State funding prompted by Reclaim Idaho efforts

Reclaim Idaho did it.

Idaho’s public schools are set to receive a large increase in funding. On the heels of Reclaim Idaho’s ballot initiative, the state legislature passed a bill for $330 million for K-12 schools and $80 million for community colleges.

The real credit for this funding goes to over 100,000 registered voters who signed Reclaim Idaho’s petition. It’s inconceivable that this amount of money would have been committed in a special summer legislative session without the impending citizens’ ballot initiative ready for passage on November 8.

Idaho’s “citizen legislator” system has a high bar for getting ballot initiatives before the voters. It took hundreds of Reclaim Idaho volunteers out with clipboards in all kinds of weather to collect enough signatures from registered voters to qualify the measure. Others worked to notarize signatures and submit petitions to their county. Clearly, the majority of voters were supportive because, as many said, they found it frustrating that Idaho’s education funding was ranked lowest in the nation.

With this new $410 million investment, school districts will be able to hire more teachers to lower class sizes. Additional school counselors will help our students to succeed. Popular career-technical classes for workforce training will offer teenagers new opportunities. All of these measures were promoted by Reclaim Idaho’s initiative.

REBECCA HOLLAND

CHRISTINE MOON

Sandpoint

Reclaim Idaho

District 1

Co-leaders