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My Ex husband's uncle had a feed lot there back in the 80's. I have never been there, but have known peope from there and have always heard how beautiful it is. Good for you, enjoy your new location.
I think you're right and the motivation goes beyond taxes and economics. They're also fed up with the blue state "progressive" social culture. And, like you say, outnumbered and helpless to do anything about it.
I've had my eye on Idaho for many years now, but remain stuck here as I don't have the financial means to start over in Idaho without a job. But I'm getting closer to retirement, so there is light at the end of the tunnel.
We're in a similar economic situation but we're basically willing to go into more debt to make the move. I am still relatively young (33) and so are our kids (4 and one due in January) so suffering off the start will eventually be worn off as the lower cost of living eventually allows us to get our debt under control and eventually repaid, something I don't see happening in CT.
Helpless is so apt in this situation, that is how I felt last tuesday night. In less than ten years my state which used to have a Rep gov, a few rep congressman, a moderate senator and a state house that leaned dem but not too much now has blue across the board and in many cases they're farther to the left than ever. In the last couple of years they increased the sales tax, made it apply to services and other things it used to not apply to. We have one of the highest gas tax, high utility taxes, very high sin taxes. We have a car tax where we have to shell out hundred or more a year to our town just for having a registered car in the state. It prompts those to register the car out of state in order to avoid it. But even with the hefty gas tax and car tax and having the 2nd highest per capita tax in the country it's still not enough to take care of the roads apparently so they're now pushing for toll booths.
Hopeless is a perfect description of where my state is going and why it's about to be an "ex" state for me. I like many others fleeing these situations is looking for a place to go where this will not happen. I don't think we'd make for bad neighbors one bit, quite the contrary. I don't care what color you are, what sexual orientation you have, or even what your personal beliefs are. I just ask that you don't try to actively use the government to project your beliefs on me. From what I have read on these Idaho boards here I feel like my way of life that I desire is one where I'd actually have neighbors who feel the same way in Idaho. To me that is extremely attractive and why Idaho is #1 right now on my list of places to move to.
Given our history, it's more likely that Idaho will come back to it's moderate center. When and how fast that happens will be determined, but there have already been signs that the swing is underway.
I would say that Tom Luna getting his head handed to him in the election last week demonstrates a bit of a shift back to the center.
I would say that Tom Luna getting his head handed to him in the election last week demonstrates a bit of a shift back to the center.
Yes, it does. Down here, almost all the extremists were defeated in the primaries earlier this year. That, to me, was a good sign of how the Props would do in November.
Folks in Idaho don't like to be told what's good for them, and they don't like to be sandbagged by their elected officials.
Yes, it does. Down here, almost all the extremists were defeated in the primaries earlier this year. That, to me, was a good sign of how the Props would do in November.
Folks in Idaho don't like to be told what's good for them, and they don't like to be sandbagged by their elected officials.
All I have is a wikipedia source to look over those reforms with. But what was so undesirable about those reforms that caused people to overwhelmingly vote republican but also in the same breath strike down those educational reforms?
The only of those things I found absolutely ridiculous was the issuing of free laptops to students as that has bad idea written all over it. Things about taking away tenure, merit based pay, contracts on a 1 to 2 year basis, increasing of classroom sizes all sound like moves that need to be made across the country and it wouldve been nice to see it put in action in a state so that it could be pointed to as proof the society won't crumble there.
I would've figured that innovative approach to efficiency would be welcome in Idaho. Is there something I am missing? Or did the Teachers union do an effective job at demonizing it and play the "wont someone think of the children" card that typically gets people to open up their wallet and start throwing their money at thing?
I was looking at the Kootenai County precint election results just looking at the presidential results. I was almost giddy in seeing the splits be 70%R 20%D in a lot of the precincts. Only 2 or 3 of them had a majority D and those were located in the downtown CDA area. Those numbers were almost immediately offset in the surrounding precincts where it swung in huge numbers for the R. Coming from a location in CT where you see the swing in the opposite it's almost a fantasy land to me. I live in one of the more "moderate" parts of the state supposedly. We had a R state rep and he would've been a D in most anywhere else, he was beaten out by a D who was endorsed by the Working Families Party.
When you say moderates, as in Idaho going back to the center. What type of conservatism are you seeing voters reject? Is it the social kind or the fiscal kind? I can deal with social rejection, but the fiscal kind is extremely important to me. My problem with the "moderates" is that they still believe in a system that needs to regulate and babysit the citizens, just to lesser of a degree then a full fledged liberal. It's not that I dislike liberals, I just hate the tactic employed by them of using the government to force their views onto others. There are certainly too many R's who do the same thing as well so that's why I want to get yours or anyone elses clarification on just what type of politician Idaho is rejecting.
All I have is a wikipedia source to look over those reforms with. But what was so undesirable about those reforms that caused people to overwhelmingly vote republican but also in the same breath strike down those educational reforms?
The only of those things I found absolutely ridiculous was the issuing of free laptops to students as that has bad idea written all over it. Things about taking away tenure, merit based pay, contracts on a 1 to 2 year basis, increasing of classroom sizes all sound like moves that need to be made across the country and it wouldve been nice to see it put in action in a state so that it could be pointed to as proof the society won't crumble there.
I would've figured that innovative approach to efficiency would be welcome in Idaho. Is there something I am missing? Or did the Teachers union do an effective job at demonizing it and play the "wont someone think of the children" card that typically gets people to open up their wallet and start throwing their money at thing?
I was looking at the Kootenai County precint election results just looking at the presidential results. I was almost giddy in seeing the splits be 70%R 20%D in a lot of the precincts. Only 2 or 3 of them had a majority D and those were located in the downtown CDA area. Those numbers were almost immediately offset in the surrounding precincts where it swung in huge numbers for the R. Coming from a location in CT where you see the swing in the opposite it's almost a fantasy land to me. I live in one of the more "moderate" parts of the state supposedly. We had a R state rep and he would've been a D in most anywhere else, he was beaten out by a D who was endorsed by the Working Families Party.
When you say moderates, as in Idaho going back to the center. What type of conservatism are you seeing voters reject? Is it the social kind or the fiscal kind? I can deal with social rejection, but the fiscal kind is extremely important to me. My problem with the "moderates" is that they still believe in a system that needs to regulate and babysit the citizens, just to lesser of a degree then a full fledged liberal. It's not that I dislike liberals, I just hate the tactic employed by them of using the government to force their views onto others. There are certainly too many R's who do the same thing as well so that's why I want to get yours or anyone elses clarification on just what type of politician Idaho is rejecting.
I have to agree. It seems that public education in the USA needs reform. What we have been doing is not working. Throwing more $ at the situation doesn't seem to improve anything. Thus I am at a loss on why some of the props didn't pass. I think many people didn't actually read it and just voted what their kids teachers told them to vote for. (No evidence to back this at all...) Of course, this is waayyy off topic from OP...
All I have is a wikipedia source to look over those reforms with. But what was so undesirable about those reforms that caused people to overwhelmingly vote republican but also in the same breath strike down those educational reforms?
The only of those things I found absolutely ridiculous was the issuing of free laptops to students as that has bad idea written all over it. Things about taking away tenure, merit based pay, contracts on a 1 to 2 year basis, increasing of classroom sizes all sound like moves that need to be made across the country and it wouldve been nice to see it put in action in a state so that it could be pointed to as proof the society won't crumble there.
I would've figured that innovative approach to efficiency would be welcome in Idaho. Is there something I am missing? Or did the Teachers union do an effective job at demonizing it and play the "wont someone think of the children" card that typically gets people to open up their wallet and start throwing their money at thing?
The teachers unions (and other unions) spend a massive amount of money on advertising demonizing these reforms. It is unfortunate, in that it protected poor teachers, made it impossible to reward one that perform well based on merit and further limited technology-based instruction. I actually thought the computer-based courses were an excellent idea in our state. In many small schools, there aren't enough students interested in classes in certain electives to justify offering it. Take calculus as an example...if there are only 3-4 kids interested in the class at a given school, it doesn't make economic sense to offer it. With computer-based classes, you could use one teacher and address the entire state. The kids benefit.
Add to that the reduction in hard-copy text books, that are out of date in a short time. E-books eliminates this as an issue. In addition, you "save the trees" by not producing so much paper. Most important, it prepares kids better for the real world, where computers are a fact of life.
My understanding is that the kids weren't "given" a free laptop, they were issued one for the school year and turned them in at the end of the year, just like a textbook. Can anyone confirm this?
The teachers unions (and other unions) spend a massive amount of money on advertising demonizing these reforms. It is unfortunate, in that it protected poor teachers, made it impossible to reward one that perform well based on merit and further limited technology-based instruction. I actually thought the computer-based courses were an excellent idea in our state. In many small schools, there aren't enough students interested in classes in certain electives to justify offering it. Take calculus as an example...if there are only 3-4 kids interested in the class at a given school, it doesn't make economic sense to offer it. With computer-based classes, you could use one teacher and address the entire state. The kids benefit.
Add to that the reduction in hard-copy text books, that are out of date in a short time. E-books eliminates this as an issue. In addition, you "save the trees" by not producing so much paper. Most important, it prepares kids better for the real world, where computers are a fact of life.
My understanding is that the kids weren't "given" a free laptop, they were issued one for the school year and turned them in at the end of the year, just like a textbook. Can anyone confirm this?
It seems like a novel idea and frankly around the country there is very very little innovation on the educational front. The teachers union is extremely strong and they have a lot more public support than regular unions do due to the perception that they're trying to do what's best for the kids.
My assumption of the Laptop thing was that even the textbooks when issued to a kid get treated like crap because it's not theirs. It's the whole problem of the commons issue where people tend not to take care of things that are not their own. I also see that schools don't really do a good job of shopping for the best deals so they'd likely be buying all macbooks or some other overpriced laptop and then have to hire a lot of IT support staff in the schools to maintain all these computers which will more than likely be destroyed or littered with trojans and viruses. I just could see a massive cost overruns down the road and frankly I really disliked the thought of tax dollars being used in such a manner.
The online classes would be a good idea. Most colleges offer a good portion of them, I know mine did. It was a little getting used to at first and exposing students to this in Highschool would aboslutely be beneficial. It could be done via computer lab though and not require the issuing of a laptop. Just give a student a flex period similar to a study hall where they go to the computer lab for their extra class of choice. I know I would've loved to have an option of a deeper course catalog similar to college courses.
I'd really love to learn more of the details of why this got shot down and what were the leading factors causing some of the votes to go which way or not. If my characterizations are wrong please tell me that they are and correct me. Like I said, I am only going off a wiki page and I know they're not entirely accurate.
The teachers unions (and other unions) spend a massive amount of money on advertising demonizing these reforms. It is unfortunate, in that it protected poor teachers, made it impossible to reward one that perform well based on merit and further limited technology-based instruction. I actually thought the computer-based courses were an excellent idea in our state. In many small schools, there aren't enough students interested in classes in certain electives to justify offering it. Take calculus as an example...if there are only 3-4 kids interested in the class at a given school, it doesn't make economic sense to offer it. With computer-based classes, you could use one teacher and address the entire state. The kids benefit.
Add to that the reduction in hard-copy text books, that are out of date in a short time. E-books eliminates this as an issue. In addition, you "save the trees" by not producing so much paper. Most important, it prepares kids better for the real world, where computers are a fact of life.
My understanding is that the kids weren't "given" a free laptop, they were issued one for the school year and turned them in at the end of the year, just like a textbook. Can anyone confirm this?
The Teachers Association isn't a union. It's a professional's organization just like the Idaho Bar Association or the Association of Medicine. As such, teachers are rated by a peer review; if a teacher is not meeting school district standards, that's the first place where they are rated. If a poor teacher receives a bad rating, their certificate may be revoked, and they can no longer teach. Just like a lawyer can be disbarred or a doctor can lose his license to practice.
For a fact, I have known several former teachers who had their certificates revoked. I also know some student teachers who were never certified due to poor performance.
The causes for de-certification are several; some deal with the teacher's knowledge of the subjects they teach, others deal with classroom discipline, and others deal with how effective a teacher is. Seniority plays no part in de-certification.
The Association liked the merit pay provision, but they believed merit pay from the state should be given, not from Boise, but in block grants to the local districts. The district supervisors and the Association could then decide the recipients, the number of recipients, and how much merit pay would be distributed.
This makes sense. Who knows deserving teachers the best? Those who work with them daily or some bureaucrat from Boise who does not know them at all?
The laptop proposal was a train wreck from the beginning. There was nothing in the law that provided for the server banks and high speed connections needed by the schools to make the computers effective. And, in some districts, there are no high speed connections to be had. Net access is only done by dial-up modems. Of course, there are districts that are a lot richer than others as well. Some schools already have all the infrastructure they need. There was a big potential battle built in between the districts in high populations and those with fewer students, and the poor districts vs. the wealthy districts.
If Prop 3 had passed, buying all the infrastructure would cost us taxpayers 3-4 times more than the laptops, and the laptop deal with H-P was a major ripoff in itself.
Finally, the voters decided who was best to teach their kids. They didn't like the idea of K-12, the big online teaching outfit replacing the teachers who live, pay taxes and spend their wages just like the rest of us. Almost everyone in Idaho knows some teachers, and they are our friends and relatives. Further lining the bulging pockets of Mr. Scott, the billionaire Albertson heir who owns K-12, didn't sit well with the voters.
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