February Twin Falls Democrats

 

Twin Falls Democrats

February 2012

 

Need something to do? 

Sunday-"Inside Job" Movie Party-host Dylan Stone
Near Eastland in Twin Falls
528 Ballingrude Dr
Twin Falls, ID 83301
Sunday, 12 Feb 2012,  3:00 PM

To sign up for this event, click here:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/insidejob/126583

 

Twin Falls County Democrats central committee meeting is changing!!! We are going back to the third Wednesday of each month for our meetings. Our next meeting will be

February 15

at 1401 Poplar,

home of Deborah and LeRoy.

7:00 pm

 This meeting is open to Democrats and those who support Democratic values. Topics-Candidate Recruitment in the new districts.

 

Linda Jones invites us

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20

6:00 P.M.

CSI, ASPEN BLDG, RM.108

nLet's talk about recent changes to education in Idaho.  nHow do the new laws affect our children? nHow can we WORK TOGETHER to keep our schools STRONG?

 

 

The Frank Church Weekend in Boise.  February 24-26. This weekend will be filled with candidate training, with issues training, and meetings for local activists.  Friday night begins with a potluck for county delegations and their friends.  Saturday, the morning begins with presentations on current issues like education.  These activities are free, and open to Democrats.

Saturday evening, February 25 is the Frank Church Banquet. We will put together a table for Twin Falls County Folks.  Let me know if you will be attending.

~Gala ~ $65 early-bird tickets on sale through 1/15/12*. ( Tickets prices will increase to $75 on 1/16/12. and to $85 on 2/23/12.)

* This is the state party's pledge fund -D.E.M. Club Members can enjoy our early bird rate through 2/22/12. Click http://idahodems.org/dem/ to learn more about our DEM Club, or to become a member today.

Guest Speaker - John C. Stocks

John C. Stocks, a national leader in the fight to transform America's public schools, is the executive director of the National Education Association (NEA).

The nation's largest union, NEA and its affiliates across the country represent 3.2 million educators from pre-school to university graduate programs.

Read more about Mr. Stocks at http://idahodems.org/?p=1822

Presidential caucus is April 14^th, 2012. Thanks to Etha Carruthers who has volunteered to be caucus chair for Twin Falls county. 

 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.

What happened in the last month?

January 24-. –We had over 40 folks at our State of the Union party at Rock Creek.  Thank you Rock Creek!

Despite a scheduling mishap with our legislators, Pizza and Politics at Gerties had a crowd of over 30 people in attendance. Democratic Legislators Sue Chew, Edgar Malepeai, John Rusche, Diane Bilyeu gave us their take on what is going on in the legislature.

 

 

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.

Education 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 9^th 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.

 

These laws will be on the ballot. A majority of no votes would repeal the bills. 

 

Deborah Silver

Twin Falls County Democratic Chairwoman

2188 Addison Ave. East

Twin Falls, ID 83301

phone 208-420-1663

 

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