Rep. Heather Scott – District 1
“Buck the Core Rally” at the Capitol
Citizens showed up on the Capitol steps this week to speak out against the Federal mandated Common Core in our Idaho Schools. The “Buck the Core” rally featured Dr. Geoffrey Thomas Superintendent from the Madison School District, Russ Fulcher, former State Senator and current Governor Candidate, and Dr. Duke Pesta, Wisconsin Professor and Advocate for repealing Common Core.
Idaho brought Common Core standards and testing into the state in 2010. Only 13 states are using the SBAC test now, and unfortunately, Idaho is one of them. The testing is expensive, unreliable and frustrating for many students and teachers.
Citizens and rally speakers shared several concerns with the top down approach of Common Core. Their goals were clear:
- Remove federal mandates for local schools in our state.
- Stop psychological dossiers (data) collection with no expiration date or access for parents on our children.
- End the expensive SBAC testing.
- Stop un-elected state boards making decisions for local school boards.
- Stop non-teachers from labeling our teachers as failures based on unreliable tests.
Two bills from our Freedom Agenda have been delivered to the education committees addressing the Common Core issue. One would repeal Common Core as a state mandate and the other would repeal the SBAC testing.
If you want to express your voice about Common Core and the SBAC test, you can contact the House and Senate Education Committees in the Idaho legislature. Here are the links to the Committee members and chairs: Senate Education Committee and House Education Committee.
Committee Situation
 After a 20 day moratorium, Speaker Bedke decided to reinstate me back to my assigned committees and restore full representation of District 1 today. This decision has been a long time coming and is good news for my district and the people throughout Idaho who believe in a republic form of government. Considering the fact that punitive actions to this extent have never been taken against a legislator in the State of Idaho, I believe this situation has highlighted the overreaching authority of the Speaker of the House, Representative Scott Bedke of District 27. The unprofessional manner in which this entire situation was handled reveals that there is room for improvement in communication, mutual respect and leadership inside the Idaho House of Representatives. I believe Mr. Bedke’s recent statement to the newspaper is a bit disingenuous considering that he refers to my statements “and actions”. To this day, he has still not completely told me why I was removed from my committees and he allowed the situation to escalate for unknown reasons. My many apologies never seemed to be good enough to please Speaker Bedke, so I opted for a public apology weeks ago. When that wasn’t enough, I was assured that one last apology to a small group two days ago would be the final requirement. I believe this situation may have been used as a political distraction from a bigger political issues, but time will tell. That said, I will continue to work hard to represent the people of District 1. I will remain positive and will continue to be a strong defender of the First Amendment – no voice or opinion should be silenced.
Boise Situation |
LAWS-LAWS-LAWS
Legislators have almost completed the administrative rules review process of reviewing hundreds of pages of rules regulations and fees. When approved, these rules, regulations and fees will be added to our state code. All rules can be viewed at https://adminrules.idaho.gov/
Committees are now starting to focus more on legislation. As of Tuesday, February 1st, the House has printed 83 bills (Senate has printed 36) and 5 resolutions. Many of these bills are part of the 111 agency bills that were previously shared by the Division of Financial Management at https://dfm.idaho.gov/legislation/2017LegislationIndex.html
Many legislators have been working on the Growing Freedom for Idaho Freedom Legislative Agenda, and are excited to be moving forward through the process. We currently have around 25 bills (at the RS stage) that are ready to be heard, working their way through the committees. One bill to lower the he State Income tax has passed committee and will be voted on by the full house later this week!
Here are the steps to make Idaho laws through the House of Representatives (legislation can also originate in the Senate):
1. Draft legislation called a “RS” (Routing slip) is introduced into the appropriate House Committee.
2. Committee members hear the RS and decide if it gets assigned a bill number to become a bill or not.
3. Numbered bills get put on the appropriate committee agenda by the committee chairman.
4. A hearing is held on the bill and committee members hear testimony. This is where public input is important! Committee members vote on the bill and determine if it will die or get referred it to the “Floor” for a vote by the entire body.
5. Once a bill passes the House Floor it will be sent to the Senate and goes through a similar process.
A citizen’s voice is heard the loudest and has the greatest impact at a committee level. To find out what bills are in what committee and who will be voting on those bills to get them you can go to http://growingfreedomidaho.com/bills/
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