Idaho’s new education law that weakens some teachers’ bargaining rights passes constitutional muster, a state judge ruled in a legal challenge filed by the Idaho Education Association.
The law, approved this year, phases out some job protections, limits collective bargaining, and drops seniority as a factor in layoffs. Idaho District Judge Timothy Hansen ruled late last month that the law, and its provisions that limit contracts between school districts and teachers to one year, was constitutional.
The judge wrote that such intervention by the state may impair contracts, but “is both reasonable and necessary to the legitimate purposes” of the law, including “returning decisionmaking power to local school boards.”
The teachers union said it would appeal.
