Kevin’s blog
Expert analysis and the latest news from award-winning journalist Kevin Richert.
More grim budget news: January tax collections fall far short of projections
All told, tax collections for this budget year now sit $128.3 million short of projections. And against this backdrop, lawmakers will begin writing budgets for education and other state agencies.
Idaho’s AP numbers remain well below national average
Idaho students can take Advanced Placement exams — at taxpayer expense. Still, the percentage of Idaho students passing an AP test remains mired at No. 39 nationally.
The Medicaid waiting game is over. What happens now?
It won’t take long to see how Tuesday’s ruling, and sluggish tax collections, affect the budget-writing process.
Trump touches on school choice in State of the Union
The issue received a one-sentence mention Tuesday night. One topic did not: the fate of the “Dreamers,” students and adults in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Post Register: Lawmaker working on bill to relax school gun restrictions
“The biggest issue, I feel, is the gun-free school zones are a soft target for would-be shooters,” Rep. Chad Christensen, R-Ammon told Nathan Brown of the Idaho Falls Post Register.
From the weekend, an Idaho education viewer’s guide
Want to catch up on school safety issues and the K-12 funding formula rewrite? Watch here.
Superintendent Ybarra’s schedule: Feb. 4-8
Among the items on the schedule: a two-hour meeting to review the draft of the bill to overhaul Idaho’s school funding formula.
Senate panel OKs 12th-grade meningococcal vaccine
Barring the unexpected, the state will add the meningitis vaccine to its list of immunization guidelines.
Turnaround schools bill heads to Senate floor
If passed, the bill would assign professional consultants to schools or districts that commit to a three-year improvement plan. But the bill is voluntary, and schools would have to opt in.
How accurate is Ybarra’s mastery ‘waiting list’?
The state superintendent says she has up to 50 districts that want to experiment with mastery-based learning. At least one superintendent and one principal say they never approached the state about the idea.