Legislature Week 1 and Kevin Richert of the Idaho Education News

This week we take a brief look at what happened during the 2025 Idaho Legislature's first week, including lots of talk about voucher legislation, and have a conversation with Idaho Education News Senior Reporter Kevin Richert. A 40-year veteran of Idaho journalism, Richert discusses what educators can expect from this year's session, the state of journalism in Idaho, and his observations after four decades of observing the Idaho Statehouse. 

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

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Mike Journee: 0:13

Welcome to the IEA reporter podcast, a regular discussion about the news and events important to Idaho Education Association members and those who value public education. IEA members are public school educators from all over the state and members of the largest union in Idaho.They're Idaho's most important education experts, and they use their influence to fight for a free, quality and equitable public education for every student in the state. I'm Mike Journee communications director at the IEA, and I'll be your host for this episode. Today we'll visit with Idaho education News Senior Reporter Kevin Richert, who's covered the Idaho legislature for four decades, either as a reporter or as an editor, but first a quick summary of what happened during the first week of the 2025 Idaho legislature with ieas Associate Executive Director, Matt Compton, well. Matt Compton, thanks for joining me for this preview of the first week of the 2025 legislative session.You know, as usual, the legislative session starts off with the Governor's speech to the legislature, the State of the State speech, and it was fairly thin on education issues this year, but the one that he did drop in to the speech this year was, was a doozy. Tell us a little bit about what the governor recommended.

Matt Compton: 1:34

Yeah, yeah. You know, I would say that this was, this is a unique year for education when it came to the state of the state, in previous years, we've heard the governor make outstanding recommendations like increasing additional resources for salaries and benefits. He wanted to see the increase in availability of insurance for educators across the state. We sent some really awesome measures. But this year, the governor in his State of the State called for a $50 millionline item holder for a voucher.

Mike Journee: 2:11

Yeah, and that was, it wasn't something that necessarily was, was, we've been hearing rumblings that might be the case, that he was going to come forward with one, so it wasn't a complete surprise, but, but you know, in years past, the governor's leadership on this has been an important part of keeping vouchers out of the state of Idaho, we're one of the few states around the country, red states around the country, that don't have a voucher program, and so I think It was a little disappointed to some our members. One thing that he did say, though, however, was that any voucher legislation that comes across his desk must have a pretty significant amount of accountability and how that money is going to be spent. Tell us a little bit about about that and and what we talk what we mean about a com accountability when it comes to a voucher

Matt Compton: 3:07

program? Yeah, for sure, these voucher schemes are not new. They have been. They've been popping up in states all over the country, and we've seen states like Florida, Utah, a number of other states that are really struggling with their education budgets just ballooning over the introduction of these voucher programs. So when the governor introduced his concept during his State of the State, he did articulate that it needed to have some pretty outstanding accountability measures in order for him to sign it, that it had to have similar accountability standards that you would see in today's traditional public schools, and it could not take away money away from traditional public schools as well. And that's something that the governor has said since he was elected. He has been very shy about endorsing or looking towards a voucher program, but in a state of the state, of the state, he said that there's a critical mass around the country. He's willing to put a budget figure there and allow the legislature to come up with some kind of policy, whatever the voucher program looks like, and if it passes, and it has all of the accountability measures that the governor requested or required in a state of the state, then he'll sign it. If it doesn't, then we expect the governor to keep his word and veto that legislation until the legislature brings him a bill that actually has the stringent accountability measures that traditional public schools must adhere to today.

Mike Journee: 4:38

That's right, and you know, as we all know, public schools are accountable to an elected board, school board at every at every district level, and of course, the folks who manage the money, the superintendent, the business manager in those districts, they're accountable to those elected boards. In addition whatever public funding that that those folks get from the state, they're held accountable by. By the legislature for how the money is spent. And then, of course, legislators are also elected by by the people as well. If a bill has come forward with this kind of accountability, it would be unique in the country.

Matt Compton: 5:12

It would certainly be unique in the country there they really are looking at, how can we attract students from traditional public schools use tax dollars to pay for their vouchers for tuition and leave us alone. There really isn't any other level of accountability measures that the state can point to saying that the money is being used wisely, the students are meeting measurable growth, or that that the standards or the concepts that are being taught in classrooms meet state standards. So they're kind of a world on their own.

Mike Journee: 5:50

Yeah, and I just, I know to our listeners, whether you're an IEA member or not, you can go to idahoea.org, backslash news, and you can read all the latest news coming from the legislature. Our communications team here at the IA has worked very hard to bring that news to you, and we have a number of of new articles out there about what's been going on this week. We can learn about all these bills. And I say all these bills because Matt, the governor, is not the only one who's been talking about vouchers. Of course, there was an event held Monday before the governor speech, hosted by the Mountain States Institute. It's a right wing think tank that is is eager to to bring vouchers here to Idaho. And they brought some what, what, some folks you mentioned, Arizona and some other places where vouchers have been put in place and and have a bad track record of blowing up budgets. They brought the governor of Arizona, responsible for the Arizona voucher bill, down to talk up vouchers, to build a little bit of momentum for that. And at that meeting, Wendy Horman, Representative out of Idaho, falls in here in Idaho debuted a bill that we've been expecting to be coming all along. She debuted her bill. It hasn't been hasn't been introduced yet, but she talked a little bit about it. What did she

Matt Compton: 7:09

say? Yeah. So on Monday morning, just prior to the State of the State address that the governor gave the Mountain States policy center, brought in Doug Ducey, the former governor of Arizona, to give a pretty strong pitch as to why the Arizona style voucher program is the model that the country ought to be mimicking. And the IAS lobby team, along with most anti voucher lobbyists out there, have been beating the drum that the Arizona example is really the most catastrophic example that you can use when it comes to budget busters. To follow that up with a presentation, a press conference from a handful of lawmakers. Representative Wendy Horman was one of them that you mentioned she's been working on, and has been working on for the last handful of years, a voucher tax credit that would allow families to submit the cost of tuition or other educational services to the state tax commission, and that you would get a tax refund for those expenses. And so the price tag for her plan matches the governor's. It's $50 million she does carve out a special population of students who would get first priority to receive these resources. But then once that opportunity had had closed, it would be open to anybody. Now what we're seeing from places like Arizona, is that the families that are taking advantage of these vouchers, when they're be they're made available, they're not actually leaving traditional public schools to go to a private institution. They're already in private schools, and now they're just relying on the state to for the handout to pay for their private school tuition. And that's that's the message that we are warning the Idaho legislature, that greater investments in traditional public schools are what we need right now, that defunding, taking money away from public education to fund a secondary system of public schools. This is not the time to do it right, right?

Mike Journee: 9:21

And in addition to that, earlier today, we got word that one voucher bill has already been introduced in the Idaho legislature this year. In fact, it was the first bill introduced for the 2025, legislative session in the House side, at least. And it's got a much more significant price tag. It looks like I think the fact that it's the first bill out of the gate this year says a lot about what we're gonna be looking at for the session. Don't you think? Yeah,

Matt Compton: 9:50

I think that if I were to guess how many bills we're gonna see this year, with regards to voucher legislation, a minimum of eight. Probably ballpark around 10 that really that actually get introduced and see the light of day how far they make it in the process, that's to be determined. But I know that that there are a handful of lawmakers in the capital right now that are eager to pass that, that choice expansion and start sending out tax dollars to private and parochial schools.

Mike Journee: 10:25

Again, I want to remind our listeners that they can go to the Idaho Education Association website, idahoea.org and get all the latest information about what's happening at the legislature. We pride ourselves on providing news that's about and for IEA members, our public school educators across the state, and they can go and they can get the latest about what's going on at the state house. So Matt, thanks again for that quick update about what's been going on. It's been pretty straightforward so far for education issues, and we'll be talking about things as they come up and in the future weeks, I look forward to it. Thanks,

Matt Compton: 10:58

Mike. You. Kevin.

Mike Journee: 11:06

Next up on the IEA reporter podcast is Idaho education News Senior Reporter Kevin Richard. Kevin has worked at Idaho newspapers in Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls and Boise, and has been with the Idaho education news since the online education news outlet launched in January of 2013 his name and byline is familiar to those who follow education news in Idaho, and he's a regular contributor to public affairs programs on Idaho public television and Boise State Public Radio. In this episode, we'll discuss Kevin's perspective on the 2025 session of the Idaho legislature, and a few of his long term observations about Idaho politics. So Kevin Richert, thank you so much for joining us on The IEA reporter podcast. You know, we're we're here gearing up for another legislative session, and it seems, from all indications, that education issues are going to be at the heart of things again, as they often are. And I, and I believe you are the elder statesman of the reporters who regularly cover the Idaho legislature, if I'm not mistaken, if I'm doing on my math correctly. So how many legislative sessions have you covered?

Kevin Richert: 12:16

This mic will be my 40th session of watching the legislature in one way or the other, which has been either as a reporter or as an editor. I mean, we worked together at the Times News when you were covering the legislature. I was in Twin Falls as city editor, a bunch of years at the Idaho statesman as editorial page editor, observing the legislature, and this will be our, this will be our 13th session at Ida news. So, yeah, I guess that makes me elder statesman by by default or by attrition?

Mike Journee: 12:53

Yeah, I think it does. That's That's a long time to be observing this single body and the work that it's been doing. And I'm going to ask you a few questions about that a little later, but, and then we'll talk about the session too. But before we get into the issues that we expect to see this winter, I wanted to take a step back and look a little bit at the May primary elections, and then, of course, the general election in November. And of course, you and your colleagues at the Yahoo education news have written a lot about those results. Do you think you can give us a bit of a recap of those results and what they mean for education issues this year at the state

Kevin Richert: 13:32

house? Yeah, I think, in the aggregate, I think this legislature is going to be a little bit more conservative than we saw in the past couple of years, we saw a number of big upsets. In the May primary. Chuck winder, Senate President Pro Tem lost in the primary. Julia Moto, the chair of House Education, she lost in the primary. Then you go into the general election, and you had Republicans pick up a total of three seats, one in the Senate, two in the house. Makes the legislature even more Republican dominated than it was before. Now you've got only 15 Democrats in the legislature out of 105 legislators. And really, what maybe is even more interesting than just those numbers. Only two of those 13 Democrats reside outside of Boise or garden city. You have one from the Wood River Valley, and you have one from Pocatello. So it is a very small and very isolated, politically democratic, democratic delegation. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to watch how these committees look now that we've had the elections. We've had two rounds of elections, we'll obviously take a close look at both the House Education Committee and the Senate Education Committee. A lot of changes in both of those committees. So.

Mike Journee: 15:00

Yes, yeah, there are. And I was going to ask you about that, you know, just from our look and count, things have really kind of flipped. You know, when we talk about lawmakers and policy makers at the Idaho education association among our members, we don't, we don't talk about Republicans or Democrats. We talk about pro public education policy makers lawmakers. We talk about anti public education policy makers and and lawmakers and and so that's a I know that's a different take than probably what you guys would take in your editorial stance. We talk about the politics of education being political, but not partisan. And so the changes in the legislature that you just mentioned are going to be huge. And as you mentioned, the they just completed. The legislature just completed their organizational session, and which is where they select the leadership and make committee assignments. And as you know, being a long time observer of the legislature, those committee assignments can mean a big deal for a bill's prospects of becoming law. So talk about a little bit of what you saw shake out the organizational session for the education committees and the houses in it.

Kevin Richert: 16:12

Well, Mike, we were all watching the House Education Committee because we knew, when Julia mamoto lost in the primary, we knew that there was going to be a vacancy, and the big question was, in what direction would speaker Mike Moyle go in terms of a chair of that committee? And they have to keep in mind, Mike Moyle has made no bones about where he wants education to go in this state. He's made very clear that he wants to see a private school choice a bill pass the 25 legislative session. He said that at the end of the 24 session. So we kind of expected that Moyle and House leadership would try to take that committee and move it a little bit further to the right. Doug Pickett the the you know, the new chair of the House Education Committee is, to me, anyway, largely an unknown. I have scarcely talked to him. I talked to him a little bit at the end of the organizational session on Thursday that Thursday a couple weeks ago, he didn't serve in the House Education Committee in his first term. He's starting his second term. We don't know a whole lot about his education politics, his education focus. We do know that when a private school choice bill came before the House Reverend tax committee last year, where he was a committee member, he did support that bill. So I would take from that that, I think that he will probably move that committee a little bit further to the right. But again, we hardly know the guy. We hardly know how his approach is going to be as a new committee chair. So I think there's a certain amount of wait and see Senate Education. I thought was really interesting, because as we watched that committee the past two years, very conservative, very hard line conservative committee, it's flipped somewhat. Dave land from Idaho Falls is still the chair of that committee, so that doesn't change. But as I look at the roster of that committee, it looks a lot more moderate than it was the past couple of years, so I don't know what that means policy wise, I think it's a little bit premature to start drawing too many conclusions, but I think that could be a much more moderate committee than we've seen in the past. May give Dave lent a chance to get some of his own legislative priorities through that committee, where he's run into resistance from from his own committee members. So it'll be very interesting to watch Senate Education, because I think it's going to be a different committee. And certainly house education is going to be different simply because you have a new chair, and you know, you have a very conservative vice chair of that committee, Dale Hawkins, from up north. So I short answer. I expect house education to be more conservative than we've seen. I expect Senate Education probably is going to be more moderate than we've seen.

Mike Journee: 19:12

Yeah, you know, our take on that has been the same, you know. And without getting into too many details, our lobbyists have always here. In recent years anyway, have have seen the the House Education Committee under Julie Yamamoto as a as a really important backstop for stopping some of the more challenging policy ideas that come from certain corners of legislature around education. And of course, Representative Yamamoto defeat was, it was a, was a big blow to our members and and that place that she held in the legislature. Well, let's, let's talk a little bit about some of the issues that we'll be seeing. So you and your colleagues right now are in the Ryan soupy, specifically, I think, so far, are in the middle of publishing a series. About what we call in the Idaho Education Association, vouchers, a lot of folks call the call it school choice, but we prefer to stick to the old, old school term for a lot of reasons. So do you think this will be the top education issue of the year?

Kevin Richert: 20:17

For sure? I think that all signs point to a big showdown on this issue. And you know, first of all, you shout out Ryan soupy. He's going to be our lead writer on this issue. He has done, done some great research, done some great writing and reporting, already published a story, an in depth look at Arizona. And anybody who's paid attention to this debate has been watching what's happened with Arizona with its universal education savings account law, that is, you know, as his reporting, as he said, You know this is either a success story or a cautionary tale, depending on where, where you, where you come down on this issue. So whatever you call it, and I know you guys call it vouchers, and I know some people call school choice, we prefer to call we prefer to call these bills private school choice, because we think that that sort of threads a needle. Because whether it is a true voucher bill or an education savings account or a tax credit, they all accomplish more or less the same purpose, or try to accomplish the same purpose, which is moving public money into private education. So anyway, we call it private school choice by whatever name it is going to be the education issue of the session. It could be the issue of the session.

Mike Journee: 21:36

Interesting. So even topping water, or some of the other issues we've been hearing about, huh?

Kevin Richert: 21:41

I think so. I think I think this issue water, obviously, is very important issue to folks who are really, really engaged in that issue. But I think for lay people, that's a harder issue to get your head around. Where you send your child to school. That's that has a visceral connection with a lot of people. So I think when you start talking about this and where your money goes, in terms of where the kids are going to school, I think that really, you know, yeah, that that checks a lot of boxes for people in terms of, okay, this is an issue I care about. This is an issue that I'm passionate about. Yeah,

Mike Journee: 22:30

I think you get the nail right on the head. I mean, it's when you when the a large, large portion of the state budget goes to public education, and it's something that people pay attention to, and which rightly so, you know. So that's, that's, that's a really, that's a very, very astute point you made. So I don't know if you paid attention to this from the news or not recently, but there was a, there was a a bit of an event where they talked about vouchers and school of choice at Boise State University recently. And Representative Wendy Horman, out of Ottawa falls she's a she's a voucher proponent, and who she's also the the powerful co chair of the legislature's budget committee, and she made an interesting comment in that forum where she called vouchers a major civil rights issue for the state. Is that something you've heard from school choice advocates before? What do you make of that?

Kevin Richert: 23:32

Maybe not in those exact words, but yeah, I think you have seen sort of that overtone. I go back to when house Revenue and Taxation took up representative hormones tax credit bill earlier this year, and it was back in March, you had people speaking in favor of this, really treating it in terms of maybe not civil rights in so many words, but definitely, You know, this is a parental rights, a parental choice, you know, a parental freedom kind of an issue. And, you know, I think that kind of messaging, we'll see how that plays out within the legislature, within a group of 105 legislators. But I think that kind of messaging, I don't think it's accidental. I think that in a in a state that values individual freedom, values individual liberties, if you start to couch anything as a, you know, as a freedom of choice issue, you know that that carries some some weight, but that resonates with people so, you know, had not heard that term before, per se, but I'm not surprised. Yep,

Mike Journee: 24:49

it was an interesting choice of words, and I agree with you, I don't think it was, it was, I think it was very intentional. So, so what kind of bills on this issue do you think we're going to see this year? Do. Yeah,

Kevin Richert: 25:00

well, that's hard to say. It's hard to say how many we're going to see, what flavor, what, what's the scope, what? What are some of the sideboards, you know? And I think that's going to basically, that's going to maybe determine what passes, or if anything passes at all. Within the framework of private school choice, there are a lot of different ways to go, and I would imagine that the debate is going to come down to, okay, what, what are, are there limits on how many students, on how much money we're talking about? Because again, Arizona that program grew so rapidly and has taken up many more millions of dollars than anybody down there expected. So size of the program also the accountability. To what extent will you have accountability metrics built into a any kind of a private school choice proposal, I think, yeah, to answer your question, Mike, I don't know how many bills we're going to see. I suspect we'll start to see bills float out in the early weeks of the session.

Mike Journee: 26:13

Yeah, we were expecting that something similar, too. So that's, yeah, I think you're, you're right on there as well. The one of the one of the possible choices is, is some kind of a tax rebate bill that has and, and, you know, we've talked about the education committees and their makeup, but if such a bill comes forward, is probably not going to go through one of the education committees, and more likely go through one of the revenues and taxation committees to revenue and taxation committees. Have you guys looked into those committees at all and thought about them in that context with with that kind of bill? I haven't

Kevin Richert: 26:51

taken too close a look at either revenue tax or the Senate, local government and taxation committee and how those changed out in the leadership elections. Yeah, in the committee assignments, but you're right. I think a tax credit bill like we saw this year would more likely go through the revenue and Tax Committee on the House side. But who knows? One thing that I think Mike Moyle has made pretty clear over the past few years as speaker is he will route bills around where he thinks he can get the votes and where he thinks he can get a bill out of committee. I mean, the fact that we've seen library bills affecting school libraries going through not the education committee, but through the House State Affairs Committee, I think that that tells you something. I think the fact that he moved those bills through the state affairs committee, the fact that he tried to move the first tax credit bill this year through rev and tax it gives you a sense of anything can happen, especially on the House side in terms of where these bills get routed?

Mike Journee: 28:04

Yeah, that was a very interesting thing to watch as well. Our members paid really close attention to that one too. Well, let's move on to another topic. So let's talk a little bit about K through 12 public school funding. What are you hearing along those lines? Is there anything in particular that that folks are talking about yet? Well,

Kevin Richert: 28:23

I kind of wonder. Is this the year where we're going to see any kind of revision in the school funding formula? We had a bill come out at the very end of the session last year, uh, state supernatant. Debbie Critchfield wants to make changes in the funding formula. And what she wants is the idea of some sort of a weighting based on providing extra funding for schools depending on how many students they have that have, that have special needs. You know special education students. You know students from low income households or students with limited English proficiency. The idea of a weighted student student funding formula. It's not a new idea. It seems like we've been talking about revising the school funding formula for years, because we have been. The question is, how do you do a weighted funding formula? You know, how do you make the weights work? How does that couple with an enroll a funding formula that's always been based on student attendance, not on student enrollment. It's a very complicated issue. Obviously your members know that I will be interested to see if we get a school funding formula bill through. But after all the years of talking about a school funding formula fix, this may be a tough year to do it, simply because the money is not as abundant as it had been in past years. I mean, you know, the state could not really. Buys its school funding formula in times when we were running surpluses of a billion dollars, the budget picture is not as rosy as it has been in past years. It's not dire. I mean, I don't think we're gonna see budget cuts or budget hold backs or anything like that, unless the economy does something really, really strange, really quickly. But this legislature doesn't have as much money to work with as previous legislatures, so that may be an obstacle to getting a school funding formula change through, but I know that's been a high priority for Debbie Critchfield for really ever since she was elected.

Mike Journee: 30:41

It has and, and, and I think we'll know early in the session, one of those that for that bill to is such a huge lift that for that bill to come forward toward the end of the session and try to get make it through just it never works. And that's one of the problems in the past, is they've always introduced it almost we were waiting

Kevin Richert: 30:57

and waiting. Yeah, it felt like we were waiting and waiting for a school funding bill last session, and it finally emerged in the middle of March, and you could tell just from that print hearing in House Education Committee members who might have been sympathetic to the general idea, really just had so many questions about how it would work that there wasn't a lot of appetite to try to do something like that in the final weeks of the session. So what is was Critchfield come out with on this, and maybe more importantly, when does she come out with

Mike Journee: 31:25

it? So shifting the gears again, Kevin, you've been covering the higher education beat for the ideal education news for here. Recently, there's been a lot of news in that world. Honestly, it looks like the state's colleges and university are all but waving the white flag on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on campuses. Do you expect to see dei issues? This issue spilled over into K through 12 public education? Anytime soon?

Kevin Richert: 31:52

That's a really interesting question, because you have this legislative task force that's been looking at Dei, and this is a really conservative committee. We talk about the differences between mainstream Republicans and hardline Republicans there. There's no question. As I look at this committee, this is a hard line committee, eight members in all house Senate. They've met twice. They'll meet again first week of the session, their discussions have been mostly about higher ed and dei programs on the higher ed campuses, and that's been the discussion mostly at the state board of education level as well. But I wonder if this whole discussion of Dei, this whole discussion of wokeism in schools. For lack of a better thumbnail that, you know, people use, I wonder if that sort of backlash doesn't spill over into K 12, you know, I think you've seen elements of it already. I think the library debate was about that to a large degree. I think the debate over the pronouns law from last year was an offshoot of that. I think there are folks within the legislature who think that all education is is too liberal and too out of touch with mainstream Idaho values. And I think that that that sentiment, while it's focused mostly on higher ed, I think it does pervade into to K 12. What that looks like legislatively, I don't know, but I think that that that sentiment is certainly there.

Mike Journee: 33:30

Yeah, I think you're, you're spot on with the library Bill analogy too. I think that's, you're exactly right. That's where that that was going. And I, and we would expect to see something come along the lines here for long, but we'll see. I think you're right. So I want to take a little step. I want to take advantage of your your longevity as a as an observer the article legislature here and and take a little step back in your time and covering education politics. Well, not just education politics, maybe politics overall, but but specifically for our members, education politics, what are the changes you've seen, kind of generally, through the years? Is there anything you can put your finger on that if you compare your first day covering the legislature for the audio, education news and your last day in 2024 what? What's the difference there?

Kevin Richert: 34:22

I think one of the things that's different just in those 12 years is, I think this legislature is it's more conservative even than it was in 2013 and I think it's a different kind of conservatism with some lawmakers. And I think it's sort of changed the way, it sort of changed the relationship that I see between the legislature and legislators and the news media. I think that we have, I think, an increasing number of. Legislators. Who are? They're not just conservative. They're not just hardline conservatives. They are. They are openly skeptical of institutions, and, you know, skeptical of education institutions, skeptical of public health institutions, public libraries, and that skepticism extends to the media. As a reporter, I don't think I've changed very much, and I don't think that one way that I haven't changed is that I would much rather talk to a legislator or a policy maker who has a problem with a story that I've written, who has a question or criticism or something that they want us to do, to correct. I want to have that conversation. I'm not sure that there are some folks in this legislature who want to have that conversation with, with us or, you know, and I think that's a change, that's, that's, you know, it's, it's not a good change. It's, it's kind of discouraging when you know people don't want to have that exchange, that that conversation, that back and forth.

Mike Journee: 36:12

Yeah, I can understand that. I mean, my time as a reporter there that you know that that inner that interchange with reporters was a was a key part of the part of the process that that lawmakers dealt with and went through making sure that, and of course, the change in the daily newspaper business, I think, has a lot to do with that. Because, you know, my time in the press room, at this at the state house, every media market in the in the state was represented down in that bullpen, and have people covering committees, covering the legislature. And lawmakers paid attention to that because their their constituents read their newspaper. There was a big rack of newspapers right there in the lobby that and every morning that was one of the first thing lawmakers did was they went and saw what, what the correspondents were there, went and wrote about and so that was that, I think you're right. That's definitely a dynamic that is completely different,

Kevin Richert: 37:08

yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up that, you know, I should have brought that up myself. I mean, in 2013 our first year at Ed news, you did have a beat reporter from the Times News, covering the legislature. You did have a reporter from Lewiston Tribune, Bill Spence, who've been there for so many years until his retirement a couple of years ago, Idaho Falls post Register was sending a reporter over. None of those newspapers are sending a full time reporter to cover the legislature. And what we have right now, I've kind of called it kind of a best of times, worst of times thing in Treasure Valley News media, we have so many really talented reporters around this valley right now, I have never worked with as many really smart, really dedicated, really driven folks in the news media, in this community, and that's really exciting. But the problem, the worst of times, thing here, is a lot of us are working in rather specialized roles. I know education news, I mean, it's right there in our right in the middle of our name is education. So when we cover the legislature, it's going to be Senate Ed, it's going to be house Ed, it's going to be jfac. When the budget bills come up, it's going to be revenue, tax. If we have a tax bill that's related to education, lots and lots of issues that the state has that we're just not going to touch, we're not going to cover. It's not part of our mission, you know. So I'll get a tip, or just hear something through the grapevine, or, you know, Ryan Sue B will, and we'll kind of look at each other and say, Wow, that's a that's a great story. Sure hope somebody gets to it. We're very specialized. Idaho capital Sun is specialized in they will look more statewide than look at individual legislators and individual local legislative delegations. And that's that's really a challenge that's facing the Idaho media right now. You don't have that kind of ground level reporting of the legislature, and you you need that. You also need that full, full service news reporting that I worry that we're not getting as much of right now. News organizations that are covering the whole gamut of public policy issues, not just education or not just the legislature, for more of a statewide perspective, like like we see from capital sun. So there are great things happening in the media. There are also some things that are not happening in the media that I I hope we see more of I hope we see more coverage like we used to see. I don't know how it's going to happen, though the business model right now is pretty challenging for newspapers in general.

Mike Journee: 39:54

It really is. It really is. But I will say this, you know, on behalf of of all the members. The IEA, we really appreciate that the Idaho education news is is there, and taking such a strong look at at all the policy that's happening and all, not just, not just here in Boise, it's, you know, you guys cover all everything that's happening around the state. And so, you know, I know, I know I personally appreciate as someone who cares about public education. And I know that our members pay attention to you as well, because you guys do good job of covering everything. I appreciate that.

Kevin Richert: 40:28

And and, yeah, I think we're very fortunate that we have a staff of four reporters, including one in North Idaho. We have a new North Idaho reporter, Emma Eberly, who's doing some great stuff up in the panhandle. Carly flandro has been with us for a couple years out of Pocatello covering Eastern Idaho, and we have, yeah, we have staff that's specialized in education. We're passionate about covering education. We have the resources to to do it, and we have the independence to pursue the stories that need to be pursued. And, you know, kind of follow them where they take us. So, yeah, we're really fortunate again. I want to see more coverage from more media, you know, and I, you know, I hope we get to that point, not just in a covering the legislature, but also covering education and covering elections. We need more journalism that less, I would agree.

Mike Journee: 41:24

So my last question, Kevin, you know, I always try to end on a high note, if I can. And and so you know I I've known you for years and and I follow you on your personal social media. And in addition to being an avid runner, I also know you have fully embraced the ugly Thai tradition among reporters who cover the State House. Tell us a little bit about that tradition.

Kevin Richert: 41:49

Bob Fick, who was the Associated Press's legislative reporter way back. I think he may have started in the 70s, but he was there when I got there in the 80s. Bob Fick was a one of a kind. He was this kind of curmudgeonly old school reporter that way. But he was a genius in terms of covering jfac, in terms of covering budget committees. I mean, he, you know, before you had the internet, Fick was creating his own spreadsheets to follow the budgets that were actually probably more accurate and more comprehensive than what the state had. He was that good a budget reporter, but anyway, he was the originator of the ugly Thai tradition, and it was his way of saying, Okay, guys, it's the end of March. We've been here long enough the ties were supposed to signify the press corps desire to get on with life and to not be at the State House day in and day out. So we've kind of kept the tradition going. And it's, it's, it's taken on new life. You know, the longer I've been there, the ugly Thai tradition has, has evolved over time, a tie that I remember having in the mid 90s, when we're in Twin Falls, that I thought was really fashionable, and it was kind of for mid 90s, it is now an ugly tie. It is now in the in the file cabinet of ugly ties, ready to come out in in late March. And you know, if we're around long enough, in 30 years, it might become fashionable again, we'll take it out of ugly tie circulation. We'll put something else in. Now, the ugly ties, you know, are one of those legislative traditions and you know, and really, it's one of the things that I enjoy about covering the legislature, all these little traditions, all these little quirks, it is still an interesting place to be, and it is still a lot of fun to work with other reporters from other outlets. There's a lot of there's a lot of camaraderie, there's some some gallows humor, but when we're all working together, covering this, trying to make sense of this, trying to put it into context, it's good to be working with other good reporters, smart referees and good people, you know, who doesn't need to, yeah, are serious about what we're doing, but we don't take it so seriously that we can't have a little bit of fun. So, right, right? Well, we have to be strategic, though, about when to bring out the ugly ties, because you, you don't want to rush the process, but you know when the moment comes, you know when it's ugly tie time. And you know you also have to be careful that, you know you make it clear that it's ugly tie season, so that somebody doesn't come up to you and say, Hey, that's a nice tie. No, that was actually meant to be an ugly tie. But thanks for that. You want people to know that you're actually deliberately wearing an ugly tie, and it wasn't just a really bad fashion choice. So there's some strategy involved with it,

Mike Journee: 44:49

absolutely. And I do remember Bob Fick very well, and I remember your marching orders to me as my former boss. Whenever you see Bob Fick in a room, turn around. Around and go cover something else, because he

Kevin Richert: 45:01

was going to cover it so well, there was no point best covering it. Yeah, we couldn't improve on fix. So you didn't. But you know, yep, yep.

Mike Journee: 45:10

Okay, one final thing. So when do you think you're gonna be pulling out the ugly tie this year?

Kevin Richert: 45:17

Like I say, you'll know. I mean, I think as far as how long the session is going to go, I think the session goes into April. I think this just feels like it's going to be a long session, because you got so many new people. It's not an election year. There's no motivation to get back and campaign. I think private school choice could be a really long, drawn out battle. You mentioned water. We don't cover it very much. Yeah, that water legislation has a way of slowing the legislative session down to I just think there are a lot of things that could make for a long session. So with with an eye towards this session going into April, I don't think I want to bust out ugly ties until maybe, you know, third week of March, maybe is a time to start to send the message a little bit. All right.

Mike Journee: 46:10

Well, Kevin Richard, senior reporter at the Idaho education news, thank you so much for your time. We're excited to get going for the legislative session, and we'll be paying attention to, to to your website and all the stuff you guys cover. It's been, it's, it's a wonderful website. It's a great resource for IA members to learn what's happening on a day to day basis at the legislature, and broad, more broadly, in education. So thank you for all the work that you do, and thank you for joining us today.

Kevin Richert: 46:40

Oh, thanks, Mike, thanks for having me.

Mike Journee: 46:45

Thank you for listening to this episode of The IEA reporter podcast, and thanks to Idaho education News Senior Reporter Kevin Richard for joining us. Please watch for updates about new episodes on IEA social media channels or sign up to receive IA reporter email updates on our website@idahoea.org I'm Mike Journee, and as always, I hope you'll join me in thanking Idaho's public school educators for everything they do for our State students, families and public schools. You