Teacher Appreciation Week

When I am governor, teachers will have my respect and support.

Weirdly, Gov. Little claimed the same thing in his “teacher appreciation week” message—not long after he earned a  no-confidence vote from teachers for attacking the Idaho Education Association (IEA).

I love teachers. The IEA does important work. In fact, the worst decision I’ve seen them make lately was to let Mr. Little keep his “Champion of Education” award. Good grief.

After decades of bad-mouthing unions by rightwing shills, even spineless politicians feel safe attacking them. So many folks believe the smears. One man recently told me, “Unions made sense 100 years ago, but we don’t need them anymore.”

I disagree.

Today, it’s still easy to fire one worker who asks for a raise or safer conditions. Bosses are more likely to negotiate when the workers unite.

Truth is, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the billionaire class rose alongside 40 years of attacks on unions. We’ve also seen our rights diminish: reproductive healthcare, religious privacy, civil rights for LGBTQ+, free speech, free press, the books we read—public school.

Gov. Little understands perfectly. He puts his signature on it all.

That’s why he knee-capped the IEA by making it harder to fund itself. Mr. Little favors billionaire and corporate lobbyists who can give him jet rides and Trump endorsements.

Let me be clear: when I am governor, Idaho will stop attacking teachers. Idaho will stop slashing school budgets—and no more of Mr. Little’s sneaky cuts by refusing to cover cost-increases. I will end the $50 million private school voucher program.

The state will start building schools. We will pay for that by reversing last year’s $450 million billionaire tax cuts. That will help stop the insanity of relying on school levy elections. That will give communities room to tax themselves—if they so choose—to build local infrastructure without coming hat-in-hand to the bullies in the Legislature. And, it will finally provide real property tax relief for homeowners and for businesses.

That’s what I mean when I say “respect and support” teachers. 

I appreciate you!