Far from the higher-profile conflagrations that played out in Ohio, Wisconsin and Indiana, Republican lawmakers in Idaho approved some of the most sweeping restrictions on tenure and collective bargaining of any state in the country.
Union officials have since then launched an effort to overturn three laws that made up a controversial package of education policy changes. And now, Idaho Republican Gov. C.L. Otter is vowing to personally campaign to defend those laws.
Otter, who backed the measures, along with state schools chief Tom Luna, tells the Spokane Spokesman-Review that he will try to enlist lawmakers friendly to the package, dubbed “Students Come First,” in the battle. He will also ask outside organizations that backed the legislation to help him defeat the referenda.
Backers of the referenda tell the paper they’re confident that they’re gathering enough valid signatures to have three items placed on the ballot in the fall of 2012—as Propositions 1, 2, and 3.
“We’re going to do our level best to make sure that the correct information gets out,” Otter told the paper. “We’ve got 18 months to make our case.”