Idaho
Governor's plan to replace Idaho's aging schools heads to Senate committee after House vote – East Idaho News
Rep. Rod Furniss, R-Rigby, and Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, were involved in drafting HB 521 focused on replacing Idaho’s aging schools. Watch the hearing for the bill in the video above. | Courtesy photos
IDAHO FALLS – A bill aimed at replacing Idaho’s aging school buildings is on its way to the Senate after passing the Idaho House last week.
HB 521 passed 61-6 on Feb. 23. The six legislators who opposed it are all Boise democrats and their names are Rep. Steve Berch, Rep. Sue Chew, Rep. John Gannon, Rep. Chris Mathias, Rep. Lauren Necochea and Rep. Ilana Rubel. Watch the House committee hearing in the video above.
Rep. Rod Furniss, R-Rigby, who represents Jefferson, Fremont, Clark and Lemhi counties, helped the governor draft the initial legislation. He tells EastIdahoNews.com the bill will go before the Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday for a hearing before advancing to the Senate Floor.
“It will go to the governor’s office if it passes the Senate. There’s really no reason it won’t pass the Senate, unless they hold it hostage, which likely could happen. I was surprised this morning (Monday) to hear (the Senate) would hear it tomorrow (Tuesday),” Furniss says.
RELATED | Lawmaker breaks down governor’s plan to replace Idaho’s aging schools, and how it would help local community
During his State of the State Address, Gov. Brad Little introduced a 10-year, $2 billion plan to replace Idaho’s aging public school buildings. It’s a proposal he and his aides have determined is the largest investment in school facilities in state history.
HB 521 provides $125 million in ongoing sales tax revenue to the new School Modernization Facilities Fund, according to the bill’s statement of purpose. Under the bill, sales tax revenue directed to the fund will increase from 2.25% to 3.25%. Any existing lottery dividends will be redirected to the fund as well.
“This legislation reduces income taxes from 5.8% to 5.695%, allowing Idahoans to have more money to better support local bonds and levies related to school facilities,” the statement of purpose says.
Rep. Jason Monks, R-Meridian, is co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. Mike Moyle, R-Star, and Sen. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg.
Early childhood educators advocate for state support
On a related note, Furniss and his fellow legislators in District 31, Rep. Jerald Raymond, R-Rigby, and Sen. Van Burtenshaw, R-Terreton, recently met with early learning educators in Fremont County.
The meeting was part of a statewide event called Early Learning Day, which was sponsored by the Idaho Association for the Education of Young Children. The purpose was to connect policymakers with educators about the benefits of early learning for pre-school aged children.
Rebekah Crawford, the specialist for Fremont Joint School District 215’s Early Learning Collaborative, was there to lobby for any legislation that supports early childhood education.
Aside from the district’s pre-school for children with developmental delays, Crawford says there’s only one licensed private pre-school in the entire county.
“One of our goals is just to support the current pre-school options. If we can encourage anyone else to open a pre-school or daycare, we’d love to do that. We work with Idaho Stars to help private daycares and pre-schools get licensed,” she says. “Eventually, we’d like the state to be able to provide public pre-school options for low-income families.”
Franklyn Tavarez, the Early Learning Collaborative’s program director and the principal at Teton Elementary, says there are currently 24 kindergarten students at Teton Elementary and about 22 incoming kindergartners for the 2024-25 school year. The number of pre-school aged kids has been fairly consistent over the last several years.
Tavarez was a kindergarten teacher for nine years and he says there are advantages children gain from attending pre-school, including enhanced cognitive ability.
“They’re less likely to repeat grades, less likely to need intervention in the K-12 system,” says Crawford. “Even though it initially seems like it’s more of a cost to invest in early childhood education … it will actually save the state money in k-12 education.”
Regardless of whether kids attend pre-school, both Tavarez and Crawford agree that parents play a crucial role in teaching kids at that age. A federal grant from the IDAEYC provides funds for the early learning collaborative to help parents have the resources they need to teach their young children.
Crawford, who applies for and helps distribute this grant annually, says Idaho is one of the only states where early childhood education is not funded on the state level.
The reason for that, according to Furniss, is because the current statute lists age five as the starting point for a child’s formal education. A bill in the very early stages aims to change that to age four so that state support can begin earlier.
Furniss doesn’t anticipate this bill being introduced anytime soon because there’s still a lot of details to work out, including what it’s going to cost and where the funds will come from.
“Then, of course, we’ve got to get the governor on board with it. Education has always been a priority for him, so I think this will be a natural for him,” Furniss says.
Crawford is pleased with Furniss’s willingness to expand the focus on education to include early childhood learning. She’s eager to hear how this bill progresses going forward.
The Early Learning Collaborative is hosting a Family Education Night at North Fremont High School on March 14. Other community events and resources are listed on its website.
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The Idaho State Police say that Robert Giesick, 40, from Billings is the man missing in a crash on State Highway 55 near Cascade, about 80 miles north of Boise.
A pick-up truck driven by Giesick ended up in the Payette River after a head-on crash with another pick-up truck.
Watch Idaho crash story here:
Idaho state troopers identify Billings man missing in traffic accident
“I was able to find some people that saw a male, an adult man, swimming for the shore from the truck,” said Idaho State Trooper Richard Knapp, who attempted to rescue Giesick. “Unfortunately he didn’t make it. He got swept downriver. Witnesses lost sight of him, and that was the last time anybody saw him.”
Knapp says search crews looked extensively for the 40-year-old, but after 24 hours, it became a recovery effort for the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Unit.
After that on Monday came the monumental task of removing the pickup truck from the raging water.
“It was an intensive a recovery, honestly, our operators were tested, their knowledge was tested,” said Mark Boisvert, Code Red Towing owner. “They said it was a very extreme recovery for them, more than usual.”
Idaho business owners have less than a month to decide how to comply with a new state law criminally banning trans people from using restrooms that align with their gender identity.
The law is set to take effect July 1, which would make it a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for subsequent offenses within five years.
It’s currently being challenged in federal court by the ACLU of Idaho.
On Tuesday, a panel sponsored by Idaho Employment Lawyers encouraged companies to prepare now as if the law will remain in effect as litigation continues.
Cody Earl, a lawyer for St. Luke’s Health System who spoke on the panel in his personal capacity, said there are several paths businesses can take.
Converting all bathrooms into single-use, gender-neutral facilities is one option, though it could be costly for larger businesses. Earl said companies could take other steps to make the transition more affordable.
“Even if it is a gender-specific restroom, [adding signage] that indicates where the closest gender-neutral restroom is so you could at least show that you’re giving employees an option or a choice,” he said.
Simply adding locks and only allowing one person at a time to a multi-stall bathroom is another choice, though panelists said that could be problematic for businesses with large amounts of customers, like restaurants and bars.
Idaho Employment Lawyers owner Pam Howland said companies also need to consider how this will affect their staff.
“This could definitely create some culture issues,” said Howland. “Do you have the policies you need to ensure your expectations as an employer of respect and civility are being followed? Possibly code of conduct provisions related to that? How about privacy?”
Those policies could include limiting or outright banning recording at the workplace.
Another legal wrinkle to complying with the law, the panel said, is that precedent in both the U.S. Supreme Court and 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibit discrimination based on someone’s gender identity.
Gender dysphoria, a mental health designation that causes severe distress to someone when their sex doesn’t align with their gender identity, has been considered a protected condition under the Americans with Disabilities Act in certain cases.
Republican state lawmakers argued earlier this year that Idaho needs to take this first-in-the-nation step to protect women and girls when they use the restroom in private businesses.
A 2025 study out of UCLA hasn’t found any increased risk to safety by allowing transgender people to use restrooms aligning with their gender identity.
A federal court in Boise will hear arguments over whether to approve or reject a preliminary injunction on June 5.
Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio
Remember that 250 years ago, nobody had ever heard of Idaho, and the name was mostly made up by an entrepreneur who impressed the federal government with an exaggeration about his knowledge of indigenous culture. But a large number of people who live in the state can trace ancestry to the colonial era, and I believe most Americans still have a love of country, even if some polls give an indication they may not quite know how to express it.
I Was at the Heart of the Bicentennial
Looking back 50 years, I was in Washington, D.C. at the beginning of July. Washington also didn’t exist in 1776. My memory is that its reputation as a hot, sticky swamp was well earned. I traveled there with a history club from school. On a rattling old yellow bus. The city was packed, and many of the people on the streets were foreign tourists. It told me that despite the anti-Americanism common on streets elsewhere around the world, we were still fascinating others.
We’re Still One Nation
1976 was a unifying experience and followed a very turbulent previous 15 years. Some people fear the 250th jubilee won’t bring us together. Look, those rent-a-mobs you see on TV and online are actually a small fraction of America. Picnics in the park don’t make news. Riots and tear gas get the attention of newsrooms. There are still far more picnics.
The recent Memorial Day commemorations were reverential. Independence Day 2026 is going to be a party. The media focus will be on President Trump and a festival far away. Meanwhile, across Idaho, grills will be fired up, and we’ll be proud to be Americans.
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