By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org
    
BOISE, Idaho – The fight for education reform in Idaho lives on.
    
The cause seemed dead and buried last November, after Idaho voters repealed every major K-12 initiative that lawmakers had passed in 2011.
    
But under the leadership of the Idaho School Boards Association, lawmakers will soon be presented with three toned-down K-12 proposals that are designed to help the state’s public schools control labor costs and provide school leaders with more leverage in contract negotiations.   
    
One of the bills would “ give school boards authority to make across-the-board cuts in teacher salaries, in direct challenge to a 1963 law that prohibits pay cuts for public school teachers,” reports the Associated Press.
    
It’s safe to assume that teachers won’t like having their pay reduced, but some lawmakers say it’s preferable to teacher layoffs that might occur during these sluggish economic times.  
    
“When you’re given X number of dollars to employ teachers, either you employ less teachers and increase class size,” or reduce salaries, Senate Education Chairman John Goedde told Spokesman.com. “To me, from the standpoint of the students, it’s best to have a stable classroom.”
    
Another of the proposed bills “would change the nature of negotiations that occur each year on so-called master contracts – the broad agreements that cover salaries and benefits, as well as issues such as length of school year and teacher duties outside the classroom,” the AP reports.
    
The legislation would require teacher unions and school boards to negotiate salary and benefits every year, but would allow non-salary issues (such as working conditions) to be negotiated every two years, according to the AP.
    
These proposals might not warm the hearts of many citizens, as they may seem overly harsh toward teachers. But the fact remains that Idaho’s school leaders have to control labor costs.
    
And since Idaho’s teacher unions helped convince voters to reject the expansion of online learning and other cost-saving reforms, schools are left with few other options than scaling back teacher salaries.
    
It’s a lesson straight out of Physics 101: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
    
The teacher unions won the battle at the ballot box last fall, but the fight for education reform continues in The Gem State.