What Tuesday’s election results say about Idaho public education | Opinion
Idaho public education came out the winner in Tuesday’s elections.
Two school board members who made the awful decision to hire Branden Durst as the superintendent in the West Bonner School District were recalled, according to The Spokesman-Review.
And it wasn’t even close.
About 62.6% of the ballots voted for recalling Chair Keith Rutledge and 66% voted to recall Vice Chair Susan Brown, well above the necessary simple majority, according to The Spokesman-Review.
And turnout was high. Tuesday’s voter count of 2,162 far outpaced the previous election, when 844 people went to the polls in 2021, according to Idaho Education News.
Durst, a far-right political pugilist who works for the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which opposes public education, had no experience as a school administrator or teacher and lacked even the necessary certification to be a superintendent. He has supported using taxpayer dollars to fund private schools.
Yet West Bonner school board members voted to hire him over the much more qualified Susie Luckey, an experienced teacher and principal who was named Idaho’s Distinguished Principal of the year in 2018.
Board members then brought in curriculum developed by Hillsdale College, a private religious school in Michigan that has become increasingly important for the Christian nationalist movement.
Major kudos to the citizens in the West Bonner district to defend public education in their town and reject such extremism.
There was even more good news for public education statewide.
Voters in no fewer than six school districts across the state approved supplemental levies for their school districts, and voters in the Bonneville school district overwhelmingly approved a $34.5 million bond for a new elementary school and roof repairs in other schools, according to Idaho Education News.
The bond in Bonneville passed with a stunning 70% approval, well over the two-thirds supermajority required for bond measures in Idaho.
Even the one measure that failed on Tuesday — an $8.2 million bond measure for school building improvements and security upgrades — received a majority of “yes” votes, with 56% support. But because of Idaho’s unreasonable supermajority requirement for bond measures, voters saying “no” have more power than voters voting “yes.”
In this case, a “yes” vote was worth 78% of a “no” vote. Put another way, each “no” voter had the power of 1.27 “yes” voters.
The levies that passed also received overwhelming support: 56% in Vallivue, Orofino and Marsh Valley, 61% in the Valley School District, 69% in Shelley and a whopping 76% in Castleford.
These are some pretty conservative parts of the state, and the voters there are saying their schools are underfunded by the state and are willing to raise their own property taxes to help fill the gap left by the Republican-dominated Legislature.
These victories are significant, especially in light of the recent news that Idaho’s teacher of the year, Karen Lauritzen, has left the state after being attacked by far-right extremists who twisted her compassion and empathy for others and belief in equality into some sort of left-wing indoctrination scheme.
We’re certain there will be more attacks on public education, particularly from the far right, and the school vouchers issue likely will rear its ugly head again in the next legislative session.
But after Tuesday’s elections, public education in Idaho can take a well-deserved victory lap.
Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.
