Moscow Education (Idaho)

This past Saturday Logos School’s two Mock Trial teams competed at the North Idaho Regional at the Kootenai County Courthouse in Coeur d’Alene. Logos’s “A” (varsity) team earned first place, and the “B” team took second. Eight other teams represented Lewiston, Lake City, Coeur d’Alene and Coeur d’Alene Charter high schools. Logos’s performances earned both teams a berth to the State competition in Boise on March 14 and 15. They will compete among twelve teams to vie for the state title.

Mock Trial is organized and sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, the educational arm of the State Bar Association. The ILF publishes a detailed scenario from which teams must prepare a case on both plaintiff and defense sides, which they present against other schools in actual courtrooms with real judges presiding. Students act as witnesses who must offer favorable testimony in keeping with an affidavit, and face cross-examination from the opposing team. Student-attorneys elicit testimony from witnesses and put on evidence according to the rules that govern Idaho courts. They must align a complex (and often convoluted) array of facts to applicable state laws and develop clear arguments to a jury of judges who score them. Successful teams must think critically, react quickly, and speak persuasively.

In this year’s case, plaintiff Jamie Franklyn seeks damages from Pat Cartwright for the injuries she sustained at a fire in his barn. The case is complicated by the fact that Jamie was in the barn along with forty other minors who were illegally gambling and drinking. Whether Cartwright was aware of their activity is a point of contention, as is how the law describes the level of Cartwright’s responsibility.

Judges at Saturday’s competition recognized six outstanding witnesses at the competition, four of whom were Logos team members: from the A team—Justin Spencer, Vicky Trochez, and J. T. Grauke; and Zeb Struble from the B team. Three of the eight outstanding attorneys recognized at the competition were from Logos: Cecilia Hui and Heather Hagen for the A team, and Maggie Church for the B team. Outstanding performances were also offered by Danny Ryan, Samuel Dickison, Laurel McGarry, Brian Kohl, Elliot Dickison, Christian Leithart, Tim Schultz, Emily Gray, Chantelle Courtney, and Ben Saunders. The Logos teams are coached by teachers Chris Schlect and Jim Nance together with local attorney Greg Dickison.

Both teams won all three of their rounds. The B team won one unanimous decision and two split decisions, and all three of the A-team’s rounds were unanimous victories. In the second round, every judge awarded Justin Spencer perfect “10s” for his witness portrayal of the defendant. In the third round, every judge awarded Heather Hagen perfect “10’s” for her cross-examination of the defendant. Unanimous perfect scores are extremely rare in Mock Trial.

Logos School is Idaho’s winningest Mock Trial program. In their eleven years of competing they have won seven state championships in all, and this year they return to Boise to defend back-to-back titles. Last year Logos’s two teams eliminated all other schools and faced off against one another for the championship in the Supreme Court. The A team went on to place eleventh at nationals, the strongest finish of any Idaho team at that level.

As reported in today's edition of the Lewiston Tribune:

In another of his trademark tirades, Jim Fisher seriously misrepresents both the substance and the reasons for my views on early childhood education [editorial, Feb. 23]. If schools are just permitted to do even more of what they have always done, he is convinced that the academic achievement of Idaho's students will somehow magically rebound. In clinging to those beliefs, he lacks an openness to the significant research to the contrary.

Mr. Fisher is correct that I oppose requiring younger and younger children to receive instruction in our public schools. Perhaps if he had attended the hearing at which I spoke, he might have been able to accurately reflect the substance of my comments. Instead, skewed by his own objection to home education, Mr. Fisher offered Tribune readers a mere caricature of my perspectives.

Here are some of the reasons that I presented to the Legislature for my views.

Forcing children into formalized instruction below certain ages becomes counterproductive. It is true that children who participate in preschool programs tend to enter kindergarten with more "kindergarten skills" than those who have not participated in such programs. But it is important to monitor those students through the duration of their education. Those studies that have persisted in this long-term scrutiny have shown surprising results.

What they have discovered is that the preschoolers' initial advantage is usually lost somewhere between the second and sixth grades. In other words, by the end of elementary school, there remained no discernible difference in the academic achievement between those children that attended preschool and those that did not.

In fact, for those children who attended a more academically challenging preschool, by the sixth grade, their academic achievement actually lagged behind those students who did not. Those children who received more rigorous preschool instruction essentially experienced a type of educational "burnout" by the sixth grade. The students' natural curiosity was siphoned off by years of premature instruction on materials about which they were disinterested.

Dr. David Elkind, a psychologist at Tufts University and an expert in early childhood education, has stated:

"There is really no evidence that early formal institutionalization brings any lasting or permanent benefits for children. By contrast, the risk to the child's motivation, intellectual growth and self-esteem could well do serious damage to the child's emerging personality."

Our Legislature should be reticent to implement any expensive educational proposal that cannot show a long-term return on that investment. Early childhood educations fails to deliver such a return.

This counterintuitive impact of early childhood education programs is perhaps best illustrated by the academic achievement of students from northern Europe. Finland and Sweden are neighboring countries. They have many things in common. But they take dramatically different approaches to early childhood education.

Finland does not require children to begin attending school until age 7. Sweden offers government-funded daycare beginning at 1 year of age.

On tests of students' academic achievement among industrialized nations, Finland's students score at or near the top in all subjects tested. Sweden's students? They tend to score average at best. Finland's students suffer relatively few instances of educational dysfunctions such as dyslexia. Sweden's students, on the other hand, suffer the usual panoply of such dysfunctions in full measure. In short, the commitment to early childhood education made by the Swedes has not served them well.

In the earlier years when American children were not required to attend kindergarten or preschool and when they had far fewer options for an "enriched" education, the academic achievement of students in this country was significantly greater than it is now.

Perhaps it is time for Idaho's educators and business leaders to question their own conventional wisdom to find out if those beliefs might actually be part of the problem, rather than the solution.

The testimony which was offered to our legislators simply asked them to slow down and consider carefully whether or not the patient really needs more of the same medicine. Sometimes more is not better. Sometimes it is just more. And more medicine is always expensive.

For more information, see www.afhe.org/resources/articles/early_schooling_cheri_ fuller.pdf or www.hslda.org/ docs/nche/000000/00000028.asp.

Despite objections from superintendents and unions, the State Board of Education unanimously approved a sweeping plan to tie public-school teachers' pay to their students' performance on standardized tests.

Beginning next year, both their base salaries and annual bonuses will be at least partially linked to student improvement on the tests -- a controversial plan that is expected to generate numerous legal challenges and draw the attention of education policy experts across the country.

''Today we made history,'' said state board Chairman Philip Handy.

Officials in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties immediately said they would be unable to meet the state's June 15 deadline, which requires the districts and unions to completely rebuild salary systems that have long been based on a teacher's education and years of experience.

''There is no way we can get that completed in the time,'' said Ofelia San Pedro, deputy superintendent of the Miami-Dade district.

Education Commissioner John Winn has threatened to withhold Florida Lottery money from districts that fail to comply, including roughly $35 million in Miami-Dade and $31 million in Broward.

From John Leo's blog over at U.S. News & World Report:.

Reporting on campus diversity programs doesn't usually allow much room for candor, but Wesleyan magazine ran an article, franker than most, on how much trouble that campus is having in recruiting black students.

In "Here by Choice," the magazine's editor, William Holder, says the university had just 39 new African-American students in 2004, compared with 71 three years before. The reason is that the pool of black students with marks and SAT scores good enough for the elite colleges is small, and competition for them is ferocious. In 2003, only 1,877 African-American students scored higher than 1300 out of 1600 on the SAT.

One sign of the competition is that a high percentage of the blacks admitted did not grow up in the United States– some 8 percent of Harvard undergraduates are blacks, but somewhere between one half and two thirds of them are from Africa or the West Indies or are children of immigrant adults born there. To a lesser extent, children of biracial couples are represented in the 8 percent. Zealous recruitment, like affirmative action, is partly based on the goal of compensation–since blacks suffered horrendously through slavery and its aftermath, something extra is believed to be due them. But no such compensation is due blacks who grew up outside the United States. Universities don't much care. All they want is higher racial and ethnic numbers.

Ah, the unintended consequences of government meddling.

As reported in today's edition of the Idaho Statesman:

The Legislature has yet to pass a bill to answer an Idaho Supreme Court demand to change the way schools are built in the state, but a few attempts at helping school districts pass bonds are moving through the Legislature.

House Republicans reworked their proposal to boost the amount of state money that augments the property taxes that pay for schools.

And the Senate Education Committee endorsed a bill that would increase the amount of money districts can borrow when building new schools.

The House bill angered the Democrats, who had their own proposal they thought was going to be married to a Republican plan last week.

"I thought we were going to go through a process with the Education Committee," House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet said.

Instead, House Speaker Bruce Newcomb and his leadership team fixed some of the problems lawmakers found in the GOP bill and reintroduced it in Ways and Means — a leadership committee stacked by one vote in favor of the majority Republicans.

As reported in today's Spokesman Review:

House GOP leaders introduced a new school-construction funding bill Monday, but it still has all the same "punitive" provisions against school districts that raised concerns about an earlier version last week.

"I think any bill that you bring like this has to have vinegar to go along with the honey," said House Majority Leader Lawerence Denney, the bill's lead sponsor. Otherwise, he said, "We end up building all the buildings in the state."

The new bill, like the earlier House Bill 690, sets up a $25 million loan fund for school districts that have unsafe schoolhouses but can't pass bonds to fix them. But to access the money, a district would have to be taken over by the state, run temporarily by a state official who could fire its superintendent, and its voters ordered to pay a no-vote property tax increase to repay the state funds after they've specifically voted twice against such an increase.

The Legislature's budget-writing committee approved $1 billion-plus education spending plan Monday that would raise pay for teachers, administrators and other employees by 3 percent and increase minimum teacher salaries from $27,500 to $30,000.

Reflecting Idaho's rapid population growth, the $1.035 billion budget would be the largest ever for education in Idaho, even though it doesn't include the state's share of payment for construction, which will be added later. Yet it passed the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee with uncommon ease and relatively little debate Monday morning.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Marilyn Howard said the budget's swift approval was a sign lawmakers were readier than usual this year to put more money into schools — and especially into teacher salaries. Teachers haven't gotten a raise from the state in five years.

"You shouldn't be angry about how much teachers get paid, but how little money most everyone else makes." – Portland Oregonian columnist S. Renee Mitchell. (February 27 Portland Oregonian)

HT: EIA

If you want to know what it looks like when an entire organization screws itself into the ceiling, you need only look at AFT's tersely titled report Stupid on ABC: The John Stossel Agenda, An Analysis of John Stossel's "Stupid in America" Broadcast ("20/20," January 13, 2006).

AFT's report exhibits every one of the evils it accuses Stossel of using, and a few even Stossel couldn't dream up. My favorite is the union's response when Stossel used the example of a hypothetical government grocery store. "The store wouldn't have to compete for your business, and it would soon sell spoiled milk or stock only high profit items," Stossel said. "Real estate agencies would sell houses advertising 'neighborhood with a good grocery store.' That's insane, and yet that's what America does with public schools."

Here is the AFT's response:

"Finally, Stossel's reference to a grocery store in this case is not only insensitive; it undermines his case, given the notorious absence of reliable and high-quality grocery stores in inner-city communities. The lack of such stores is a glaring example of how many citizens (and poor people in particular) are betrayed by the free market, a system whereby quality is dictated by a consumer's ability to pay, rather than publicly agreed-to standards."

Is AFT so irritated by Stossel that it actually argues in favor of government-run grocery stores? Long live the public gruel!

Having been in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell, and having gone to "government grocery stores", I can tell you that Stossel's portrayal of such an entity is right on the mark.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

From Betsy Z. Russell's blog An Eye on Boise. Russell is a staff writer with the Spokesman Review.

GOP leaders introduced a new school facilities bill today – on a 4-3 party-line vote in a hastily-called meeting of the House Ways & Means Committee. 

...

The new bill, described by legislative budget analyst Jason Hancock as “son of 690,” makes only two significant changes from the controversial HB 690 that GOP leaders proposed earlier: It allows most school districts to continue to receive a minimum 10 percent bond levy subsidy on bonds their voters pass, as they’re entitled to under current law (HB 690 eliminated most districts from the program), and it requires school districts to submit an annual maintenance plan based on “best practices.” House Majority Leader Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, said both ideas were taken from a Democratic alternative bill, HB 691. But the Republicans opted against changing their bill’s most controversial provisions – requiring that in order to access $25 million in state funds to fix unsafe schoolhouses, a school district would have to be taken over by the state, run temporarily by a state official who could fire its superintendent, and its patrons ordered to pay a no-vote property tax increase to pay back the state funds after they’ve specifically voted twice against such an increase.

...

The new bill, like HB 691, puts little new state money into school construction other than the $25 million loan fund, which education officials said no one would ever tap because of the restrictions.

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb told the Ways & Means Committee that the measure makes it possible to guarantee there are no unsafe schools in the state, while at the same time, “People who refuse to pass a bond don’t get off scot-free when other people have passed bonds.”

The Idaho Supreme Court in December declared Idaho’s system for funding school construction almost entirely with local property taxes unconstitutional, and ordered the Legislature to fix it.

This is similar to what MSD is trying to push thru to the Moscow property owners. The State of Idaho is already under a mandate from the Idaho Supreme Court to deal with facilities funding. MSD, with full knowledge of that fact, wants to go ahead and have an increase in property taxes anyway. They'll get to double-dip that way.

As reported in today's edition of the Lewiston Tribune:

Now that Gov. Dirk Kempthorne wants to use state funds to create new community colleges, residents in counties that support Idaho's only two community colleges with property taxes are frustrated the other counties may be getting off easy.

Residents of Kootenai, Jerome and Twin Falls Counties use property tax funds to help support the North Idaho College and the College of Southern Idaho.

Kempthorne has proposed using $5 million from the state general fund to pay for expanded community college services, with the existing colleges supported, as they are now, by general funds and property taxes.

Kempthorne's plan isn't going over well with citizens who will continue to pay property taxes for community colleges while other state residents would receive community college services without having to pay property taxes.

Rep. Ann Rydalch, R-Idaho Falls, has proposed a measure that would let voters in the counties decide for themselves what to do. If the measure passes, voters would choose between paying for the college with property taxes or with the statewide sales tax.

From Betsy Z. Russell's blog An Eye on Boise. Russell is a staff writer with the Spokesman Review.

Longtime Statehouse denizens can’t remember anything like it before, but the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee just passed major portions of the public schools budget – the largest and most controversial piece of the state budget – on unanimous votes and bipartisan motions.

Science Vs. Superstition: Holding Fast To Belief In Efficacy Of All-Day K, Despite Evidence To Contrary

We're all guilty on occasion of disregarding evidence-based conclusions when it comes to our pet political issues. Both all-day kindergarten and early childhood education are especially subject to conclusions based on political calculations and anecdotes, rather than empirical proof.

Virtually every study of all-day kindergarten shows short-term achievement gains but these fade as early as third grade. The Arizona Department of Education agrees. Their comprehensive review of existing research showed "an insufficient number of well designed research studies documenting the duration of full-day kindergarten effects beyond second grade."

There have been plenty of studies. There have just been an "insufficient number" that show any benefit.

By far the most comprehensive study of children's educational growth is the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. This study tracks 22,782 students in 1,277 schools who entered kindergarten in 1998. The 2004 report found an effect from all-day K, but not the one advocates were expecting. Students who had attended full-day kindergarten actually scored slightly worse in reading, writing and science.

All-day K has been tried and found wanting. In the last three decades, participation in it has gone from under ten percent to over 50 percent. But reading scores for that period have been flat.

Our political leaders should know better than to pour huge resources into a program of so little demonstrated benefit. When politics trumps evidence, the money is wasted and another generation of students suffers.

HT: Jack Wenders

Walk across the Boise State University campus, and the diversity you're most likely to see is a range of ages: white and young, white and middle-age, white and senior.

But Boise State has taken notice, announcing that all new students must take a diversity-focused class as part of their required coursework.

"American students, particularly Idaho students, tend to be monocultural and need to learn about other societies and other languages," said BSU anthropology professor Bob McCarl. "The whole state suffers from a homogeneity that is not typical of even West Coast states or the rest of the globe."

Roughly 82 percent of Boise State students are white, said Frank Zang, the school's spokesman. Seven percent did not report their ethnicity, while 5.7 percent are Hispanic and 2.8 percent are Asian-American. Roughly 1.3 percent are black and 1 percent are American Indian.

The school does show more diversity than Idaho's population of 1.3 million, which is 91 percent white. Nearly 8 percent of Idaho residents are Hispanic, while black or Asian residents each make up less than 1 percent of the population. Roughly 1.5 percent are American Indian or Alaska Natives.

Check-out the exact parallels here with MSD! Recall that when student enrollment was precipitously falling at MSD, the district was simultaneously increasing staffing at the same rate.

As reported in today's edition of the Idaho Statesman:

Put Jim Auld and Rod Beck in the "no" column when it comes to supporting Boise School District's $94 million school bond.

The pair of former state senators, leaders of the Ada County Property Owners Association, announced Friday their opposition to the district's plan to rebuild, consolidate or renovate more than a dozen schools which goes before voters March 14.

Auld and Beck criticized the district for spending nearly $50 million more annually than neighboring Meridian to educate nearly 5,000 fewer students.

"They have chosen to allocate the money to salaries instead of allocating (money) to maintenance, where it should be," said Auld, who leads the property owners' association.

As reported in today's Spokesman Review:

The Senate Education Committee is examining whether Idaho school districts are violating state law by offering pre-kindergarten classes to children under 5.

Children with disabilities may attend pre-kindergarten classes, but Idaho law prohibits state money being spent to allow children under 5 to use public school facilities.

Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said he and Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, were surprised to hear this week from Chief Deputy Superintendent Jana Jones that some schools in Idaho have children younger than 5 in pre-kindergarten classes.

Follow the money. The School Districts aren't doing this for free.

The main benefit of the pubic [education] system is that it attends to the entire distribution from the most to the least capable and tries to give them all the best.

The following is my response to Nick Gier's email to Vision2020 Venom2020 and to the two local papers.

In his letter (Feb. 20?) Roy Atwood, President of New Saint Andrews College (NSA), claims that he once constructively engaged me on the issues of NSA accreditation and Doug Wilson's slavery booklet. I have saved all my e-mail correspondence with Atwood and I beg to differ about the nature of his response. It consists mainly of name-calling and ends with a promise never to communicate with me again.

This is just plain bogus. No response is necessary.

The logical fallacy of "poisoning the well" is one that I'm certain that NSA "senior fellow" (but MA only) Doug Jones teaches in his logic classes. Ironically, this is a fallacy that NSA faculty commit on a regular basis. Instead responding directly to the issues, Wilson, Atwood, and Jones try to discredit the source of the objections. They do this by some pretty ferocious name-calling. I've been called slanderer, God-hater, and banshee (my favorite). They chose to poison the well rather than answer the charges.

Gier keeps throwing out false accusations, pretending to be the accuser-prosecutor-judge, without providing proof of his claims; confirmed evidence from multiple witnesses; or even trying to be fair and even handed in his assessment. He assumes guilt and asks us to prove our innocence—the opposite of the American system of justice or a civil approach to basic disagreements.

Early on I urged Atwood to clarify his statements about NSA accreditation, but he refused to do so. In April 2003, NSA attorney Greg Dickison testified before the Latah County Commissioners that the college was duly accredited. You can hear Dickison's voice at http://www.tomandrodna.com/temp/NSA_Accred.mp3. In a letter to the Daily News on May 23, 2003, Atwood made the same claim. The problem of course is that NSA did not receive its accreditation until November 29, 2005.

Gier conveniently ignores the fact that he started this particular issue by claiming in a letter to the Daily News that NSA was "not properly accredited." Atwood's response merely noted that "the College's accrediting agency" (which Gier has either maliciously or incompetently translated into a claim to have full accreditation) is not "improper" but recognized by USDE and CHEA. NSA was a candidate for accreditation at the time Gier wrote his slam; and there was nothing improper about NSA, TRACS, or anything associated with the process. Regarding Dickison's comment, he misspoke and corrected the error in writing immediately when it was pointed out. But the confusion was not an attempt to make the College look better, but an honest mistake because the SBOE had noted that once the College was a candidate for accreditation, they would treat it as if it were accredited, leaving oversight of the College to the accrediting body, just as they do with fully accredited institutions. Greg confused those to elements, and corrected his statement when the error was noticed.

Tom Garfield, principal of Wilson's Logos School, also charged me with untruths. A friend helped me find an image of the portrait of Robert E. Lee in a Logos classroom, a picture Garfield said they did not own. A local band and former church members confirmed the display of the Confederate flag at school functions, something that Garfield also denied.

The picture proves nothing, especially about ownership or use or context. The local band charge is equally bogus: first the band was not playing at a school function (Logos or NSA), but at a privately organized summer event. The yahoos who brought the flag were visitors to the community from the South (who now criticize Doug Wilson because he doesn't share their neo-Confederate views). Many besides the band members were unhappy with the flag appearing, and the unilateral actions of the visitors did not in any way represent the views of those in attendance, or Logos, or NSA. To claim otherwise is groundless and unadulterated slander.

It seems to me that the fallacy "poisoning the well" is not well formulated. It really is a form of argument ad hominem, "against the person" rather than the issues at hand. The Well of Truth cannot be poisoned, and I challenge Atwood and his colleagues to follow their savior's advise that acknowledging the truth will set them free.

If Gier is truly interested in the truth himself, then he should stop making wild charges on the basis of hearsay, speculations about motives, and guilt by association. Writing half-cocked accusations without entertaining the possibility of alternative explanations or reasonable alternatives to the most negative spin is the work of an ideologue, not someone truly interest in truth.  And what God or standard does Gier follow in the pursuit of truth? At least Atwood and his colleagues can be held to account by a Higher Standard of truth.

Atwood concludes his letter with a threat of legal action. In 33 years of handling faculty grievances I've been threatened with libel several times, but I always reminded my accusers that truth defends itself and those who tell it are safe within its walls.

The Idaho state constitution says, "Every person may freely speak, write, and publish on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty" (Art. I, Section 9). This is not mere threat. The College has initiated the process of legal action against the rash of defamations perpetrated against it in recent years.

When Atwood was at the UI, he was known as a good scholar and able administrator. His former colleagues are really puzzled about what happened to this professor who used to be such a good academic citizen.

The only changes seem to be that Gier and his colleagues don't like his new institution. It appears that if you're not politically or ideologically correct, you're subjected to this kind of ad hominem from Gier.

There are well-qualified students at Logos and NSA and some competent faculty, just as there are good, decent people who attend Wilson's Christ Church. One can usually spot these people because they frequently speak of Wilson's goal of achieving "truth, goodness, and beauty." These fine folks need to be reminded that their leaders have not always told the truth, that condoning slavery is not good, and that calling for the execution of homosexuals is just plain ugly.

This general blast ignores context. Gier has distorted and blown way out of proportion the slavery issue. Wilson's most recent work on the matter has been ignored. Jones' book, the Biblical Offense of Racism, published as a companion to Wilson and Wilkins' original booklet, convenient ignored. And no one at New Saint Andrews has called for the execution of homosexuals. Gier's claim on this point is a gross distortion of a poorly written and poorly reported article in the Daily News. Gier abuse of truth here is as ugly as it gets.

Moreover, all Gier's charges and false accusations are just more rehash of the same old tired accusations that have been refuted multiple times before, but which he conveniently ignores in his malice.

This is pathetic stuff coming from a supposed research professor emeritus.

Today I went and asked the Moscow Zoning Administrator (Joel Plaskon) if I could get a document that says "Zoning Certification" for other businesses downtown. Joel informed me that in the past (prior to the zoning complaint by Charles Nolan, Joseph Hansen, and Scott Bauer against NSA), there was a "Building Permit Issuance" that included the "Zoning Certificate".

If you were to ask for a separate document that specifically says "Zoning Certificate" for any business prior to the Nolan/Hansen/Bauer complaint against NSA, you won't find one. It was previously incorporated in the Building Permit Issuance. And this was standard procedure for all Zoning Certificates that were issued until the complaint.

I raise this issue to (once again) point out the hypocrisy of Moscow's leftists. They have singled out NSA for not having a separately issued document that says "Zoning Certificate" when no other business downtown was ever issued a separate document titled "Zoning Certificate".

NSA received the same Zoning Certificate that every other business received -- as part of the Building Permit Issuance -- which NSA did receive.

As reported in today's Spokesman Review:

Five ninth-grade girls were admitted to a Coeur d'Alene hospital Thursday afternoon after overdosing on cough medicine at school. They may be penalized for their actions.

The Lakeland Junior High students each took 10 to 15 Robitussin capsules in an attempt to "get high," Assistant Superintendent Ron Schmidt said.

At about 1 p.m., they all started feeling sick and some threw up, Schmidt said. Paramedics came to the Rathdrum school and took the students to Kootenai Medical Center. In cases like this, patients undergo assessments, blood testing and observation, hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson said. The students were released in good condition by 5 p.m. but now face possible punishment from the school district and investigation by police.

A group of students allegedly left school during lunch and stole the medicine from the Rathdrum IGS store, said Lt. Alex Carrington of the Rathdrum Police Department. A school resource officer later found Robitussin packages in a trash can, Carrington said. Police may file shoplifting charges.

As reported in today's Spokesman Review:

A Republican leadership plan to respond to a court order to fix Idaho's system for funding school construction ran into a roadblock Thursday, when the House Education Committee voted 10-8 to halt the plan in favor of waiting and getting more information both from the sponsors of that bill and a competing Democratic proposal.

Committee Chairman Jack Barraclough, R-Idaho Falls, pushed hard to just pass the leadership bill but was outvoted. Rep. Jana Kemp, R-Boise, had lots of questions about how each plan would work and noted that testimony in a two-hour hearing pointed out problems and advantages to both. "Can we merge these two bills in the ways that are appropriate and make a better bill?" she asked.

Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, a sponsor of the Democratic bill, HB 691, said, "I think if it would be the will of this committee that the two groups work together and find a middle ground, of course that can be done."

House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, however, speaking to the Idaho Press Club about two hours later, reacted angrily to the vote. "I think the House leadership bill will go somewhere, and it will come out of that committee or some other committee," he declared.

Read the full text here. Key phrase: NEA locals who join in accordance with the agreement

"will in all respects, including representation and voting in the AFL-CIO and coverage under Articles XX and XXI of the AFL-CIO Constitution, have the same rights and obligations in the national AFL-CIO as any Directly Affiliated Local Union of the AFL-CIO."

HT: EIA

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

The Moscow School District’s Facilities Task Force will hold two public forums to present information and generate open discussion on an estimated $15 million bond levy.

• The first forum is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 6 at the Russell Elementary School gymnasium.
• The second will begin at 7 p.m., March 7 at the Moscow Junior High School multi-purpose room.

Task force members and architects will be on hand to talk about the motivation behind each design.

The building options are:

• Remodeling West Park and Russell for two sections of each grade kindergarten through sixth and building a new Paradise Creek Regional High School. Total cost: $15.9 million
• Constructing an elementary school to house four sections of each grade kindergarten through sixth, then housing Paradise Creek Regional High School in either West Park or Russell. Total cost: $13.3 million
• Remodeling West Park for two sections of each grade kindergarten through sixth, then constructing a building with two sections of each grade kindergarten through sixth with a core capacity for three sections, and remodeling Russell to house Paradise Creek Regional High School. Total cost: $17.4 million

The other three priority projects include:

• adding two science labs at Moscow High School;
  
• adding two classrooms at McDonald Elementary School; and
  
• upgrading electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems district-wide.

For more information on the proposal, visit www.sd281.k12.id.us/ftf/06-02-13Education.pdf