October 2011
Twin Falls County Democrats central committee meeting is changing!!! We are going back to the third Wednesday of each month for our meetings. Wednesday, October 19th will be our next meeting. This will be held at 7:00 pm at the home of LeRoy Hayes and Deborah Silver-1401 Poplar. We will not hold a November meeting. This is a general business meeting. We will be discussing the city council candidates, and the recruiting of legislative candidates. You are welcome to attend if you support the Democratic Party. Come and meet like minded people.
A Legislative map has been approved by the new commission. It appears that most of the city of Twin Falls is in one district. It takes most of eastern outskirts of Twin Falls county with Cassia and Power county, and western Twin Falls goes with Elmore county and eastern Owyhee county.
Here is a link to the map report from the commission:
http://legislature.idaho.gov/redistricting/Reports/L87.pdf
- Here is a link to a Idaho redistricting history by Gary Moncrief of Boise State University.
http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/redistricting/meetings/redistricting_0607_moncrief.pdf
October 5th wine tasting for Twin Falls Democrats at the Rock Creek Restaurant was a great success. Thanks to all of you who made it happen-especially Carol and Stan Thomas.
October 29th in Sun Valley-Blaine County will be hosting a training and regional Democratic meeting. Please mark your calendar now!!!
Christmas Party-December 21st
Presidential caucus is April 14th, 2012.
At the caucus, we elect representatives to go to the state convention, from the state convention we elect representatives to go to the national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina the week of September 3, 2012.
Outrageinidaho.com links to the news stories about education.
Facebook has pages for Twin Falls County Democrats and Outrage in Idaho. You don't have to be a facebook user to access the pages.
Twin Falls County Democrats are funded by donations from local Democrats. If you are able to make a monthly donation to Twin Falls Democrats, please contact Etha Carruthers at eccharliebrown@hotmail.com.
First Wednesday of each month, Liberally Living meets at 7:00 pm at the Rock Creek Restaurant.
Education
Bill Referendums-
Under Senate Bill 1108, your child's teacher can be fired at any time, for any reason, without a fair hearing. If enrollment declines in the fall, teachers can be laid off weeks after a school year starts. Idaho educators no longer have a say over such issues as class sizes, lesson planning, and classroom health and safety issues. Senate Bill 1108 ends four decades of productive collaboration between teachers and their school districts.
Senate Bill 1110 gives teachers bonus pay for test scores (and for taking hard-to-fill jobs and assuming leadership roles). The Idaho Education Association has agreed to merit pay. Unfortunately, it is a mandate with no funding, amid the third straight year of budget cuts to our schools, and at the same time Tom Luna ordered new spending on classroom technology and online classes. This bill could ultimately mean that one in four Idaho teaching jobs will be lost over the next few years as Tom Luna continues to push his online course and "mobile computing device" mandates.
Senate Bill 1184 essentially trades teachers for technology-computing devices for every 9th grader. It ties the hands of local school boards, forcing trustees to fund these mandates by increasing class sizes, cutting pay for teachers and other school employees, shortening the school year, eliminating extracurricular activities, or all of the above. And while lawmakers say they're holding the line on taxes, they're really just forcing local school boards to ask Idaho families to dig deeper for our schools.
In 2012 these laws will be on the ballot. A majority of no votes would repeal the bills.
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Deborah Silver
Twin Falls County Democratic Chairwoman
2188 Addison Ave. East
Twin Falls, ID 83301
phone 208-420-1663
Confidentiality Notice: This communication is intended only for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed and may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, then any use, dissemination or copying of the communication is prohibited.
