Idaho House Passes Legislation to end Taxpayer Funding for Teachers Unions

February 13, 2025  

(Boise) – The Idaho House of Representatives yesterday passed legislation to end taxpayer funding for teachers unions. Introduced by Rep. Judy Boyle (R-Midvale) [pictured here] and Sen. Ben Toews (R-Coeur d’ Alene), House Bill 98 passed by a vote of 40-29. Nineteen Republicans joined all 10 of the chamber’s Democrats in voting against the proposal. If adopted, this Freedom Foundation-supported proposal would make teachers unions more accountable .... 

Freedom Foundation testimony in support of HB 98 before the House State Affairs Committee:

using public payroll systems and personnel to deduct union dues from teachers’ paychecks; contributing taxpayer funds to a teachers union; providing teachers with paid leave to engage in union operations and activism, unless the union reimburses the district for the value of the teacher’s time out of the classroom; paying teachers’ union dues for them with taxpayer funds; providing more of a teacher’s personal information to a union than is disclosable under the Public Records Act, unless the teacher authorizes the disclosure; requiring teachers to meet or interact with a teachers union if they do not wish to do so; and distributing communications or membership solicitations on behalf of a teachers union.

Idaho Health Board First in U.S. to Defy CDC and FDA by Removing COVID Vaccines From Clinics

Idaho’s Southwest District Health will no longer offer COVID-19 vaccines after its board voted 4-3 last week to pull the shots from the 30 locations where it provides healthcare services.  

By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., (pictured right). To view the original full length publication, click here.

Idaho’s Southwest District Health will no longer offer COVID-19 vaccines after its board voted 4-3 last week to pull the shots from the 30 locations where it provides healthcare services.

“It’s the first health agency in America to do that,” Laura Demaray, a Southwest Idaho resident and nurse who attended the Oct. 22 vote, told The Defender. 

Miste Karlfeldt, executive director of Health Freedom Idaho, agreed that the board’s vote is historic. “It’s thrilling,” she told The Defender.

Good News Worth Remembering

By Margaret Dore, Esq.

In 2010, Kathryn Tucker, Director of Legal Affairs for Compassion & Choices, published an article in the Idaho Bar Association magazine, The Advocate. The article referred to assisted suicide and euthanasia as “aid in dying,” which Tucker claimed was legal in Idaho.  

The reaction to Tucker's claim was swift and brutal. In the next issue of The Advocate, there were nine letters against her. The writers included a former Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, Robert E. Bakes, who characterized her article as a “gross misunderstanding of Idaho law.” Another writer termed the article "malarkey."

Idaho Strengthens Law Against Assisted-Suicide

Butch Otto

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Updated 07/26/19

On April 5, 2011, Idaho Governor Butch Otto signed Senate Bill 1070 into law.[1] The bill explicitly provided that causing or aiding a suicide is a felony.[2]  

The bill supplemented existing Idaho law, which already imposed civil and criminal liability on doctors and others who cause or aid a suicide.[3] The bill's "Statement of Purpose" said: "This legislation will supplement existing common law and statutory law by confirming that it is illegal to cause or assist in the suicide of another."[4]

The bill was introduced in response to efforts by Compassion & Choices to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Idaho. The issue came to a head after that organization's legal director, Kathryn Tucker, wrote articles claiming that the practice, which she called "aid in dying," was already legal in Idaho. Compassion & Choices was formerly known as the Hemlock Society.[5]