IDAHO, USA — The Idaho State Legislature passed 327 new budgets and laws during the 2021 legislative session. With the exception of an emergency clause, 218 new laws go into effect Friday with the beginning of the fiscal year.
Lawmakers passed two laws pertaining to public education and the need to recruit - and retain - teachers amid a labor shortage. Idaho public schools are unable to fill 894 teaching openings, according to a survey from the Idaho State Board of Education.
Charter schools are facing the same problem at a similar rate, according to Idaho Charter School Network (ICSN) Board Chair Terry Ryan.
Ryan believes House Bill 1291 can alleviate some problems surrounding the teacher shortage at Idaho charter schools.
Under the new law, charter schools can hire a teacher and certify that teacher under their own certification criteria. To teach at a charter school, a candidate must have a bachelor's degree and go through an approved mentoring program at the charter school.
A charter school teaching certification is not transferable to a regular public school.
"Trying to find those teachers is hard in normal times. Trying to find them in post-pandemic times is almost impossible," Ryan said. "So, we're trying to open up the ranks of who can actually teach in our schools, but it's not a free-for-all."
The bill formally known as Senate Bill 1290 also became law. The law is a program that incentivizes teachers to work at rural schools - whether that be public charter schools or a regular public district. It also applies to high-need schools, defined in the law as schools of an economic disadvantage.
A qualifying teacher who chooses to teach at one of these schools could receive $12,000 over a four-year period. This money can be used to repay student loans, earn additional degrees, or pay for other educational expenses.
"If you're a rural, small district, and you don't have a lot - or maybe any property wealth - you're paying significantly less," Ryan said. "What you see often times is rural districts losing their teachers to the wealthier and larger districts. This, I think, is trying to make the playing field a little more balanced."
Idaho lawmakers also gave considerable attention to local elections and election integrity, according to Ada County Chief Deputy Clerk, Trent Tripple.
Ahead of the 2022 General Election in November, Senate Bill 1352 created an outlined process for how a county election office should handle an undeliverable absentee ballot.
In Idaho, a voter must request an absentee ballot. However, if that voter moves to a different address, then the ballot is considered to be undeliverable.
Upon the return of an undeliverable ballot, this law requires the county clerk to verify that voter's registration and ensure their information is accurate.
"We'll use every piece of information we have available on the registration to try and contact them. If we have a phone number, or another address associated with the address, maybe. A residence address versus a mailing address. We'll do everything we can," Tripple said. "If we get zero information on it, our next step is generally to remove them from the voter rolls."
House Bill 532 is the most significant new law in terms of election integrity, according to Tripple. The law allows the county clerk, or secretary of state, to declare an error in an election.
The election official can petition to bring this error in front of a district judge for review. These types of laws are colloquially known as "replay bills."
Pending the severity of the error, relative to the margin of defeat in any given race, a judge could rule the election must be held again.
"Previously, we did not have that authority or power to do that. We could only rely on a candidate to sue us in order to get in front of a judge," Tripple said. "As you can imagine, that's an expensive venture for some candidates who don't have the funds to do that. So, I think this was an important bill that got passed."
The entirety of the 2021 legislative session can be observed on the legislature's website.
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