Idaho Education Association and Others Sue over Luna’s Labor Privilege Bill (ID)

April 28, 2011

The Idaho Education Association (IEA), the Gem State’s voluntary teachers’ union, announced via its Twitter account Wednesday that is has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Senate Bill 1108, part of an education reform package pushed through the Legislature by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna earlier this year.

Melissa McGrath, communications office for Luna’s office, wouldn’t comment directly on the legal challenge.  ”We are not going to comment on pending litigation until we have had a chance to review it,” said McGrath.  ”However, it is not surprising that union leaders are trying to overturn the one bill that phases out tenure, eliminates retirement bonuses, and returns decision-making back to locally elected school boards.”

Calls have been made to the bill’s major backers, Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Post Falls, and Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, but they have also not been returned.

Senate Bill 1108, which passed the Idaho House and Senate prior to being signed by Gov. Butch Otter, put major restrictions on what could be negotiated during teacher collective bargaining sessions.  The measure also eliminates continuing contracts for educators and replaces them with two-year rolling agreements and removes seniority as a factor when teachers need to be laid off by districts.

The IEA believes the bill does not adhere to constitutional standards of single-subject legislation, meaning that bills taken up by lawmakers must focus on a single issue.   The group also contends the bills essentially cancel out existing contracts for teachers that were agreed to prior to passage of Senate Bill 1108.

Joining the IEA in the suit are three local teacher associations – Fremont Education Association, Caldwell Education Association and Shoshone Education Association- and two Idaho teachers, David Graham of the Moscow School District and Teena Marley of the Pocatello School District.  The suit was filed in state district court in Ada County.

According to the text of the complaint filed by the group, Marley and Graham were included in the suit because they individually qualified for an early incentive retirement program eliminated by SB 1108.

IEA President Sherri Wood said in a prepared statement that this suit comes as a result of the failure of the Legislature to listen to the Idaho people.  ”Because the Legislature, Gov. Otter and State Superintendent Luna failed to listen to the voices of Idaho citizens and, in the case of SB 1108 and the trailer bills, overstepped their legal bounds, the IEA supports citizen efforts to place referenda on the ballot challenging the Luna laws,” said said Wood.  “Likewise, we will challenge the constitutionality of SB 1108 and the trailer bills.”