The Story of the Idaho Education Association Since 1892

Voices of Courage,
Champions of Excellence
VoicesofCourage,ChampionsofExcellenceTheStoryoftheIdahoEducationAssociationSince1892
The Story of the Idaho Education Association Since 1892
T
he Idaho Education Association was founded on March 3, 1892, and quickly established itself as the
leading advocacy organization for public education in Idaho. During its 120 years of championing
universal, tuition-free, quality public education for Idaho’s children, the Association has made great
strides. It has lobbied for high student and teacher standards, embraced innovation in the classroom,
won fair workplace rights for educators, and been the foremost voice for adequate and equitable state
funding. Voices of Courage, Champions of Excellence tells the story of the brave educators who, on behalf of their
students and their profession, confronted powerful policymakers, partnered with parents and other education
supporters, and spoke loudly at the capitol and in the voting booth so Idaho’s children could have the best chance
possible to become productive, educated citizens with a stake in our state’s and our country’s success.
The Idaho Education Association’s:
– Mission Statement (adopted in 1995)
The Idaho Education Association advocates the professional and
personal well-being of its members and the vision of excellence in
public education, the foundation of the future.
– Focus Statement (2000)
To help local associations build capacity to achieve excellence in
public education.
– Core Values (2004)
Public Education: Preserving the foundation of our democracy.
Justice: Upholding fair and equitable treatment for all.
Unity: Standing together for our common cause.
Integrity: Stating what we believe and living up to it.
$10.00
Jennifer A. Stevens
First school in Mountain Home.

1
Voices of Courage,
Champions of Excellence
Jennifer A. Stevens

2
ISBN 10: 1-59152-102-5
ISBN 13: 978-1-59152-102-0
©2012 by Idaho Education Association
Text © 2012 by Jennifer Stevens
Cover and interior design by: Don Gura Graphic Design, Inc.
Copy editing: Neysa CM Jensen.
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means
(with the exception of short quotes for the purpose of review) without the permission of
the publisher.

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Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Bibliographic Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Chapter 1: 1892-1926 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Getting Settled: The First 25 Years . . . . . . 9
Teachers as Role Models and
the Students’ Moral Compass . . . . . . . . 10
The Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The IEA’s Organizational Evolution . . . . . 14
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Schools Then and Now:
Lowell Elementary, Boise . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
IEA and the NEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 2: 1926-1940 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Fighting For Idaho’s
Children During Tough Times . . . . . . . . 24
The Depression and the Impact
on Educational Funding . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Idaho’s Endowment Fund . . . . . . . . . . 27
State Funding for Education
and Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Rural Schools: Consolidation and
Teacher Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Chapter 3: 1940-1963 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Keep the Teachers Here! . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Circling ‘round: Educational Funding and
the Sales Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Technology and Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
IEA Headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Chapter 4: 1963-1980 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Money, Politics, and Education in Idaho . . . 51
Giving Teachers Security and a Voice:
Retirement and Professional Negotiations . . 57
Change in the Local Associations and
the Structure of the IEA . . . . . . . . . . . 60
UniServ: Empowering, Organizing, and
Representing Members . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The First 1% Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Idaho Teachers’ Strikes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 5: 1980-2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Creating a Fair Workplace . . . . . . . . . . 66
Politics and Competition in Education . . . . 70
Voluntary Contributions Act . . . . . . . . . 74
IEA and Community Work . . . . . . . . . . 75
The IEA Children’s Fund . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Education Support Professionals . . . . . . . 77
Idaho Education in the 21st Century . . . . . 77
A Penny for Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Three Years of Cuts to Education,
2009-2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Historic Alteration of School Laws
Headed for Referendum . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Teacher Compensation: istars vs. weteach . 87
Barbara Morgan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
The Continued Professional Improvement
of Idaho Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Appendix A: Listing of all IEA Presidents . . . . 94
Appendix B: Listing of all
IEA Executive Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Historic Photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Contents

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Acknowledgements
The Idaho Education Association created a History Project Task Force made up of longtime IEA
members and staff from across the state. The Task Force was created to capture, record, and
publish the 120-year history of the Idaho Education Association. Without them, this book would
not be in your hands. Members include: Dale Baerlocher, Marcia Banta, Charlotte Cooke, Sue
Finlay-Clark, Terry Gilbert, Judy Harold, Sue Hovey, Danial McCarty, Rob Nicholson, Peggy
Park, Kathy Phelan, Dan Sakota, Willie Sullivan, and Kathy Yamamoto.
A smaller group within the Task Force took on the detailed management of the project,
and the book could not have been completed without their passion, good humor, research, and
other hard work. This group was composed of Sherri Wood, Jim Shackelford, Lyn Haun, Gayle
Moore, and Bob Otten. All are former teachers, and their passion for the Idaho Education
Association and the children it serves is evident in everything they do. They entrusted me with the
management of the project and more importantly, with the telling of their story, an awesome task
to which I hope I’ve done justice. The Association President, Penni Cyr, its Executive Director,
Robin Nettinga, and the IEA Board of Directors all have been instrumental to the project as well,
lending us their enthusiasm and their funding support. Without them, the project could not have
reached completion.
Special thanks also go to the many staff and volunteers of the Idaho Education Association
who have contributed to the organization over the past 120 years, making it the advocacy group
it is today.
I also want to thank Kelly Horn, who attended public schools in southeast Idaho and is a
newly-minted M.A. in History from Boise State University. She provided invaluable assistance on
this book and wrote some of the interesting side stories you will read throughout.
Finally, the book is dedicated to all of Idaho’s teachers who arrive at school each day with a
mission to mold tomorrow’s citizens into people who are engaged, impassioned, and equipped
with the skills they need to make our country a better place. Their dedication to our children is a
debt that is impossible to repay.
— Jennifer Stevens
Bibliographic Note
The story on the following pages was written by examining the records of the Idaho
Education Association. It is intended to be a history of the group’s advocacy work and
passion for educating Idaho’s children. Any reader who wishes to find out more about the
sources used can contact the author, Jennifer Stevens, at jenniferstevens@shraboise.com.
All photographs of schools, teachers, and students were taken in Idaho.

5
Those who make history rarely understand the significance of their actions at the
time. Such was surely the circumstance when Idaho’s educational leaders founded
the Idaho State Teachers’ Association on March 3, 1892. g From its founding, the
ISTA, or Idaho Education Association as it is known today, grappled with the many
complicated issues facing the education of Idaho’s youth. g The IEA is Idaho’s
professional organization for educators and, as such, has led the state through its
long educational evolution from an inefficient system of myriad rural schoolhouses
staffed by poorly trained, inadequately equipped, and dismally paid teachers to
a system organized by districts in which resources are shared across schools and
children and families can count on well-trained and highly qualified teachers. g
Over the years, the IEA has provided the platform for educational debate and led
the charge for an improved educational investment. g Although their courageous
activism often resulted in criticism from the general public, IEA members championed
excellence in public education and brought Idaho out of the dark days of the 1970s
when it was first discovered that the state ranked 50th of all states in educational
investment. g Although Idaho’s ranking remains close to the bottom, the IEA has
taken many steps to provide Idaho’s children with an excellent education in spite of
the funding challenges. g During the IEA’s 120 years, historical circumstances have
provoked statewide debates over curriculum changes, technological evolution, the
place of patriotism in education, teachers’ rights, the role of schools in communities,
and qualification of and employment protections for teachers. g As an intensely
democratic organization from its 19th century founding, the IEA has advocated for
increasingly high levels of qualification for educators, pushing them to become better
teachers and administrators. g No matter the winds of change, the Idaho Education
Association has maintained its fundamental focus: fighting for high quality and equal
educational opportunities for all of Idaho’s children, whether special needs, gifted,
blind or deaf, or minority. g This book tells the story of the battles fought, details the
victories accomplished, and anticipates the challenges ahead.
Introduction
o

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T
he attendees at the first Idaho
State Teachers’ Association
Convention arrived in Boise
by train in early spring 1892,
bustling with excitement about
the new professional organization they were
here to join. They came with curricular
ideas for the children they taught and
creative methods to share their knowledge
with colleagues. Educational leaders in
this new western state had decided only
three weeks earlier that there was a need
for a statewide organization dedicated to
ensuring Idaho’s children received the best
education the United States could offer. State
Superintendent of Public Education, Judge J.
E. Harroun, called a meeting in his office on
March 3, 1892, to discuss the issue with four
county superintendents and, together, they
called for the establishment of a permanent
state teachers’ association. That day, they
hatched the idea for what is now the Idaho
Education Association.
1892-1926
Chapter 1
o
The early years of the Idaho State Teachers’ Association are replete with stories of
hope, innovation, and passion. g The events of these first few decades set the stage
for the many years to come. g The group gradually evolved from an organization
of impassioned teachers who cared deeply about improving the educational
opportunities for children across the state of Idaho to a group of members who
took concrete actions to ensure that those opportunities were available. g From
debates over curriculum and teacher certification and standards, members of the
Association demonstrated to Idaho’s policymakers that their classroom knowledge
and expertise about children’s needs were assets. g The organization proved to be
savvy about budget and organizational matters as well, advising and sometimes
lobbying the state on matters related to funding public education and how to classify
and organize the many schools throughout Idaho. g The Association recognized
that it could offer information and data on elementary, middle and high schools, as
well as the particular challenges associated with rural schools. g Throughout this
time, members focused heavily on the role of the teacher, forming a consensus that
the teacher should educate students of all ages about good citizenship and serve as
upstanding moral citizens themselves. g As time passed and teachers became more
consistently trained, the profession matured tremendously and became one of which
Idahoans could be proud and to which they owed much.
Beginnings

7
Teacher and students
at tent school, location
unknown
The atmosphere in the capital city just
three weeks later was gay indeed. Harroun
and his collaborators had called for the state
convention of teachers and other educators to
begin in Boise on March 22. Arriving in town
on specially negotiated train fares, teachers
gathered at the state capitol to implement
Harroun’s plans and make the creation of a
professional organization a reality. Governor
Norman B. Willey and Boise Mayor J.A.
Pinney both arrived at the gathering to speak
to attendees, whose numbers were small but
enthusiastic. Idaho’s promise was palpable,
with its ample natural resources and growing
population in a state that was less than two
years old. Railroads were being extended
into and throughout the state, connecting the
remote and landlocked area with the rest of
the West and the bustling nation. Irrigators
were starting successful enterprises in the
Boise Valley and across the southern half of
the arid state, and with those businesses came
people and families with children. Willey
spoke to the attendees about the children’s
needs and about the defects of existing school
laws in Idaho. To demonstrate the greatness of
Idaho’s educational system, and to correct the
Eastern idea that “the children of this great
west are well-meaning savages,” the teachers,
principals, and superintendents in attendance
talked at length about the educational exhibit
they would display at the World’s Fair, to be
held the following year in Chicago. And most
importantly, between the soprano solos and
social intercourse, Superintendent Harroun
appointed a five-member committee to
determine the next steps toward a permanent
organization. Before the convention’s
conclusion, the committee’s three women and
five men proposed a constitution for the newly
created State Teachers’ Association of Idaho.

8
From these humble beginnings in March
1892, the Idaho State Teachers’ Association’s
(ISTA) adopted constitution made clear that
the mission of the organization was “to
promote the educational interests of the state,
and to further insure the future progress of
the teachers’ work as a profession.” Leaders
believed that professionalizing education was
the key to ensuring universal quality free
public education for all of Idaho’s youth.
But the goal of professionalization provoked
many controversial battles during the ensuing
120 years. The 1892 convention saw the first
organization-level discussions about many of
the issues that teachers continually fought for
during the 20th century: fair and competitive
salaries and workplace conditions for teachers;
increased standards and qualifications for
teachers and administrators; equality of
education for children no matter the wealth
of their community. The ISTA believed that
without highly qualified teachers who were
drawn to the state because of the competitive
salaries and benefits, the education of Idaho’s
children would continue to operate with a
frontier mentality.
Patriotic to their core, members of the
ISTA also intended the organization to be
a democratic institution from the start,
providing each county in the state with a
representative and setting a reasonable and
affordable dues schedule of $1 annually
per person. They also adopted a manner of
working through committees, where members
would be represented and policies could
be recommended to the larger body. Early
committees included the constitutionally
created executive and legislative committees,
comprised of three and five members,
respectively, with the first intended to arrange
annual meetings and the second directed to
“use their influence securing needed legislation
such as they or this association may deem
necessary for the best interests of the state.”
Legislative work was deemed necessary as a
tool for ensuring that Idaho’s children were
being provided the best education possible,
although some came to believe that schools
and politics were better left apart. The
Committee on Resolutions was a policy body,
and the first convention’s members voted to
recommend higher standards in the granting
of teaching certificates and the creation of a
teacher training school — known as a normal
school — in Idaho. The same committee
recognized and expressed disapproval of
efforts by school boards throughout the state
who were trying to reduce teachers’ salaries.
Therefore, the committee urged educators
to refuse to accept lower salaries than their
predecessor when taking a new position in
the state. The committee structure was a
fluid one which evolved continuously as the
organization faced new and challenging issues
over the years.
Teacher and students
at wooden school,
location unknown
Meanwhile, buzz over the first ISTA convention had
grown throughout the week, with the Idaho Daily
Statesman covering each day’s proceedings and
praising the educators’ organization.

9
Meanwhile, buzz over the first ISTA
convention had grown throughout the week,
with the Idaho Daily Statesman covering
each day’s proceedings and praising the
educators’ organization. Before concluding,
the convention featured discussion and debate
over what to teach in school, setting the stage
for what would become one of the most
important and long-standing functions of the
organization: a platform for expressing and
debating the evolving vision for education.
New member teacher Miss Newton explained
in her presentation that in addition to basics
such as reading and math, producing moral,
upstanding citizens was the goal of education.
The goal of teaching morals and character to
students continued to be an important one
well into the 21st century, although methods
remain controversial even today.
Closing its three-day meeting on March
25 and setting a time to meet again in April
the following year, the group accepted an
invitation from the Rapid Transit Company
to ride its electric cars on an excursion to
the Natatorium for a swim and a party. The
celebration was no doubt lively, as teachers,
principals, and administrators rejoiced over
education’s new beginning in Idaho.
Getting Settled:
the First 25 Years
Following the successful first meeting, leaders
in the Idaho State Teachers’ Association spent
the next 25 years formalizing the organization,
making efforts to reach educators across
the state, and taking major strides toward
professionalization. As the Association’s
membership grew, the group began to reach
out to the National Education Association as
well as to other state’s education organizations
to form closer alliances. However, it also began
to recognize that its members had many varied
interests that could not all be addressed in a
large group setting. Primary school teachers,
high school teachers, and administrators
had very different everyday concerns, and
the organization of the association gradually
evolved to reflect those issues. The ISTA
achieved the necessary flexibility in its
organizational model while also working
toward providing educators a voice in general
policies that affected their classrooms every
day, such as textbook selection, curriculum
design, and content.
Over the next few years, teachers who
attended the annual meetings overflowed with
ideas and visions for education for Idaho’s
children. As the Teachers’ Association moved
its annual meeting to different parts of the
state each year, it became common to feature a
discussion of meatier issues related to teaching
and the classroom. These meetings offered a
platform where open debates could be held
about the ideal teacher (and how moral he or
she should be), what constituted a high school,
how to teach reading, the role of music and
art in the classroom, geography, civics, and the
value of nature study. Participants discussed
language instruction in the intermediate
grades, methods of teaching, and the need for
Roswell School, date unknown

10
physical education. In December 1893, the
Association appointed a committee to organize
a State Reading Circle that could recommend
“proper” books to be read across the state.
The Reading Circle Board was formalized via
ISTA Constitutional amendments in 1900 and
charged with planning curricula related to
pedagogy as well as culture. The ISTA wanted
to create a streamlined education across the
state, for teachers as well as for students.
Teachers as Role Models and
the Students’ Moral Compass
With regard to cultural issues, one of Idaho
educators’ early concerns — and one that
lasted for many decades — was that students
receive moral guidance at school. This
mandate required teachers to both act as a
moral compass for their students and also
teach their students about morality. At the
time the State Teachers’ Association was
founded in 1892, the country was steeped in
Victorian purity and engaged in a lengthy and
heated debate over temperance and the evil of
drink. Perhaps inevitably, then, these moral
issues crept into debates about education in
Idaho. Some of the greatest leaders of the
temperance movement were women, and,
coincidentally, women also made up a high
proportion of the teaching profession. In
1894, the ISTA’s annual meeting featured a
systematic report of teachers’ work and a
“stronger conviction of the value of moral
and religious instruction as essential elements
of the education of our youth.” Along these
lines, that year’s Committee on Resolutions
resolved that:
“the development of the personal
character of the pupils and the formation
of habit in all right directions is the
supreme function of the teachers. For
this reason we hold that teachers should
be the embodiment of those virtues that
characterize the highest types of manhood
and womanhood and we deprecate any
conduct or habit that detracts from the
dignity of the teachers as such, or as an
exemplar of precepts of true morality.”
Other papers urged teachers to do “earnest
and self denying work,” and to uphold higher
standards and morals, including no tobacco,
no intoxicating drinks, no turkey shooting,
no attending baseball on Sundays, and no
other reprehensible activities. According to the
leaders at the time, true role models would not
engage in such things.
In addition to acting as role models,
the ISTA wanted educators to teach those
same morals. As the ISTA continued to
grow in influence into the 20th century,
it recommended laws that would assist in
implementing character education. In 1907,
the Association recommended that state law
be altered to mandate teaching the Bible in
public school, and members even discussed
changing the State Constitution to this effect.
Such a law did not come to fruition, but the
Resolutions Committee decided that, at the
minimum, “non-sectarian religious instruction
should not be prohibited in the public schools
of Idaho.” Thus, from very early on, there was
great concern with making “good American
citizens,” and teachers were expected to be
among the best role models available.
“…the development of the personal character of
the pupils and the formation of habit in all right
directions is the supreme function of the teachers.
For this reason we hold that teachers should be
the embodiment of those virtues that characterize
the highest types of manhood and womanhood
and we deprecate any conduct or habit that
detracts from the dignity of the teachers as such,
or as an exemplar of precepts of true morality.”
— Committee on Resolutions, 1894

11
1896, Kellogg School
Good American citizens were also
expected to be patriotic, and the Association
focused on teaching patriotism as early as
1894. Creating good, productive citizens
was a goal of the State Teachers’ Association
from the start, and over the course of the
Association’s 120 years, the country went
through many periods when patriotism in the
schools was emphasized. When discussing
proper books to assign in 1894, teachers
complained that the readers currently in
use were unacceptable because they did
not “contain selections that tend to teach
patriotism.” Another teacher retorted: “We
should be capable to teach patriotism without
a book as morals without the Bible.” But
clearly, the debate was not over whether to
teach patriotism, but how. Teaching civics was
presented as one solution. Teachers declared
that the “perilous time” of “class jealousy,
distrust and conflict” in which they were living
had resulted in a large percentage of citizens
who were uninformed about the “sacredness”
of governmental authority. They resolved
that teaching civics would help smooth such
divisions, and with “every man and woman…
well versed in all that pertains to civil
government,” the country would be safer.
Wartime regularly brought this issue to the
fore for educators in Idaho. As tensions with
Spain heated up in anticipation of what would
become the Spanish American War in April
1898, the ISTA’s Committee on Resolutions
recommended, and the full membership
passed, a resolution in late 1897 requiring all

12
educators in Idaho to fly “Old Glory” over
every school house and inculcate patriotism.
Some years later, when relations in Europe
were strained and eventually led to World
War I and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution
in Russia, Idaho educators were intent on
teaching students about the “meaning” of
Americanism. In 1918, that meant ISTA
support for the Americanization Act, a bill
that would require all residents of Idaho to
attain a fifth grade proficiency in English. And
in 1919-1920, at the height of the country’s
first Red Scare, the ISTA’s Resolutions
Committee recommended a pledge of loyalty
to “sane Americanism” and urged teachers
to recognize the importance of their efforts in
guiding students through “those principles of
Americanism which have made and which will
keep us a free people.” Around the same time,
Kellogg’s superintendent, working in a highly
charged atmosphere caused by labor unrest
in north Idaho, designed an Americanism
curriculum that required students in grades
1-8 to learn the Pledge of Allegiance, the flag
salute, and many patriotic poems and songs.
Upper grade-school children were required to
write a story explaining what it meant to be
a “real American.” Such pleas for patriotic
instruction dominated discussions about
classroom content for many years and were
especially overt during times of war.
The Profession
The early years of the ISTA also featured
critical debates over teacher qualification
and teacher training. Expecting the best
from their members became commonplace
in the organization. When the ISTA’s fourth
convention was held in Moscow in late 1894,
qualifying to be a teacher required only that
a person be 16 years of age or older and pass
an examination by the county superintendent.
There were no consistent standards for
such examinations, and teaching certificates
were passed out rather freely. Our children,
exclaimed one convention attendee in 1894,
“are protected from quack doctors but not
quack teachers!”
Teachers in the Association blamed the
lack of qualifications for failures in teaching,
and the members of the ISTA launched a
100-year fight for more formalized training
and higher qualifications as one solution to
the problem. The 1894 convention began
with a discussion about the issuance of
permits, all agreeing that more training and
experience were necessary. Compared to
other states, Idaho had low expectations
for its teachers’ education. The ISTA
favored more professional training, even for
existing members, and was thrilled with the
legislature’s creation in 1893 of two normal
schools designed to train teachers in Idaho.
While normal school education was a good
start, most agreed that it did not automatically
qualify a person as a good teacher. So the
ISTA — and later, the IEA — spent many
1895, Sublett School

13
years trying to raise the bar so students would
have the best teachers available. The goal of
improved standards was not meant to erect
a barrier to those entering the profession but
to ensure that those who chose teaching as
a career would be the best people to educate
students. ISTA members wanted to create
requirements so that teaching never became a
fallback or temporary profession, but rather, a
cherished career.
To accomplish the goal of more qualified
teachers, the ISTA’s first printed legislative
program, in 1898, included the organization’s
successful demand that both the Lewiston
and Albion normal schools be placed under
a single state board that could make the
programs more consistent and rigorous.
The ISTA lobbied for additional changes to
Idaho educator training and qualification as
well, including a minimum age of 30 for the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
By the end of this early period, the ISTA was
recommending further requirements with the
backing of the state superintendent, Ethel
Redfield. Redfield addressed the 1919 annual
convention and argued that certification
standards needed renewed improvement.
Almost all surrounding states had passed laws
requiring four-year degrees for teaching in the
high schools, and she recommended that Idaho
do the same. She and the ISTA lobbied for
laws that would require teachers with only a
normal school education (aimed specifically at
teaching) and no bachelor’s degree be confined
to the elementary schools. Those with four-
year university degrees but no special training
in early childhood education should be steered
toward teaching the upper grades and kept
out of the lower schools without special
preparation.
Salaries were also a subject of debate for
members of the ISTA. Competitive wages
were viewed as a tool for attracting the best
teachers and therefore providing students with
the best education.
Some gains were
made early on in
the Association’s
history. And,
despite public fears
about teachers
joining the larger
labor movement
and becoming
“radical” in the
second decade of
the 20th century,
educators debated
the salary issue
without threat of striking. ISTA President
J.J. Rae spoke freely of the salary question in
1919, hoping the legislature would set a salary
schedule that would make wages consistent
from district to district and county to county.
Explaining the discrepancy between teachers
with the lowest level certificate receiving $100
monthly while some normal school graduates
received only $90, Rae strongly urged
legislative action.
A major shortage of teachers in
Idaho around this same time caused the
organization to examine potential causes.
The Committee on Professional Standards
and Progress issued a report in 1920 on
Idaho teacher statistics such as median
ages, gender distribution, educational
backgrounds, and average salaries. The
“Report of the Investigation on the Teacher
Shortage in Idaho” stated that there were
4,800 teachers in Idaho and identified
eight prime causes of unrest among
educators, including insufficient salaries,
poor buildings and equipment, indefinite
contracts, unpleasant social and living
conditions, lack of social advantages, poor
community relations, lack of institutional
and professional advantages, an “absence
of state consciousness,” and lack of
cooperation with the state institutions in
1902, Lost River School

14
meeting the shortage fairly. The report
called for higher salaries and better school
buildings, and it urged teachers to educate
the public about problems in education.
Although Idaho teachers — restless or
not — never did affiliate with the larger labor
movement of that era, they did begin to forge
stronger relations with the National Education
Association in the early 1920s as a way to
establish solidarity in the profession. Members
of the ISTA began to serve at the national
level and attend national conventions, then
returned to their state organization convinced
that the NEA could unify the legitimate needs
of teachers nationwide. They recommended
that Idaho teachers become members of the
national organization, and they urged the
state association to affiliate with the NEA, a
relationship that was formally created in 1920.
Salaries, standards, and the national
organization would remain issues of concern
for the ISTA in the years to come.
The IEA’s
Organizational Evolution
While working toward major changes in
standards for teachers and the other key
educational issues, the organization itself had
to grow and evolve to meet Idaho children’s
needs. By 1896, the ISTA recognized that
the increasing number of attendees at its
annual gatherings translated into public
approval and credibility. While the teachers
still desired “more complete professional
preparation,” they were pleased with the
educational advancements that had been made
in the state and turned to curricular concerns
and organizational issues in expanding
their mission. To execute on this, the 1896
convention sanctioned a five-person committee
to revise the constitution for discussion at the
next annual gathering.
Constitutional revision took a number
of years. Small changes were made, but in
1900, members voted to draft an entirely new
constitution. By the time the 15th annual
meeting in 1905 rolled around, the ISTA had
divided its members into sections so that
educators could attend sessions relevant to
their daily lives in the classroom. The Primary
Section, Grammar Section, and High School
Section each presented papers that dealt with
topics of concern for teachers in those grades.
For instance, the Primary Section, which
boasted 70 attendees in 1905, discussed issues
relating to teaching character and studying
child development. The Grammar Section,
made up of members who routinely taught
intermediate-age children, discussed methods
of teaching history and geography. The High
School Section discussed “the problem with
high school boys” and issues such as teaching
science and history in high schools. In addition
to meeting in sections, General Sessions
allowed members of each group to meet and
discuss issues relevant to all educators.East Side School, Idaho Falls area, date unknown

15
This method of division continued for
many years, and additional sections were
added over time. In a move that reflected the
politics of the day but also foreshadowed the
divisions of the future, administrators created
a Superintendents’ and Principals’ Section
in 1907. Although collaboration between
administrators and classroom teachers
continued for some time, the move was a
clear indication of the divergent interests of
teachers and administrators. Perhaps to ease
the transition and the split, the administrators
did request that their section meet separately
(instead of simultaneously) from the High
School Section in the future, so that they
could continue to benefit from attending the
teachers’ sessions. While classroom teachers
in all sections spent most of their meeting
time at the annual conventions discussing
content matter, the superintendents’ sessions
focused on issues such as medical inspections
in the schools (this was a major concern
because of the growing understanding
about the spread of communicable diseases)
and educational funding legislation. The
superintendents agreed in 1907 to appoint
a committee to study and draft resolutions
related to this point.
In addition to the Superintendents’
Section, a Rural Section was created around
1910, geared toward studying and improving
rural education. Rural school life in Idaho
had been a subject of concern for the ISTA
since its founding in 1892. Because the vast
majority of Idaho was rural at the time, and
remained so for many decades to come, the
ISTA felt an overwhelming obligation to serve
these students with an education equal to that
offered in more urban areas. Rural schools
were dominated by one-room school houses
in remote locations where teachers were often
inexperienced, young, and required to be
janitor, babysitter, woodcutter, and teacher
all at once, leaving students underserved.
In addition, many rural children spent the
majority of their time working — whether on
family farms, mines, or other manual jobs —
instead of in school. There was a definite zeal
for lifting these children out of educational
darkness. In 1894, the organization declared
the “rural school problem” to be one in
which a student was unable to “think by
himself and for himself,” and members
worried that rural students did not know how
to think “accurately” or how to pursue good
literature, a love of nature, or knowledge
of our government. The ISTA deemed the
solution to the problem to be “obedience to
moral and civil law, through being led into a
love for the freedom under them” and lobbied
for a longer school year to help rural children.
Yet, there was also a strong desire to keep
families on farms.
The tension between the desire to
maintain a nation of farmers and the
simultaneous hope to improve educational
opportunities often worked at odds in the
state of Idaho. While members of the ISTA
yearned to bring education to rural areas,
Idahoans’ genuine desire to eschew urban
life and help maintain America’s heritage as
an agricultural nation meant rural education
would be a subject of great debate. In the
1890s, farmers nationwide experienced a
severe agricultural depression, and Idaho
farmers were not spared. The ISTA went on
record regarding the importance of educated
1902, Kootenai County
teachers

16
Shoshone School, date unknown

17
farmers, making education affordable for
them, yet still encouraging those educated in
agriculture to return to the farm. Concerns
over rural and agricultural education began
to dominate the annual meetings by 1909.
In particular, apprehension remained that
children were leaving the country and heading
to town for schooling because of the poor
nature of rural schools. The desire to maintain
a robust country population inspired the
ISTA’s Rural Section to tackle issues related
to the rural school’s significance to the
community as well as the social importance
of the country school. By 1910, the full
membership agreed to appoint a legislative
committee to study the problem and to lobby
for laws that would change the distribution
of county funds based on school population;
allow high schools in incorporated towns and
cities to create union high school districts (by
merging multiple independent districts); and
provide state funding to each school with a
teacher fully employed in high school work.
That year, the Association went on the record
in favor of agricultural education, which
would provide a formal vocational education
for farmers intending to return to the land,
and in 1915, thanks to the ISTA, the Idaho
Legislature extended the minimum school year
to seven months. Thus, the early 20th century
was critical for the ISTA’s work on behalf of
rural Idaho children.
The ISTA’s Rural Section was not the only
one to deal with fundamental issues. The High
School Section provided an equally vigorous
forum for determining the vision for high
school education in Idaho. At a time when
only a small percentage of students continued
past high school to obtain a university
education, there was much debate over the
intent of high school education and what it
should offer. Should it be steeped in classics,
or should it also offer vocational training?
These questions were being debated nationally,
as well, as high schools began to serve a larger
and more varied student population, many
of whom had goals other than attending
college. At the turn of the 20th century, the
ISTA’s High School Classification Committee
— which preceded the High School Section
— focused on accrediting high schools so that
universities would have a system by which to
judge the students who emerged from them.
The committee recommended that there
be opportunities to attend high school for
a period of one to four years. Two courses
of study were recommended for the four
year high school course: one was designed
to prepare students for university study in
science, the other for university study in
humanities. The curriculum for each of these
was almost identical, with five 40-minute
periods per week of math, English, and
history and government. However, the science
course then included another five periods of
science, while the humanities course included
five more periods of Latin study. Just a few
years later in 1904, the ISTA lobbied for free
public high schools for all students. Because
the high schools previously had served only a
small percentage of the population, they had
required tuition payments by students. Thus,
in addition to spurring debate over a high
school vision, the Association oversaw the
implementation of this vision across the state
and was critical in making it available to any
student who desired the education. From this
point forward, the widespread opportunity
to obtain a classical education beyond age
14 differentiated American education from
European education throughout much of the
20th century.
More organizational changes were
on the way for the ISTA. In 1919, the
Association established five committees at its
annual meeting to deal with long-standing
concerns for the professional organization.
The Committee on Teacher Shortage would

18
determine how to make the profession more
attractive, what constituted a living salary
for teachers, and how positions could be
made more permanent. The Committee on
Professional Standards and Professional
Progress was charged with developing
standards for the profession of teaching. The
Committee on Educational Publicity would
run the newly approved newsletter, The
Idaho Teacher. The Legislative Committee
would consider proposals for legislation and
report on progress that could be achieved by
legislation. The Budget Committee would steer
the Association’s finances. The committees
were charged with preparing reports in
anticipation of the annual meeting, publishing
them in the newsletter, and awaiting the votes
of the Delegate Assembly.
The refined committee structure did not
solve all of the problems associated with a
growing organization. They needed staff.
Finally, in 1925, the ISTA voted to employ
an executive secretary, establish permanent
headquarters in Boise, and reorganize on a
more “effective” basis. In these early years, the
ISTA existed rent-free in a room at the Capitol
Building, moving to Room 331 in the Sonna
Building on Main Street when the legislature
arrived every other year. The middle years of
the 20th century would see the organization
grow to occupy even more space.
Conclusion
In addition to the usual standing concerns,
some issues that seemed minor in these
early years became much bigger debates in
later years. Among these were maximum
class size (recommending a maximum of 40
students for the lower grades in 1903), higher
salaries, equal school funding (through a
minimum county levy), and school lunches
(1910). Politically, the organization got
involved by lobbying for legislation that
would further their aim of a streamlined,
free public education for all children in
Idaho. Part of that effort involved a fight
to separate the election of judges from the
election of school superintendents and to
remove education from the partisan political
process. The official organization did not
become involved in political races but was
active in the government, nonetheless. This
early period represented a growing awareness
of the organization’s solidarity with other
state’s education organizations as well as
the National Education Association. Idaho
members attended the NEA’s conference
for the first time in 1898 and continued to
be involved in the larger organization. The
relationship with the National Education
Association would become much tighter and
more significant as Idaho came to rely more
heavily on its national educational partners.
By the mid-1920s, the ISTA had evolved
from its roots as a frontier organization of
loosely connected teachers and administrators
numbering only 40 or 50 to a powerful
association of state-wide educators dedicated
to the welfare of children and teachers
throughout Idaho with membership numbers
approaching 3,000. The Association achieved
an immense amount in these early years. It
implemented an educational system that was
cohesive across the state, ensuring that all
children could expect to receive a relatively
similar education regardless of their residential
location. It implemented an early set of
teacher training standards, so children could
be assured of a consistently qualified teacher
at the chalk board. And the Association began
the effort to ensure teachers could be secure
in their employment with the state. Little did
members know what challenges would face
them in the next 15 years.

20
Schools Then and Now: Lowell Elementary, Boise
The teacher’s role has remained consistent for many generations, but classroom needs have
changed dramatically over the years. Today, Idaho boasts many modern, state-of-the-art school
buildings. Some of the most up-to-date buildings are beautiful historic schools that have undergone
renovations. Reusing these solid community structures reminds citizens where we started and how
far we’ve come by honoring the buildings from which neighborhoods and communities have sprung.
In the late 19th century, Idaho
teachers occupied log cabins,
tents, or other simple and rustic
structures where students gathered
for instruction. Teachers in remote
locations had to serve not only
as academic instructors, but as
wood gatherers, janitors, and
disciplinarians.
In the late 1920s, the Idaho
Journal of Education published
an article stating that “the old
boxcar type of [school] building,
poorly situated, poorly lighted,
and poorly ventilated is no longer
tolerated.” The IEA provided
floor plans for a modern school,
complete with indoor plumbing and cloak rooms. According to the article, “An adequate school
plant — sanitary, spacious, cheerful — built around the needs of the child and the school, preserves
the health of school children and helps to improve individual and community life and to insure
a better race.” In the 1920s and 1930s, however, school districts abandoned many small, rural
school houses when consolidation called for the construction of larger facilities for multi-community
student bodies. In some urban settings, many communities continually remodeled and updated their
neighborhood schools.
Lowell Elementary in north Boise is one of those schools
and represents changes to schools across the state. It has
changed significantly over its nearly 100-year history.
Originally designed on the “unit plan” that allowed
for future expansion, Lowell was built in three stages.
The first floor and basement were completed in 1913,
1902, Lost River School
1926, Lowell Elementary School

21
followed by the second floor in 1917.
The school initially housed only grades
1-4, and back then, lunch period lasted
90 minutes to allow students time to go
home to eat. By the mid-1920s, Lowell
expanded up to 8th grade, and a 1926
addition on the north gave the school
four more classrooms, a second-floor
office, and a basement auditorium. The
Parent-Teacher Association started a
hot lunch program in 1944, with ten
tables built by volunteer fathers. With
the enrollment increase following World
War II, the school added playground
equipment in 1946 and eight new
classrooms on the south side in 1947,
as well as a library. The 1947 addition reflects the Art Deco style of the period.
During the energy crisis of the 1970s, another remodel lowered Lowell’s ceilings, added fluorescent
lighting, and installed smaller windows, all in an effort to conserve energy. In March 2006, voters
approved a bond levy providing for additional upgrades and renovations to several Boise school
buildings, including Lowell. In 2010, new heating and cooling systems and more energy and water
conservation upgrades were done. That same year, Lowell added a computer lab with internet-ready
SMART Boards and projectors.
Over the years, the IEA has recognized Lowell for
its outstanding volunteer efforts from families and
staff, and the U.S. Department of Education chose
Lowell Elementary in 1994 as a Blue Ribbon School.
In the 2000-2001 school year, Lowell began its
English Language Learners program, celebrating a
new chapter in student body diversity. Still offering
grades K-6, Lowell Elementary’s motto is “Educating
all students since 1913… For today and beyond.”
Lowell stands as an example of the dozens of Idaho
school buildings that have not only endured for
more than a century but have adapted to the ever-
changing needs of Idaho students.
o

22
IEA and the NEA
1898 Idaho teachers attend the National Education Association’s convention in
Washington, D.C., for the first time.
1920 The Idaho State Teachers Association (which changed its name to the
Idaho Education Association in 1927) affiliates with the NEA.
1947-48 IEA incorporates and unifies with the NEA.
1968 NEA provides financial and staff assistance to the IEA’s efforts to impose
sanctions on Idaho, declaring it unethical for out-of-state teachers to take
jobs in Idaho.
1970 IEA’s executive committee approves participation in the new NEA UniServ
program for hiring staff to work at the local level. Boise teacher Jack
White is employed as the first UniServ director in the country. IEA dubs
these staff members “region directors.”
1970s Northwest Nazarene College student Mike Poe is elected Student NEA
vice president.
1970s Louise Jones, New Meadows, helps found the NEA Women’s Caucus and
the NEA Women’s Leadership Training program.
Since
1980
Five IEA members receive NEA Human & Civil Rights Awards: Frances
Paisano, Lapwai — Leo Reano Award; Sonia Hunt, Nampa — George I.
Sanchez Award; Pete Espinoza, Minidoka County — George I. Sanchez
Award; Grace Owens — Martin Luther King, Jr. Award; Sam Cikaitoga
(posthumously), Fremont County — Ellison Onizuka Award. Also, an
IEA-nominated human rights advocate, Tony Stewart from Coeur d’Alene,
receives the H. Council Trenholm Memorial Award.
1986 With NEA’s assistance, the IEA hires a full-time organizer for education
support professionals.
1986 Sue Hovey, Moscow, is elected to one of the nine positions on the NEA
Executive Committee. She is re-elected in 1989 and serves the maximum
two terms of three years each.
1997 Dan Sakota, Rexburg, is elected to one of nine positions on the NEA
Executive Committee. He is re-elected in 2000 and serves the maximum
two terms of three years each.
1997 IEA implements the NEA’s KEYS (Keys to Excellence in Your Schools)
program in several Idaho schools. The program continues and expands
over the next few years.
2003 NEA bestows its national Educational Support Professional of the
Year Award on Marty Meyer, a Coeur d’Alene custodian and
Association activist.
2008 Educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan, IEA member and former McCall-
Donnelly teacher, receives NEA’s Friend of Education Award, the
Association’s highest honor.

23
NEA Public Schools: Fulfilling the American Dream: President Clinton at the National Education Association Regional Assembly
1990s Memorabilia

24
B
attling for legitimacy and
credibility as an organization and
a profession had occupied much
of the ISTA’s effort in the first
decades of the 20th century. By
1926, a great deal of work toward that end
had been accomplished. The Association
hired and named its first Executive Secretary
that year, John I. Hillman, and, in 1927,
altered its constitution and re-branded
itself the Idaho Education Association. The
constitutional changes provided for seven
district associations and the creation of
local associations, with each local invited to
send representatives to the annual Delegate
Assembly in proportion to its membership
in the IEA. The goal was to bring the
Association to the teachers, who felt as
1926-1940
Chapter 2
o
The 1920s were an exciting time for the Idaho State Teachers’ Association. g
The organization hired John I. Hillman as the first staff member and changed the
name to reflect its broad mission for education throughout Idaho. g But just as the
Association found its legs, the Depression hit with such economic force that the
organization needed a new focus: making sure that the state provided adequate
funding for education. g The Depression had an immense impact on education in
Idaho. g There was a massive decline in educational funding, caused by numerous
events of the decade, not least of which were the extremely high rate of foreclosures
and the corresponding decline in property tax revenue. g The funding shortages
caused schools to close, leaving rural children, especially, with no place to attend
school. g The newly named Idaho Education Association took the state to task,
working hard to secure a funding source and hold the state accountable for its
constitutional mandate to establish and maintain free public schools. g The IEA
also worked very hard during this difficult time to make both the rural and urban
educational systems attractive to the most qualified teachers. g This meant raising
teacher certification standards and making education in Idaho more efficient. g
By the time the United States entered World War II, the IEA had achieved a number
of critical successes for education in Idaho in spite of the difficult period that was
now behind it.
Fighting for Idaho’s Children During Tough Times

25
though policy too often was created by
administrators who did not understand the
challenges of daily life in the classroom. The
changes caused IEA membership to jump
from about 60% to as high as 97% of all
Idaho teachers, provoking a later columnist
in the Association’s newsletter to look back
on this period and declare that “the teachers
took over.” In concert with the organization’s
1927 name and organizational changes,
the journal published by the ISTA as The
Idaho Teacher since 1919 was re-named the
Idaho Journal of Education. Finally, 1927
saw the Idaho Legislature adopt the ISTA’s
recommended legislation requiring at least
two years of normal school education for
elementary school teachers. Thus, by the
late 1920s the Idaho Education Association
(IEA) had succeeded in establishing itself
as the leader in all educational issues with
membership in the 3,000-4,000 range.
Having succeeded on many fronts, the IEA
nevertheless recognized that as long as people’s
vision for education evolved and changed, the
Association would always work on behalf of
Idaho’s children. The years between 1926 and
1940 represented a critical period for children
in Idaho. Faced with serious issues related
to educational funding and the worldwide
Depression, Idaho educators used the clout
they gained during the Association’s formative
years to battle for a reliable funding source.
Misuse of endowment funds combined with
Depression-related declines in county property
taxes left educators and lawmakers scrambling
for a solution without the uncertainties and
monetary discrepancies between counties
as revenues from the property tax. Facing
lawmakers who had never been asked to
appropriate state money for education, the IEA
led intense debates advocating an increased role
for the state in education funding. The 1930s
became a decisive period for establishing a state
funding mechanism and for protecting the state
endowment fund, as well as convincing state
leaders to view public education as a perpetual
state obligation, not just acting as a hero during
tough economic times. It was also a significant
era for gains in equalization of education
across and within counties, as well as improved
administrative efficiencies.
Not only did the Depression bring on a
funding crisis, it also created a nationwide
surplus of teachers. In response to this growing
problem, the IEA continued to push the State
of Idaho to improve its teacher standards in
the 1930s so as to discourage poorly-trained,
out-of-work teachers from flooding the state
and bringing the level of Idaho’s education
down. As part of its continued effort toward
the professionalization of education, the IEA
aimed to give the State Board of Education full
1927, IEA newsletter
cartoon on state education
support

26
power over certification standards and urged
the legislature to implement a salary schedule
that would attract the best and most highly
qualified teachers. Finally, the IEA continued
to wrestle with the best way to provide an
education for all students when only 17%
pursued a college education and the remainder
of students went into agriculture and other
vocational trades.
The IEA emerged from the rocky 1930s an
even stronger organization with a wide base of
support, improved status and expectations for
education, and friends in the statehouse who
supported its mission.
The Depression and the Impact
on Educational Funding
The Depression had severe consequences for
Idaho children seeking education. The IEA’s
biggest struggle in the 1930s was protecting
the supposedly untouchable endowment fund
and creating a reliable source of funding in the
face of declining property tax revenues. The
majority of educational funding had always
come from county property taxes, creating
disparate educational opportunities from county
to county, a situation magnified by the extremely
high number of farm (and other property)
failures from the late 1920s through the 1930s.
Funding had been an issue since
Idaho became a state in 1890. The federal
government provided a land grant to Idaho,
consisting of sections 16 and 36 in every
township in the state. The total acreage
amounted to approximately 3,000,000 acres,
proceeds from which were to be used to fund
public schooling. Some land exchanges were
approved for remote and forested lands that
were deemed useless for fundraising, and all
money raised from the final inventory of land
was to be placed into the state’s endowment
fund, a permanent school fund. The Idaho
Constitution permitted the fund to be used
for loans on farm mortgages and certain
types of bonds. Then, the accrued interest
was applied annually to the benefit of the
common schools. That interest was never
enough to support annual school budgets,
so the remaining demands were met through
county and local district taxes. At one time,
state law required county commissioners to
pass a levy sufficient to raise $15 per pupil of
school age, but any amount above that — up
to a maximum set by law — was left up to
the voters. Additional monies approved by
voters above the minimum set by law could be
used for necessities, such as a school wagon
to transport children to school or other
capital equipment. Unfortunately, the special
tax limitations placed on districts prevented
any desire or momentum by local school
boards to raise salaries or provide more and
improved equipment for classrooms. Thus, in
1920, State Superintendent Ethel E. Redfield
requested the ISTA’s support for legislation
that would remove caps on the maximum
special levy.
1928, Teacher and
students with
homemade globe

27
Idaho’s Endowment Fund
Things got decidedly more complicated when
the endowment fund came under attack.
The story began in the fall of 1928,
when Idaho voters were asked to vote for a
constitutional amendment (H.R. 10) which
would expand the allowed uses for endowment
funds. In addition to the ability to loan the
money on first mortgages for improved farms
within the state, as well as on state, United
States, or school district bonds — all of
which were provided for in the existing state
constitution — the measure would increase
permitted uses to include county, city, and village
bonds. The IEA was gravely concerned that such
expenditures would deplete endowment funds
and lead to an increase in taxes to make up the
difference. “Certainly we should vote against it,”
the Journal urged, but the IEA also encouraged
“every school man [to] see that his community
has a clear understanding of the problem
involved.” Despite these pleas, voters approved
the amendment.
Soon thereafter, in 1928, a routine annual
audit of Boise City’s Independent School
District raised eyebrows about potentially
missing income from state endowment funds,
causing the district to investigate and question
state leaders as to where the money might
have gone. A few key documents divulged
that concerns over state management of the
endowment fund began ten years earlier
during Moses Alexander’s term as Idaho’s
governor between 1915 and 1919. During
Alexander’s term, an official report was
provided to the governor and the legislature
disclosing a $400,000 shortage
in the endowment fund. Since no
action was taken on the concerns
raised at that time, the State Board
of Education penned a letter to the
succeeding Governor, C.C. Moore,
insisting on answers to questions
about the fund. Still, there was no
resolution and no record of the Board’s letter
ever reaching the legislature.
Upon discovering the documents that
indicated the existence of a longstanding
problem, the Boise School Board contacted all
of the Class A Independent School Districts
in the state and asked them to join in a
preliminary audit of the endowment funds,
with a view toward a full audit (at a cost of
$75,000) of the fund back to statehood. The
IEA, outraged over the casual nature of the
state officials’ past responses to the problem,
argued that it was “unlawful for even one
cent ever to be taken from these funds for
any purpose… If there has been any transfer,
therefore, it has been done unlawfully, and
the money has been expended unlawfully.”
Whether the state actually had lost money or
it had been transferred to a different fund was
irrelevant to educators; money had been taken
The IEA argued that it was “unlawful
for even one cent ever to be taken from
these funds for any purpose… If there has
been any transfer, therefore, it has been
done unlawfully, and the money has been
expended unlawfully.”
1930, Principal and students at reading table

28
from the educational budget, and
“the payers of school taxes have had
their burden increased accordingly.
If a known loss of $400,000 with
a probable additional loss of from
$100,000 to twice or three times
that amount… does not warrant a
$75,000 audit, then there has never
been warrant for the audit of any
account!”
Over the next ten years, the
IEA aimed to unveil exactly how
the endowment funds had been
mismanaged and fought for renewed
responsible management of the
money. The Idaho Constitution’s
provision for loans and bonds
to be granted from the fund had laid the
groundwork for corruption and graft. The
IEA discovered that hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the endowment fund had been
raided for many unauthorized uses, including
untraced transfers to the state’s general
fund and loans to state officials’ relatives.
Additionally, the state had sold thousands
of endowment acres to corporations despite
the law’s limit of such sales to 320 acres. The
potential for corruption had only increased
with the passage of H.R. 10 in 1928. The IEA
was saddened and disgusted with the apparent
misdeeds by state officials charged with
guarding the funds in trust, and it pledged
to find solutions. It was widely feared that
without legal protection and changes to the
law, this key funding source for education in
Idaho was in serious jeopardy.
By bringing the issue to the public and
rattling cages until the issues were resolved, the
IEA and the Idaho School Trustees’ Association
tried to ensure a protected endowment fund
for Idaho’s children. In editorial after editorial
in the late 1920s, the IEA took the legislature
to task for an inadequate appropriation for
the audit and demanded that the constitution
be amended to repeal recent allowances for
expenditures on city and village bonds. The
Association also called for a repeal of the
Farm Mortgage Fund and recommended that
a study be made on “the farm loan problem.”
If the farm loans were to continue with these
funds, the Association argued, there had to be
drastic reforms in loan procedures, for while
the state constitution allowed such loans, they
had historically resulted in losses to the fund.
Furthermore, the IEA came out against the law
that allowed for the sale (at less than $10 per
acre) of lands obtained by foreclosure. Shocked
by the blatant dishonesty of state officials, the
IEA deployed a great deal of rhetoric in the
fight. They referenced Diogenes and his search
for an honest man with a lantern in broad
daylight and pointed to the folly of providing
character education in the schools while “the
attitude of the people toward this heritage is in
doubt.” Still, the pleas fell on deaf ears.
1930, Students in line for
health inspections
1930, Teachers working in the community

29
When the stock market crashed in 1929
and the country plummeted into a headlong
financial depression that lasted for a decade,
the implications of Idaho’s farm loan provision
were more readily apparent. By the early
1930s, the IEA estimated that permanent
education funds were losing between $90,000
and $100,000 annually from farm loans, and
that as much as 40% of the monetary value of
the farm loans was nonproducing because of
foreclosure or a failure to pay either interest
or principal. The mismanagement of education
funds was a subject in the 1932 gubernatorial
campaign, when both Republican and
Democratic candidates offered opinions
about the debacle in their paid political
advertisements. That year, the Democrat,
Ben Ross, won.
In the meantime, long-term changes were
in the works. Trustees from the Boise School
District had filed a lawsuit against the state
of Idaho to force a return of endowment
fund money taken for the Farm Mortgage
Fund. While the lawsuit was making its way
through the courts, the IEA’s new Endowment
Committee came up with a variety of
recommendations for reform. The first was
an effort to better control who served on the
State Board of Land Commissioners. The
IEA hoped for a more permanent body and
personnel and, toward that end, suggested that
the Idaho Supreme Court appoint members
for lengthy terms and include a justice from
the Supreme Court as well as a member from
the State Board of Education. The Association
urged the legislature to grant the Land Board
complete control of the endowment funds
and to require that body to provide an annual
report of endowment transactions to the
legislature. Furthermore, the organization
advocated discontinuing investments that
had resulted in losses and called for a repeal
of laws that diverted principal or income of
endowment funds for non-educational use.
Despite the disclosure of the abuse of
the permanent school fund, the laws did
not change until the end of the 1930s. The
Idaho Supreme Court did rule in 1934 that
amendments to the constitution providing
for endowment funds to be invested in state
warrants and school district bonds were
unconstitutional, but by 1937, the Idaho
Legislature had done very little to stop the
misuse and “rape” of endowment money in
the law. To the pleasure of the IEA, individuals
serving on the Land Board made great
strides toward discontinuing the old policy
1930, Napping children in school
1930, Feeding children during the Depression, snacking at school
“Equality of educational opportunity is
the birthright of every American child.”
— IEA Journal, 1927

30
of investing money in patently unsafe ways,
but the laws prohibiting such investments
had not changed dramatically. Therefore, the
IEA maintained its long list of objectives to
accomplish at the statehouse, but ultimately
it was left to depend on the goodwill of those
serving on the State Land Board for most of
the 1930s. As the decade progressed, other
financial issues floated to the top of the IEA’s
heap of battles, and the organization began to
flank the funding issue from another angle.
State Funding for Education
and Equalization
Even before the Depression hit, the IEA
recognized and struggled with the fact that the
State of Idaho did not provide a single bit of
funding to educate Idaho’s children, despite the
state’s constitutional mandate for the legislature
to “establish and maintain a general, uniform,
and thorough system of public, free common
schools.” As self-appointed visionary and
watchdog for the state’s schoolchildren, the
Association faced the issue head-on and argued
that the state was shirking its responsibility to
educate its citizens.
By leaving the majority of funding
up to the counties and offering no state
contribution, the state had allowed vast
inconsistencies in educational opportunities
between counties.
The disparity between rich and poor
children and their differing access to a quality
education grew over time. In 1927, the IEA
proclaimed in its Journal that “Equality of
educational opportunity is the birthright of
every American child.” Idaho’s sole reliance
on the endowment fund and property taxes,
in conjunction with its poor method of
federal fund distribution and the state law’s
discrepancy between the levy allowed for
common versus independent school districts,
made the counties unable to provide equal
education either within their counties or
across the many counties in the state. All
districts utilized the mill formula for levies,
in which a mill represented 1/1000 of a
currency unit — in this case, the United States
dollar. Common school districts, typically
found in rural areas where students of many
ages were taught by a single teacher, were
permitted to levy only up to 10 mills on
property values, but independent districts,
usually found in wealthier urban areas, were
allowed a 30-mill levy. Yet the Association’s
research team found that many courts had
ruled in favor of educational uniformity in
public schools. Therefore, the IEA concluded
that state intervention was needed, because
“the rich sections tax themselves… lightly
to provide very good schools, while the
poor ones tax themselves very heavily and
still do not provide satisfactory educational
opportunities.” The IEA ran myriad articles
over the next few years showing calculations
and disparities of tax amounts, and pleading
with voters that “the school tax situation
demands careful study and analysis and
scientific adjustment, which only selfish
The IEA’s first success on behalf of state
funding came in 1933, when the Idaho
Legislature passed House Bill 157, Idaho’s
first official education equalization act.
a. 1932, Coeur d’Alene primary student with crepe
paper dress she designed and made as one of the
projects in Ms. Bayne’s class
b. 1933, Hailey harmonica band from
Hailey Central School, music education
c. 1934, Play day at Albion Normal School
d. 1930, Primary school projects in Coeur d’Alene.
Practical art and number work were achieved by
this method
e. 1939, Home economics for boys
f. 1939, One horse power school bus, rural district

32
and unpatriotic interests can oppose.” The
Association found that other states provided
appropriate annual funds for public schools,
while Idaho provided no revenue source for
the elementary schools, and merely matched
federal funds for vocational work in high
schools to the tune of less than one percent
(1%). Idaho was, according to the IEA,
dodging its duty to educate its citizens.
The Depression highlighted the funding
problem more than ever. Discrepancies grew
in the face of failing properties and increasing
foreclosures, resulting in lower funding from
property taxes. Rural schools were forced to
close because there was no money for teachers
or maintenance of properties. As the problem
compounded, the IEA advocated two related
policy changes. First, the organization pushed
for a state funding mechanism that was not
tied to property taxes. Second, the IEA urged
that any appropriated state money be used for
equalizing education across the counties.
Using its newsletter, the Idaho Journal
of Education, the IEA forcefully put forth
its ideas. First it pointed out that while it
appeared that mines, lumber, and public
utilities bore the biggest burden of school
funding, in fact it was “the average property
owner pay[ing] the far greater part of the
taxes — the farmer, the stockraiser, the
average businessman, the home owner in the
city.” It was time, said the IEA, for the state
to take the burden off the property owner.
In 1930, the organization’s new Equalization
Tax Committee noted that “cheapness does
not make for excellency” and recommended
raising new sources of state revenue. Ideas that
were floated included a graduated income and
inheritance tax, or luxury and natural resource
taxes. Association President John W. Condie
suggested diverting a share of the discovery
and development of the state’s natural
resources to education.
The IEA’s first success on behalf of state
funding came in 1933, when the Idaho
Legislature passed House Bill 157, Idaho’s first
official education equalization act. Having
experienced the closure of multiple rural
schools due to a lack of funds in 1932-1933,
the state finally was motivated to help. The
new law required each district to levy an
additional minimum of 3 mills and pledged
state money to make up the difference until
each classroom unit had a budget of $800.
In years when state funds were unavailable,
the Education Board was given authority to
apportion the percentage of available money.
The IEA was happy with the legislation for
two reasons. First, the Idaho law guaranteed
a minimum financial program, while similar
laws in other states were conditional. Second,
the county levy was flexible, making it possible
to reduce county property tax by substituting
state revenue when available. However,
the IEA did see flaws in the legislation. An
editorial argued that the law would not benefit
wealthy counties or classroom units, but that
the law provided “a very fine foundation” for
the distribution of state funds. In practice, the
law worked well from the start. Before the
law’s passage, at least 30 schools had closed
due to lack of funds. But during the two years
after the law’s passage, none were forced to
shut down. For some of the poorest schools,
the law had cut the property tax levy in half
and was credited with saving education in
these counties.
“Organization of education for efficiency,
with equalization of opportunity is the
underlying principle — a square deal for
every underprivileged child.”
— IEA President John W. Condie, 1931

33
However, the IEA viewed the state’s
meager initial appropriation and a lack of
secure and permanent funding as a challenge
to lobby for a reliable funding source. An
incredible 91.6% of the state’s school revenue
was still generated by property taxes, and it
was predicted that if the state would approve
$2.5 million in permanent funding, county
levies could be reduced even further. The fact
remained that “the wealth per classroom
unit… of the richest county is 320 per cent
of that of the poorest.” Therefore, the IEA
advocated raising the $2.5 million by passing
some of the tax options mentioned above and
by moving toward greater equalization and a
more even distribution of funds.
As the struggle to obtain permanent
funds went forward, the IEA researched and
led debates over the best way to raise the
money. The Association discussed annual
appropriations from the General Fund (seen
as subject to the whims of the legislature and
therefore unreliable), earmarked dollars, and
money from specific taxes. As a result, the
state experimented with many taxes during
the 1930s, including the first sales tax passed
in 1935 at a rate of 2% on retail purchases
(repealed by voters shortly thereafter), a tax
on mines, and another one on alcohol. The
alcohol tax that passed in the 1930s began
an income stream for schools that has lasted
for close to 80 years. But the voters’ repeal
of the sales tax led the IEA to conclude that
the state had not lived up to the promise of
the equalization mandate. The organization
settled upon reviving the sales tax law as
the best method to provide income for
equalization among the schools and lobbied
hard for it as the chosen method to complete
the equalization program.
Rural Schools: Consolidation
and Teacher Training
Funding was not the only issue affecting the
efficacy of rural schools. The Depression era
also unveiled the degree to which rural school
children were underprivileged when it came
to qualified and experienced teachers as well
as a consistent educational program. At the
end of the 1920s, statistics on Idaho public
schools showed just how serious the rural
school problem was, with Idaho possessing 70
four-room schools, 62 three-room schools, 198
two-room schools, and a truly overwhelming
820 one-room schools. Data also showed
that at the state level, Idaho provided little
supervision over these rural schools, so there
was great inconsistency between these schools
and their teachers compared with those in more
urban settings. For instance, the Idaho State
Board of Education found that 90% of teachers
in rural schools met only minimum certification
requirements of nine weeks of training. Those
1939, Teacher and
students reading

34
same schools also employed 83% of teachers
with only one year of training. Therefore, it
was clear that children in those schools were at
a distinct disadvantage. Of course, more basic
problems existed as well, such as poor heating
and no libraries. The IEA set out to fix these
wide-ranging problems.
At the crux of the rural school issue
was lack of organization and inefficiencies,
which caused fiscal problems. In 1927, Idaho
had 1,400 individual districts, which in turn
meant 1,400 boards of education and 4,800
board members. Of these districts, almost half
provided only seven months instead of nine
months of schooling annually. In addition to
those staggering and worrisome numbers, Idaho
employed 4,400 teachers and served 120,000
pupils. Many of these pupils were educated in
one-room schools where there were often fewer
than 20 students. This was a highly inefficient
way to spend precious funds, since a teacher’s
salary was the same whether he or she taught 10
students or 40. Consolidation of students into
fewer schools, as in a city system, would reduce
salary costs by more than half. Consolidation
would have other benefits, as well, and solve the
most grievous of rural school problems while
making the overall system less cumbersome and
costly. The IEA created a Rural Organization
Committee to study and report on the issue.
By 1929, some rural school problems
were waning. To begin with, the change in
teacher training requirements had gone into
effect, requiring at least two years of schooling
for all teachers. The number of rural school
supervisors had doubled, as well. But the costs
for educating rural children were still twice
that of urban children, and rural teachers
still departed sooner than city teachers. IEA
President John W. Condie addressed the
Delegate Assembly at the end of 1930 stating,
with all due respect to the nation’s educational
roots in the “little red schoolhouse,” the time
had come for larger, more organized school
systems. One-teacher schools cost $13.09 per
month, two-teacher schools cost $11.35 per
month, but the cost of a nine-teacher school
was only $6.61 per month. Tiny, rural schools
were costly, while merged, larger schools
were better for communities, students, and
the economy. The situation, said Condie,
called for drastic reorganizational measures.
The newly formed IEA Committee on Rural
Organization called for the cooperation of the
Idaho School Trustees’ Association, the county
superintendents, and the Idaho Grange to help
with rural school reform.
In 1933, the legislature passed a
consolidation bill, permitting three different
methods for district and temporary school
consolidations. With authority granted but
detailed plans still lacking, the IEA’s Rural
Organization Committee recommended a
survey that would determine consolidation
possibilities, institute an adequate plan of
rural supervision, and provide standard
requirements for rural school grounds/
buildings. By this time, the National
Education Association was also heavily
invested in rural school issues, having
convened a national conference on the
issue and supporting federal funding for
rural school development. After Idaho
passed the consolidation law, more
consolidations occurred than during the
previous decade, lowering the cost per
pupil, creating better schools for rural
students, and better distributing available
resources. As consolidation began to occur,
providing transportation for these far-flung
students presented a new and unanticipated
challenge, but it was minor compared with
the challenge schools had just overcome.

35
Rural children continued to suffer
under less experienced teachers who
often departed after a few short years.
The IEA continued to push for higher
levels of training throughout the 1930s to
counter the trend and constantly asked the
legislature to grant authority to the State
Board of Education to establish certification
rules related to teaching so as to provide
consistency and rigor. The Association
advocated an additional year of training for
elementary school teachers, higher standards
for principals and superintendents, college
degrees for high school teachers, and
the elimination of overlapping training
programs between the universities and
the normal schools. Eventually, these
requirements would come to pass thanks to
the persistence of the IEA, and rural children
would be afforded the same opportunities as
those in more populated areas.
Conclusion
The IEA made some organizational changes
toward the end of the 1930s and altered the dues
schedule to raise additional money to handle
the growing organization. Toward the end of
the 1930s, some major progress was made on
the issues of the decade. In 1939, voters passed
additional equalization laws as well as an
amendment to the Idaho Constitution requiring
the safe investment of endowment funds. The
legislature also approved a law that removed
farm loans from the list of legal investments for
endowment funds, a law that voters solidified
through another constitutional amendment in
1940. The IEA moved into the 1940s with a
goal of passing a new sales tax and spreading the
responsibility for education funding among the
whole population of Idaho, not just the property
holders.
The IEA also initiated discussion in the
1930s about other issues that would become
more significant to the profession during
the following 20 years. Although increased
salaries were not a particularly popular
topic during the Depression, some advances
were made in the late 1930s to bring
teacher salaries up to a
meaningful level. The
IEA’s Salary Schedule
Committee urged a
single salary schedule in
all school districts and
recommended the study
of a minimum salary
law. Additionally, the
first discussion of a
longer “tenure” for
teachers occurred
during this era, and in
1939, the IEA’s Teacher
Retirement Committee
recommended an
intensive study of
retirement options
over the next year and
a more prominent place on the legislative
agenda. These issues came to dominate the
debate over education in Idaho during the
1940s and 1950s, as World War II imposed
an entirely new set of circumstances on the
educational system.
1937, Proposed salary schedule designed to keep teachers in Idaho

36
A
s World War II imposed chaos
on domestic life in the United
States, Idaho’s educational
system suffered. After a
decade in which many teachers
found themselves unemployed or severely
underpaid, they suddenly had ample jobs
and many alternative opportunities. The IEA
discovered that Idaho’s teachers were leaving
the state in droves for brighter horizons
elsewhere, either in the form of teaching
jobs in neighboring states or war-related
manufacturing jobs, which paid significantly
higher wages. As these challenges became
evident, the IEA’s revised mission was clear:
keep good teachers in Idaho!
The IEA spent the 1940s concentrating
its efforts on maintaining a quality teaching
force in Idaho. The organization realized that
to take care of Idaho’s children, it had to focus
1940-1963
Chapter 3
o
With the onset of World War II, Idaho went from having a glut of teachers and a
serious funding problem to being a state with a teacher shortage and a loud cry
for increased salaries. g Wartime mobility, the sudden availability of high-paying
war-related jobs, and the subsequent postwar baby boom caused major teacher
shortages across Idaho. g The state handed out emergency permits to barely
qualified people who were willing to take on a classroom during the national
emergency, and schools drastically cut back on class offerings. g The shortage
of teachers led the IEA to lobby for a great number of reforms, including the
creation of a retirement system, minimum salaries, continuing contracts, improved
certification requirements, and even further consolidation of school districts. g
The work of the IEA during this period led to the organization’s growing recognition
that it could not remain outside of politics, since so many of these changes were
created as law at the statehouse. g As part of this evolution, the IEA made changes
within its own structure in order to affect a better relationship with the National
Education Association and to involve its own membership. g By the time the 1960s
rolled around, the IEA was clear on its modern mission and what it needed to do
for Idaho’s educational system. g And it was organizationally prepared for the
political fights that were to come.
Keep the Teachers Here!

37 Teacher and student at brick school, rural district

38
on Idaho’s teachers. In the words of one IEA
President, “Child welfare and teacher welfare
[are] inseparably connected.” During a time
when the country’s standard of living was
increasing rapidly and teachers departed for
alternative professional options that would
provide a better living, the children suffered
because of the resulting poor education.
“We cannot be sincerely concerned with the
interests of boys and girls in this state,” he
continued, “and at the same time minimize
the importance of those factors which help
to secure and retain the services of better-
qualified teachers.” The IEA helped legislators
realize it was up to them
to entice teachers to
remain in Idaho. With
the IEA leading the way,
lawmakers focused first
on salary and retirement
legislation.
At the start of the
decade, Idaho’s school
districts had limited
options for raising their
teachers’ salaries. There
were no state monies
provided, and the
legislature had, many
years before, capped
levies that counties and
school districts could
impose. Furthermore,
state law prohibited
districts from incurring
debt beyond 95% of
anticipated revenues. Without
changes in the state law, raising
salaries would be nearly impossible
for individual districts. At a 1944
special session, the legislature
enacted two measures meant
to help with the low salaries
and teacher shortage in Idaho.
One measure provided county
commissioners the ability to levy an additional
tax to raise teacher salaries and, if necessary,
ask the state for additional assistance. The other
provided for a state appropriation of up to
$100,000 to aid needy districts. But the actions
of the 1944 Legislature may have been too
little, too late, since it was discovered that many
teachers had already departed for better paying
jobs elsewhere.
By the following year, lawmakers took
further steps to make teaching in Idaho
more attractive. The newly created Idaho
Education Council (of which the IEA was a
part) together with the governor-appointed
Education Committee prepared a plan to
complete Idaho’s equalization program. The
Council recommended the state appropriate
a per-classroom budget minimum of $135
per month for elementary units and $175
per month for high school, along with a
minimum transportation program of $2 per
student per month for students transported
more than two miles. The proposal
also included an increase in district and
county levy limits and a minimum teacher
salary set at $133 per month. Finally,
the recommendation included maximum
classroom sizes of 30 for larger elementary
schools and 22 for one-room schools, with
high school maximums set at 23 pupils and
8 pupils respectively for larger schools and
one-teacher high schools. Not all of these
recommendations were passed into law.
However, the legislature did increase the
allowable levy amount, raised the state’s
“We cannot be sincerely concerned with the
interests of boys and girls in this state,” he
continued, “and at the same time minimize
the importance of those factors which help
to secure and retain the services of better-
qualified teachers.”
1944, Wrigley’s gum advertisement,
Idaho Education Association newsletter

39
“Don’t walk out on the school children
of Idaho by leaving the profession or by
deserting to another state with a better
program… Stay with us and make the fight.
Idaho’s children are entitled to the same
educational heritage as the children of
other states. Stand by them. Roll up your
sleeves and battle for the cause. Your own
welfare is an important factor; you need not
hesitate to enlist in the fight for that, also.”
— IEA President Howard Andrews, 1945
minimum program by 30%, and provided
assistance to all districts that requested
extra money to fund increased salaries. A
subsequent study of median annual salaries
showed improvement ($200 higher than
the previous year), with high school teacher
salaries inching closer to other states.
Although elementary salaries were still on
the low side, the IEA nonetheless concluded
that “the future for education in Idaho looks
much brighter.”
Little did they know that 4,200 Idaho
teachers already had left the profession during
the war for higher salaries, job security in
the form of a fair workplace, and “old-age
security.” By 1945, Idaho remained one of
only a handful of states that had not enacted
retirement legislation for teachers. And the
meager salary increases provided by the state
and districts had not even approached the
cost-of-living increases during the war. The
IEA found that the cost of living during World
War I had risen 108%, and that World War II
had resulted in an increase of another 31%.
So many people left the profession that by
December 1944 there were 539 emergency
teachers working in the state, and 978 by
the end of the school year in June 1945. By
the end of the following school year, the
number had jumped to 1,200. The emergency
certificates were granted to virtually anyone,
leaving many students with inexperienced,
untrained teachers.
The IEA nevertheless implored career
teachers to stick it out. In the words of IEA
President Howard Andrews: “Don’t walk out
on the school children of Idaho by leaving the
profession or by deserting to another state
with a better program… Stay with us and
make the fight. Idaho’s children are entitled to
the same educational heritage as the children
of other states. Stand by them. Roll up your
sleeves and battle for the cause. Your own
welfare is an important factor; you need not
hesitate to enlist in the fight for that, also.”
Despite the fear of losing teachers, Helen
Moore, president of the IEA’s classroom
teacher group, wrote a column in which she
expressed sympathy for the teacher who
chose to leave the classroom for farming or
any other profession, while she also made
some pointed comments to policymakers. In
a comparison of jobs, she showed that the
average yearly income for Idaho farm workers
in 1945-46 was $2,068, while elementary
school teachers averaged only $1,534. A
frustrated Moore explained: “The person who
does not wish to feed hogs can do better in
any other profession than at teaching.” Coal
mining would provide an annual salary of
$2,996; bus driving $2,465; and telephone
operation $2,126. Moore suggested that Idaho
undergo a complete survey of education in the
state and come up with a plan to address these
discrepancies and keep our best teachers here.
The IEA lobbied the legislature hard for
a retirement program that would persuade
teachers to stay. Although the IEA proposed
a program to the 1939 legislative session,
the 1940 session, the 1941 session, and
each year following, the lawmakers did not
make it a priority and could not agree on
its provisions until 1946. When the teacher
shortage emergency became clear at the end
of 1945, the state’s leaders were finally ready
to act. By then, 47 states and the Territory
of Hawaii had implemented retirement
programs for their teachers, but Idaho still had

40
“In view of the fact that Idaho is the only
state in the Union that has not protected
its teachers with a retirement law, it is
quite clear that no research is necessary to
determine that the state must take action.”
— Idaho School Survey Commission, 1945
not. The Idaho School Survey Commission,
appointed in 1945, considered the problem
and prepared new legislation, and some
opined that “in view of the fact that Idaho
is the only state in the Union that has not
protected its teachers with a retirement law,
it is quite clear that no research is necessary
to determine that the state must take action.”
The IEA approved hiring an actuary to outline
a sound retirement plan, and IEA Executive
Secretary John Hillman stressed, “One hard
fact should be emphasized. A retirement
program is compensation for service rendered,
not charity.” Retirement allowances were
based on pay, he explained, and the basic
principle of retirement plans had been firmly
established by industrial programs, other
states’ teacher retirement laws, and the
Federal Social Security Program. The 1945
proposal suggested a minimum retirement
age of 60 (with compulsory retirement at 70)
and provided benefits, administration, fund
management, guaranty, fraud protection,
and membership limitations. However, there
was a question as to who would pay for the
program, with some citizens suggesting a
program fully funded by the teachers. The IEA
warned that “an attempt is already underway
to shift the entire cost of the public’s share
of the program to the individual school
districts, for school district employees. This
would require ten times as heavy a tax in
the poorer districts, for a program that is the
responsibility in equal measure of all taxpayers
alike.” The IEA firmly believed that the state
should share in the cost of such a program.
In February 1946, Governor Arnold
Williams called the 28th Legislature into
Extraordinary Session. It was an off year
for the biennial legislature, but the reasons
for Williams’ decision were threefold, with
the third pertaining to the critical shortage
of teachers in Idaho. To address teacher
retention, the legislators produced and passed
House Bill No. 10, which finally created
a teachers’ retirement system for Idaho. It
was a voluntary system, however, and only
2,000 of the approximately 4,500 eligible
teachers had enrolled in the program by that
fall. Lawmakers and educators tweaked the
program a bit the following year. Although
efforts to include custodial and clerical
education workers in the Idaho Teachers’
Retirement System failed, other improvements
were made. The first was to exempt retirement
allowances from Idaho income tax; another
1956, Chart showing enrollment growth in the
wake of the postwar baby boom, Idaho Education
Association newsletter

41
allowed beneficiaries to receive half the
retiree’s final compensation (and all of the
accumulated contributions) if the retiree
died while on leave or within four months of
retirement; yet another allowed the 15 years of
required service to accumulate during non-
consecutive years. Additional improvements
enabled certain funding at the county level.
For the ensuing 17 years, the retirement
plan did not change significantly, although the
system was frequently under attack and even
jeopardized by lack of state appropriations.
In the early 1950s, the state superintendent
and State Board of Education took over
management of the fund, eliminating the
Retirement Board and providing a more
secure financial footing. The IEA considered
the assurance of a sound retirement to
be “a major factor in holding teachers in
Idaho during the grave teacher shortage.”
Even so, the Association spent a good deal
of time in the 1950s defending the system
from politicians who wanted to cut or even
eliminate public funding.
Fortunately, the legislature had appointed
a School Survey Commission, which was
charged with exploring the problem of
teacher shortages and making additional
recommendations for improvement. The
Commission in turn contracted experts at
Peabody College to assist with the surveys,
and the final report strongly urged the
adoption of the retirement program as
outlined above. Other areas of the survey
pointed to the continued challenge for rural
schools of teacher shortages and lack of
teacher experience. Commission chair Asher
Wilson stated, “We cannot be expected to
have, and in fact we do not have, very many
teachers in the elementary rural schools whose
education fits them to be first class instructors.
The main reason is that the pittance given
for such instruction is in many instances
not worthy of being called a salary, and the
teacher must at the close of the school year
seek employment during the vacation months,
to keep soul and body together until another
term starts.” But by the close of 1946, some
additional progress had been made. A number
of Idaho schools had adopted a single salary
schedule, which gave all teachers of the same
experience and training the same salary
regardless of whether they taught in the lower
1956, Chart showing low Idaho teacher salaries,
Idaho Education Association newsletter
“The main reason [for the shortage]
is that the pittance given for such
instruction is in many instances not
worthy of being called a salary, and
the teacher must at the close of the
school year seek employment during the
vacation months, to keep soul and body
together until another term starts.”
— School Survey Commission Chair, Asher Wilson, 1946

The Story of the Idaho Education Association Since 1892

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The Story of the Idaho Education Association Since 1892