested to see if we get aschool funding formula bill
through. But after all the yearsof talking about a school
funding formula fix, this may bea tough year to do it, simply
(29:51):
because the money is not asabundant as it had been in past
years. I mean, you know, thestate could not really. Buys its
school funding formula in timeswhen we were running surpluses
of a billion dollars, the budgetpicture is not as rosy as it has
been in past years. It's notdire. I mean, I don't think
(30:13):
we're gonna see budget cuts orbudget hold backs or anything
like that, unless the economydoes something really, really
strange, really quickly. Butthis legislature doesn't have as
much money to work with asprevious legislatures, so that
may be an obstacle to getting aschool funding formula change
through, but I know that's beena high priority for Debbie
(30:35):
Critchfield for really eversince she was elected.
Mike Journee (30:41):
It has and, and, and I think we'll know early in
the session, one of those thatfor that bill to is such a huge
lift that for that bill to comeforward toward the end of the
session and try to get make itthrough just it never works. And
that's one of the problems inthe past, is they've always
introduced it almost we werewaiting
Kevin Richert (30:57):
and waiting.
Yeah, it felt like we werewaiting and waiting for a school
funding bill last session, andit finally emerged in the middle
of March, and you could telljust from that print hearing in
House Education Committeemembers who might have been
sympathetic to the general idea,really just had so many
questions about how it wouldwork that there wasn't a lot of
appetite to try to do somethinglike that in the final weeks of
the session. So what is wasCritchfield come out with on
(31:21):
this, and maybe moreimportantly, when does she come
out with
Mike Journee (31:25):
it? So shifting the gears again, Kevin, you've
been covering the highereducation beat for the ideal
education news for here.
Recently, there's been a lot ofnews in that world. Honestly, it
looks like the state's collegesand university are all but
waving the white flag ondiversity, equity and inclusion
efforts on campuses. Do youexpect to see dei issues? This
(31:46):
issue spilled over into Kthrough 12 public education?
Anytime soon?
Kevin Richert (31:52):
That's a really interesting question, because
you have this legislative taskforce that's been looking at
Dei, and this is a reallyconservative committee. We talk
about the differences betweenmainstream Republicans and
hardline Republicans there.
There's no question. As I lookat this committee, this is a
hard line committee, eightmembers in all house Senate.
(32:15):
They've met twice. They'll meetagain first week of the session,
their discussions have beenmostly about higher ed and dei
programs on the higher edcampuses, and that's been the
discussion mostly at the stateboard of education level as
well. But I wonder if this wholediscussion of Dei, this whole
(32:36):
discussion of wokeism inschools. For lack of a better
thumbnail that, you know, peopleuse, I wonder if that sort of
backlash doesn't spill over intoK 12, you know, I think you've
seen elements of it already. Ithink the library debate was
about that to a large degree. Ithink the debate over the
(32:59):
pronouns law from last year wasan offshoot of that. I think
there are folks within thelegislature who think that all
education is is too liberal andtoo out of touch with mainstream
Idaho values. And I think thatthat that sentiment, while it's
focused mostly on higher ed, Ithink it does pervade into to K
(33:20):
12. What that looks likelegislatively, I don't know, but
I think that that that sentimentis certainly there.
Mike Journee (33:30):
Yeah, I think you're, you're spot on with the
library Bill analogy too. Ithink that's, you're exactly
right. That's where that thatwas going. And I, and we would
expect to see something comealong the lines here for long,
but we'll see. I think you'reright. So I want to take a
little step. I want to takeadvantage of your your longevity
(33:51):
as a as an observer the articlelegislature here and and take a
little step back in your timeand covering education politics.
Well, not just educationpolitics, maybe politics
overall, but but specificallyfor our members, education
politics, what are the changesyou've seen, kind of generally,
through the years? Is thereanything you can put your finger
(34:12):
on that if you compare yourfirst day covering the
legislature for the audio,education news and your last day
in 2024 what? What's thedifference there?
Kevin Richert (34:22):
I think one of the things that's different just
in those 12 years is, I thinkthis legislature is it's more
conservative even than it was in2013 and I think it's a
different kind of conservatismwith some lawmakers. And I think
(34:43):
it's sort of changed the way, itsort of changed the relationship
that I see between thelegislature and legislators and
the news media. I think that wehave, I think, an increasing
number of. Legislators. Who are?
They're not just conservative.
(35:03):
They're not just hardlineconservatives. They are. They
are openly skeptical ofinstitutions, and, you know,
skeptical of educationinstitutions, skeptical of
public health institutions,public libraries, and that
skepticism extends to the media.
As a reporter, I don't thinkI've changed very much, and I
(35:24):
don't think that one way that Ihaven't changed is that I would
much rather talk to a legislatoror a policy maker who has a
problem with a story that I'vewritten, who has a question or
criticism or something that theywant us to do, to correct. I
want to have that conversation.
(35:45):
I'm not sure that there are somefolks in this legislature who
want to have that conversationwith, with us or, you know, and
I think that's a change, that's,that's, you know, it's, it's not
a good change. It's, it's kindof discouraging when you know
people don't want to have thatexchange, that that
(36:07):
conversation, that back andforth.
Mike Journee (36:12):
Yeah, I can understand that. I mean, my time
as a reporter there that youknow that that inner that
interchange with reporters was awas a key part of the part of
the process that that lawmakersdealt with and went through
making sure that, and of course,the change in the daily
newspaper business, I think, hasa lot to do with that. Because,
you know, my time in the pressroom, at this at the state
(36:33):
house, every media market in thein the state was represented
down in that bullpen, and havepeople covering committees,
covering the legislature. Andlawmakers paid attention to that
because their their constituentsread their newspaper. There was
a big rack of newspapers rightthere in the lobby that and
(36:54):
every morning that was one ofthe first thing lawmakers did
was they went and saw what, whatthe correspondents were there,
went and wrote about and so thatwas that, I think you're right.
That's definitely a dynamic thatis completely different,
Kevin Richert (37:08):
yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up that,
you know, I should have broughtthat up myself. I mean, in 2013
our first year at Ed news, youdid have a beat reporter from
the Times News, covering thelegislature. You did have a
reporter from Lewiston Tribune,Bill Spence, who've been there
for so many years until hisretirement a couple of years
ago, Idaho Falls post Registerwas sending a reporter over.
(37:30):
None of those newspapers aresending a full time reporter to
cover the legislature. And whatwe have right now, I've kind of
called it kind of a best oftimes, worst of times thing in
Treasure Valley News media, wehave so many really talented
reporters around this valleyright now, I have never worked
(37:55):
with as many really smart,really dedicated, really driven
folks in the news media, in thiscommunity, and that's really
exciting. But the problem, theworst of times, thing here, is a
lot of us are working in ratherspecialized roles. I know
education news, I mean, it'sright there in our right in the
(38:17):
middle of our name is education.
So when we cover thelegislature, it's going to be
Senate Ed, it's going to behouse Ed, it's going to be jfac.
When the budget bills come up,it's going to be revenue, tax.
If we have a tax bill that'srelated to education, lots and
lots of issues that the statehas that we're just not going to
touch, we're not going to cover.
It's not part of our mission,you know. So I'll get a tip, or
just hear something through thegrapevine, or, you know, Ryan
(38:39):
Sue B will, and we'll kind oflook at each other and say, Wow,
that's a that's a great story.
Sure hope somebody gets to it.
We're very specialized. Idahocapital Sun is specialized in
they will look more statewidethan look at individual
legislators and individual locallegislative delegations. And
(39:01):
that's that's really a challengethat's facing the Idaho media
right now. You don't have thatkind of ground level reporting
of the legislature, and you youneed that. You also need that
full, full service newsreporting that I worry that
we're not getting as much ofright now. News organizations
(39:23):
that are covering the wholegamut of public policy issues,
not just education or not justthe legislature, for more of a
statewide perspective, like likewe see from capital sun. So
there are great things happeningin the media. There are also
some things that are nothappening in the media that I I
hope we see more of I hope wesee more coverage like we used
(39:46):
to see. I don't know how it'sgoing to happen, though the
business model right now ispretty challenging for
newspapers in general.
Mike Journee (39:54):
It really is. It really is. But I will say this,
you know, on behalf of of allthe members. The IEA, we really
appreciate that the Idahoeducation news is is there, and
taking such a strong look at atall the policy that's happening
and all, not just, not just herein Boise, it's, you know, you
guys cover all everything that'shappening around the state. And
(40:14):
so, you know, I know, I know Ipersonally appreciate as someone
who cares about publiceducation. And I know that our
members pay attention to you aswell, because you guys do good
job of covering everything. Iappreciate that.
Kevin Richert (40:28):
And and, yeah, I think we're very fortunate that
we have a staff of fourreporters, including one in
North Idaho. We have a new NorthIdaho reporter, Emma Eberly,
who's doing some great stuff upin the panhandle. Carly flandro
has been with us for a coupleyears out of Pocatello covering
Eastern Idaho, and we have,yeah, we have staff that's
specialized in education. We'repassionate about covering
(40:50):
education. We have the resourcesto to do it, and we have the
independence to pursue thestories that need to be pursued.
And, you know, kind of followthem where they take us. So,
yeah, we're really fortunateagain. I want to see more
coverage from more media, youknow, and I, you know, I hope we
(41:10):
get to that point, not just in acovering the legislature, but
also covering education andcovering elections. We need more
journalism that less, I wouldagree.
Mike Journee (41:24):
So my last question, Kevin, you know, I
always try to end on a highnote, if I can. And and so you
know I I've known you for yearsand and I follow you on your
personal social media. And inaddition to being an avid
runner, I also know you havefully embraced the ugly Thai
tradition among reporters whocover the State House. Tell us a
(41:47):
little bit about that tradition.
Kevin Richert (41:49):
Bob Fick, who was the Associated Press's
legislative reporter way back. Ithink he may have started in the
70s, but he was there when I gotthere in the 80s. Bob Fick was a
one of a kind. He was this kindof curmudgeonly old school
reporter that way. But he was agenius in terms of covering
(42:11):
jfac, in terms of coveringbudget committees. I mean, he,
you know, before you had theinternet, Fick was creating his
own spreadsheets to follow thebudgets that were actually
probably more accurate and morecomprehensive than what the
state had. He was that good abudget reporter, but anyway, he
was the originator of the uglyThai tradition, and it was his
way of saying, Okay, guys, it'sthe end of March. We've been
(42:35):
here long enough the ties weresupposed to signify the press
corps desire to get on with lifeand to not be at the State House
day in and day out. So we'vekind of kept the tradition
going. And it's, it's, it'staken on new life. You know, the
longer I've been there, the uglyThai tradition has, has evolved
(42:57):
over time, a tie that I rememberhaving in the mid 90s, when
we're in Twin Falls, that Ithought was really fashionable,
and it was kind of for mid 90s,it is now an ugly tie. It is now
in the in the file cabinet ofugly ties, ready to come out in
in late March. And you know, ifwe're around long enough, in 30
(43:19):
years, it might becomefashionable again, we'll take it
out of ugly tie circulation.
We'll put something else in.
Now, the ugly ties, you know,are one of those legislative
traditions and you know, andreally, it's one of the things
that I enjoy about covering thelegislature, all these little
traditions, all these littlequirks, it is still an
(43:41):
interesting place to be, and itis still a lot of fun to work
with other reporters from otheroutlets. There's a lot of
there's a lot of camaraderie,there's some some gallows humor,
but when we're all workingtogether, covering this, trying
to make sense of this, trying toput it into context, it's good
(44:03):
to be working with other goodreporters, smart referees and
good people, you know, whodoesn't need to, yeah, are
serious about what we're doing,but we don't take it so
seriously that we can't have alittle bit of fun. So, right,
right? Well, we have to bestrategic, though, about when to
bring out the ugly ties, becauseyou, you don't want to rush the
process, but you know when themoment comes, you know when it's
(44:24):
ugly tie time. And you know youalso have to be careful that,
you know you make it clear thatit's ugly tie season, so that
somebody doesn't come up to youand say, Hey, that's a nice tie.
No, that was actually meant tobe an ugly tie. But thanks for
that. You want people to knowthat you're actually
deliberately wearing an uglytie, and it wasn't just a really
bad fashion choice. So there'ssome strategy involved with it,
Mike Journee (44:49):
absolutely. And I do remember Bob Fick very well,
and I remember your marchingorders to me as my former boss.
Whenever you see Bob Fick in aroom, turn around. Around and go
cover something else, because he
Kevin Richert (45:01):
was going to cover it so well, there was no
point best covering it. Yeah, wecouldn't improve on fix. So you
didn't. But you know, yep, yep.
Mike Journee (45:10):
Okay, one final thing. So when do you think
you're gonna be pulling out theugly tie this year?
Kevin Richert (45:17):
Like I say, you'll know. I mean, I think as
far as how long the session isgoing to go, I think the session
goes into April. I think thisjust feels like it's going to be
a long session, because you gotso many new people. It's not an
election year. There's nomotivation to get back and
campaign. I think private schoolchoice could be a really long,
(45:40):
drawn out battle. You mentionedwater. We don't cover it very
much. Yeah, that waterlegislation has a way of slowing
the legislative session down toI just think there are a lot of
things that could make for along session. So with with an
eye towards this session goinginto April, I don't think I want
to bust out ugly ties untilmaybe, you know, third week of
(46:04):
March, maybe is a time to startto send the message a little
bit. All right.
Mike Journee (46:10):
Well, Kevin Richard, senior reporter at the
Idaho education news, thank youso much for your time. We're
excited to get going for thelegislative session, and we'll
be paying attention to, to toyour website and all the stuff
you guys cover. It's been, it's,it's a wonderful website. It's a
great resource for IA members tolearn what's happening on a day
(46:33):
to day basis at the legislature,and broad, more broadly, in
education. So thank you for allthe work that you do, and thank
you for joining us today.
Kevin Richert (46:40):
Oh, thanks, Mike, thanks for having me.
Mike Journee (46:45):
Thank you for listening to this episode of The
IEA reporter podcast, and thanksto Idaho education News Senior
Reporter Kevin Richard forjoining us. Please watch for
updates about new episodes onIEA social media channels or
sign up to receive IA reporteremail updates on our
website@idahoea.org I'm MikeJournee, and as always, I hope
(47:06):
you'll join me in thankingIdaho's public school educators
for everything they do for ourState students, families and
public schools. You
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