Several education groups – the Idaho School Boards Association, the Idaho Education Association, Idaho Business for Education and the Idaho Rural Schools Association – took turns praising the bill. Only one group, the Idaho Freedom Foundation, spoke against it.
The bill cleared the committee easily, but not unanimously. Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, voted against the bill. Sen. Carl Crabtree, R-Grangeville, voted yes, but said he might reconsider when the bill hits the Senate floor. While noting rural schools struggle to hire and retain teachers, small communities also struggle to convince farmers and ranchers to return home. Should we forgive loans for them as well?
Senate’s dyslexia bill moves forward
A bill that would require the State Department of Education to ramp up its efforts to help students with dyslexia cleared the Senate unanimously Wednesday.
- Give the Idaho Reading Indicator, a K-3 standardized test, to fourth- and fifth-graders.
- Give a second screening to K-5 students who are struggling on the reading test, looking for signs of dyslexia.
- Train teachers to intervene and help students who have dyslexia and train those teachers to perform the above screenings.
A batch of lawmakers told personal stories of how dyslexia has affected their families before voting for the no credit check payday loans in Somerset NJ bill. But some questioned the bill’s approach.
This bill focuses essentially on the specific learning disability areas of basic reading skills, reading comprehension and reading fluencies, said Sen. Carrie Semmelroth, D-Boise, who holds an education doctorate with an emphasis in special education. One of my concerns about this bill is a possible over emphasis and over-identification in these three areas, by focusing on the characteristics of dyslexia.
The SDE opposes the bill, in part because it fails to provide any added funding to support new testing and teacher training requirements. The State Department proposed its own competing bill in the House Education Committee Tuesday. That bill would make a variety of increased efforts contingent on increased funding.
Semmelroth and former House Education chair Julie VanOrden, R-Pingree, both questioned whether the IRI could serve as an effective screener for dyslexia; both the House and Senate bills would rely on the IRI.
Now, the Senate and House versions will both be in House Education, where Chairman Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, said Tuesday the two bills will likely need to be reconciled.
A bill to increase the top speed school buses are allowed to drive at to 70 mph is on its way to the House floor.
The House Transportation and Defense Committee unanimously passed House Bill 571 Wednesday, which would take precedence over a state rule that caps the limit at 65 mph.
A 2018 State Department of Education issue paper declared the opposite of such proposals, and argued speed limits shouldn’t be increased.
There is ample evidence that this differential in travel speeds does not present a safety risk to school buses or other vehicles. Slower travel speeds reduce the potential crash severity level in vehicle-to-vehicle crashes involving a school bus, while also reducing fuel consumption, the paper said.
In Idaho, the highest speed limits are 80 mph for passenger cars and 70 mph for semitrucks on sections of rural interstates.
Master educator premium grandfather’ bill passes House
The House passed a bill that would allow 23 Idaho school administrators to receive their master educator premiums – bonuses awarded before these educators left the classroom for an administrative post.
It’s a grandfather bill of sorts, as the state is phasing out the $4,000-a-year master educator premiums in 2024. Clow’s bill would fund bonuses only for teachers-turned-administrators, who would otherwise lose their bonuses.