<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>When John Goedde talks about education reforms he means, "how can we further marginalize teachers so as their salaries are depressed they won't have an avenue for redress?" He's even patronizing when the teachers in his own legislative district contact him with concerns.</div><div><br></div><div>sueh <br><br>Sent from my iPad</div><div><br>On Jan 3, 2014, at 1:41 AM, Moscow Cares <<a href="mailto:moscowcares@moscow.com">moscowcares@moscow.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (January 3, 2014) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; overflow: visible !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1.2; font-size: 28px; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">Idaho’s House speaker presses labor chief on how to rise above bottom-rung wages</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – Idaho has the worst wages in the nation.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Famous Potatoes state ranks 50th for average annual wage, per-capita income and wage increases since 2007. It also has the greatest percentage of minimum-wage workers in America.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After hearing those figures Thursday as they reviewed Idaho’s economic outlook, state legislative leaders said it’s time to figure out how to reverse that “dubious distinction” for the state.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I don’t think anybody’s proud of that No. 1,” said House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">He quizzed the state’s new Labor Department director, Ken Edmunds, about why the state ranks so poorly. “We need to understand, I think, as a state this phenomenon here, so that we can address this as we shape policy to improve these numbers,” Bedke said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Edmunds responded, “We’ve been creating jobs because of a need to create jobs and bring the unemployment rate down, but now we need to … push for more job creation in skilled areas” that pay more.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That, he said, will require improvements in education: “Employers are saying they are not getting the employees they need at any level, as far as skills.” That applies to recent high school graduates through highly skilled jobs in computer science, Edmunds said, adding, “We have to change our approach.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Edmunds just started as the state’s labor chief in November; he previously served on the state Board of Education.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bedke called his answer “thought-provoking” and said, “I think it’s incumbent upon all policymakers to pause and listen to what we’ve just been told.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The exchange came as Idaho is poised for a legislative session that launches Monday with school funding and improvements as its top issue. Gov. Butch Otter convened an education stakeholders task force that over the past year and a half held hearings around the state and endorsed a slate of sweeping reforms. The reforms include restoring tens of millions cut from schools during the recession, to boosting teacher pay and reforming how the state’s schools operate.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think that will be our blueprint going forward,” Bedke said, calling the school reform and funding issue “head and shoulders above the rest” of the many pressing issues facing Idaho lawmakers as they convene.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Senate Education Committee Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, agreed. The Legislature’s top challenge, he said, is “going to be finding money for education reforms.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><h5 style="margin: 0px 0px 3px; overflow: visible !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">Ranking last</h5><p style="margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Idaho ranked 50th among the states in 2012 for:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">• Average wage</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">• Per-capita income</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">• Increases in wages since 2007</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; overflow: visible !important;"><strong style="overflow: visible !important; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Where Idaho ranked first:</strong></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">• Percentage of hourly wage earners who make the minimum wage, 7.7 percent. The national average was 4.7 percent.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; overflow: visible !important;"></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><cci:factbox_credit class="paragraph" displayname="factbox_credit" name="factbox_credit" style="overflow: visible !important;"></cci:factbox_credit><cci:tb_body_7p class="paragraph" displayname="tb_body_7p" name="tb_body_7p" style="overflow: visible !important;"></cci:tb_body_7p></span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px;">Source: Idaho Department of Labor</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;">Watch this space, V-Peeps.<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</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);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</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);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>=======================================================</span><br><span> List services made available by First Step Internet,</span><br><span> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.</span><br><span> <a href="http://www.fsr.net">http://www.fsr.net</a></span><br><span> <a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a></span><br><span>=======================================================</span></div></blockquote></body></html>