Category Archives: Idaho

Business/Economics, Idaho, Opinion, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho can’t comply with No Child Left Behind, no money

Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Luna says No Child Left Behind (aka Adequate Yearly Progress, AYP) is actually stopping states from improving student’s academic performance: “The law has become a stumbling block to continued improvement in raising student achievement.”

The main reason that AYP is a stumbling block is that states are required to pay for efforts to comply with higher standards set by the Federal program.  Luna officially told the U.S. Department of Education that Idaho will not comply with AYP standards, until it is revised to help states do so.  Idaho, among many other states, does not have the funding to meet AYP standards: “We don’t have the luxury of time and resources to continue on with the federal law that should have been rewritten four years ago.”

The problem is that Idaho’s education system is already lagging behind most of the United States, in performance and funding.  So even if AYP is revised it’s highly unlikely that Idaho can comply.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho’s May employment performance, by sector

Payrolls for Idaho’s manufacturing sector remain stuck at 1991 levels, for the 6th month in a row.

Total construction employment for May was at 1994 levels.

Idaho’s business services sector remained constant, for the third year in a row.

The health care sector created jobs in May, but at only half the pace of the past five years.

The retail sector actually added jobs, surprising some Idaho analysts.

Employment agencies also added jobs.

Overall, most sectors are stuck in 1990s employment/payroll levels.

Source: Idaho Department of Labor

 

 

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho’s Unemployment rate goes down, but not because of job creation

The Idaho Department of Labor reported a slight drop in Idaho’s unemployment, now at 9.4%, but they also reported a drop in job creation.

The Department of Labor says seasonal hiring for May was below normal levels, and that job creation was weak.  So why the drop in the unemployment rate?  Officials say it’s due to workers retiring, workers dieing, and unemployed people who have stopped looking for work!

Idaho labor officials say that so far 2011 is lagging behind 2010, when it comes to job creation.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Government Incompetence: Idaho can’t make Medicaid payments, yet 102 state employees get bonuses!

June 20, Idaho announced that they can’t make Medicaid payments, yet last week they announced bonuses for 102 government workers!

Example: Legislative Services Director Jeff Youtz, paid himself, and his staff, bonuses equal to $94,633.  The total amount of bonuses paid to agencies of the State of Idaho came to $227,003.

Idaho House Speaker Lawrence Denney said it was necessary to “…retain qualified and experienced staff.”

Idaho House Majority Leader Mike Moyle thinks otherwise: “…with the budgetary concerns we’re dealing with, I don’t think it was wise or prudent.”

Moyle is correct.  Consider that the government of Idaho has laid off 517 employees since 2009, and has suspended Medicaid payments, twice now, along with drastic cuts in education and other services (called “austerity” cuts).  Bonuses for government workers are not what the taxpayers want to see.

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho Stops Medicaid payments

June 20, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare says they’re out of money for Medicaid.

As a result, Medicaid payments to Idaho hospitals will be suspended for at least one week.  Those payments would have come to $13 million.  Officials will announce, by the end of the week, if payments will be delayed for another week.

This isn’t the first time Idaho stopped Medicaid payments to hospitals.  In 2010 they suspended nine weeks of payments.  Health and Welfare officials say that for some reason the majority of payment claims always come in when state Medicaid funds are at their lowest point.

 

Business/Economics, Idaho

The U.S. IS a Police State: Gold dealers must go through police background check and be fingerprinted

The city of Nampa, Idaho, now requires people who sell precious metals to go through new “licensing” by getting a background check and be fingerprinted by police.  They must also pay a fee for the cost of the new “licensing” procedure.

Nampa officials say the new process will help police with finding stolen property.  Police will start checking dealers for compliance on July 1.

A Boise newspaper gave this police phone number for more info: 208-468-5615

 

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Arby’s Sold

Wendy’s/Arby’s Group sold off its Arby’s restaurant, for $430 million.  The new owner is Atlanta based Roark Capital Group.

Earlier in the year it was announced that if Arby’s sales didn’t improve, the fast food restaurant would be sold.  The former Wendy’s/Arby’s Group still holds 15% of Arby’s stock.  The CEO, Roland Smith, says they can now focus solely on the better performing Wendy’s fast food chain.

Smith says that any closing of Arby’s stores will involve those already slated to be closed, which will happen as leases expire.  The deal with Roark Capital Group will result in changes for Arby’s, including a name change.

I can tell you that here in Chubbuck, Idaho, the Arby’s store has the lowest customer traffic of any of the national chain fast food restaurants.

 

Idaho, U.S.

Idaho State University hit with sanctions, major donor says ISU President “inflexible”

“There’s something very sick at that school, and Art Vailas I think is at the core of it. I was shocked when I heard about the potential for a vote of no confidence. I talked to Art several times about it. Art is not a very good listener. He’s very stubborn. He’s inflexible. It is his way or no way because he thinks he’s right. I told him never to call me anymore.”-Jim Rodgers, major Idaho State University donor, and former chancellor of higher education in Nevada

Jim Rodgers is a major donor to ISU, and he’s not happy with what’s been happening there.  The Idaho State Board of Education ended the faculty’s bargaining ability by suspended the Faculty Senate, at the request of President Arthur Vailas.
Vailas, and his administrators, have been busy trashing ISU ever since they arrived a few years ago.  It’s looks like it’s part of a plan by the state to reduce ISU’s ability to provide higher education.
For one thing student tuition and fees have skyrocketed, and classes have been cut.  The reason given is always lack of money, but just a few weeks ago ISU announced they were buying an old factory building that was used to make medical products (aka Ballard Medical building).
The suspension of the Faculty Senate prompted a vote by the American Association of University Professors.  They voted to sanction ISU, the largest university ever to be sanctioned by the AAUP.  The vote was unanimous.
Former ISU Faculty Senate Chair, Phil Cole, says AAUP sanctions should be taken seriously, because they act as a warning to potential employers, and graduate schools, that the education program at ISU is ‘suspect’, and that “there is a fundamental flaw in a university and it could collapse.”

This might be part of the State Board of Education’s plans to end ISU as a four year university (which many of the state employees at ISU believe is the intention).

Idaho, Opinion

Idaho Education Spending Scandalous

Property taxes/fees, where I live in Bannock county, have gone up year after year, and there’s been no improvement in services, especially grade school education.

The last time I complained to the county assessor’s office (when my three kids were attending Pocatello High School) the employee told me to blame school district 25.  The employee showed me a chart that proved that the largest chunk of property taxes/fees was going to the school district 25.  The county employee also said that every time a levy is passed it increases the school district fee portion of the overall property tax bill.

That fee has gone up year after year, and is one of the reasons Bannock county has one of the highest property taxes/fees in all of Idaho.  All of Bannock county has a population of more than 82,ooo, according to U.S. Census Bureau 2010 numbers.  Compare that to Ada county, where the state capitol Boise is located, where the population is more than 390,000.

Then comes the U.S. Census Bureau report on how much each state spends on education, and surprisingly Idaho is second to last in spending (Utah is dead last).

Another surprise is that most of Idaho’s education funding comes from the state, not the counties.  66% of education spending in Idaho comes from state taxes (that’s higher than the national average of 46%).  So where’s all our county school tax/fees going to?

I am now the guardian of my children’s half sister.  She is attending Pocatello High School, and I’m amazed at how much the quality of education has gone down since my kids graduated (by the way, you also have to pay huge fees directly to the high school that your child attends, which is another reason to question the school district’s taxes/fees).  Not only that, but I finished high school in the early 1980s, and I can tell you that nothing has improved since then, as far as the quality of education.

Only since the No Child Left Behind act (aka Adequate Yearly Progress, AYP) went into effect, has school district 25 made real efforts to improve test scores, but they’re still not doing well enough: For 2009-10, one elementary school failed AYP,  all four middle schools failed and all three high schools failed.  It’s interesting that school district 25 officials are blaming the failures on “economically disadvantaged students“, as well as disabled and Hispanic students.  What is this a new kind of class/race warfare?

Decade after decade U.S. taxpayers have paid more and more money for crappy education that never improves!  What do we get for our money?  There’s been lots of paranoid new rules created: One year a high scoring student at Pocatello High School was not allowed to graduate because she dyed her hair pink (her parents sued and won)!  Also, huge school administrative bodies were created through the 1980s-90s, which suck up more money than the actual education of our children!  Do the kids get new books?  No: When my children attended Junior High they showed me their science book, which had an intro that said “One day man will walk on the moon.”!

As a parent and local taxpayer I’ve seen the funding for schools going up year after year (that might finally be over with this bad economy), and the quality of education going down year after year.  That is what makes education funding scandalous!

 

Business/Economics, Idaho

What Global Warming? Idaho Potato farmers running out of time, cool weather adding to Global Food Crisis

It’s June 11, and potato farmers in Ashton, and Driggs, Idaho, have been hoping for warmer, dryer weather.  They can’t plant potatoes in wet, cold ground: “This season has been especially hard because every time we are about to get into the fields for a couple days it rains us out. It takes sometimes five to 10 days to dry up in good enough shape in preparation for planting.”-Dennis Fransen, potato seed farmer

Potato seed farmers are at the bottom of the potato farming chain.  Commercial potato farmers rely on the seed farmers for their new crop.  Bigger potatoes are sent to the commercial farmers to grow even bigger.  The small potatoes are kept for ‘seed’ for the next planting.  This year, because of the wet, cool weather it looks like most of the seed crop will be the small type, that commercial farmers don’t want.