<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of today's (October 4, 2012) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">-------------------------------------</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></span></div><div><h1 style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">New Idaho schools ad launched</span></font></h1><h5 class="subhead" style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; clear: both; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Commercial decries collective bargaining rollback</span></font></h5></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – The latest statewide TV commercial to air in the battle over Idaho’s controversial school reform laws comes from opponents of the laws and focuses on what may be their toughest sell in the right-to-work state: Proposition 1, which restricts collective bargaining rights for teachers.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The ad says the laws “ignore our teachers’ concerns” and “prohibit teachers from negotiating important things like overcrowded classrooms, supplies and student safety.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The claim about negotiations is accurate. SB 1108, which Proposition 1 would uphold, changed state law so teacher negotiations can only be on “matters related to compensation of professional employees.” Prior to the law, teacher contracts around the state routinely addressed other issues as well, from class size to schedules to furnace safety inspections.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“In Students Come First legislation, the teacher unions are targeted and their collective bargaining rights have been severely limited,” said Jim Weatherby, Boise State University professor emeritus of public policy. The ad tries to focus that issue to show “the net effect of this legislation is a negative effect on teachers and ultimately on students. … I think that’s fairly effective,” he said.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">However, he noted, “How much that will resonate with the Idaho public is yet to be seen, in a right-to-work state where unions are not that popular.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a debate on the reform laws at the City Club of Boise this week, state schools Superintendent Tom Luna said teachers could bring up noncompensation issues in other settings. Asked about that Wednesday, Luna’s spokeswoman, Melissa McGrath, said school boards now make those decisions. “So any teacher, any parent or any citizen can attend a local school board meeting or talk to their local school board members and participate in that process.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 30-second commercial, sponsored by the “Vote No on Props 1, 2, 3” campaign, also highlights how budget cuts have prompted teachers to “spend their own money on supplies for our kids.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">While that’s accurate, it’s not an issue that’s addressed in the school reform laws that are up for possible repeal.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When Luna first was elected in 2006, he pushed for a special line item in the public school budget to cover school supplies so teachers wouldn’t have to buy their own. At his urging, the Legislature allocated $350 per teacher for classroom supplies in fiscal year 2008 and 2009, and $300 per teacher in fiscal year 2010. That funding disappeared, however, with the advent of deep cuts in the public school budget.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">State Rep. Brian Cronin, a consultant to the “Vote No on Props 1, 2, 3” campaign, said the new commercial is running statewide, including the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene market.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">---------------</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><h3 style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What the ad says</span></font></h3></p></div><div><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“You don’t choose a career in teaching to get rich; you do it because you care. In the face of budget and pay cuts, Idaho teachers spend their own money on supplies for our kids. But the Luna laws – Props 1, 2, and 3 – ignore our teachers’ concerns. Prop. 1 prohibits teachers from negotiating over important things like overcrowded classrooms, supplies and student safety. Reform starts by listening to our teachers’ concerns, not shutting them out. Vote no on Props 1, 2, 3.”</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">---------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Video</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaVEHYPOsBs">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaVEHYPOsBs</a></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><img src="cid:B3FCE669-04D1-493B-9F81-8433E03EE1DF" alt="image.jpeg" id="B3FCE669-04D1-493B-9F81-8433E03EE1DF" width="330" height="222"><br><br>Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .<div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."</div><div><br></div><div>- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)</div><div> </div></div></div></body></html>