Citizens' voices heard loudest in committees

n “Buck the Core Rally” at the Capitol

Citizens showed up on the Capitol steps this week to speak out against the federal mandated Common Core in our Idaho Schools. The “Buck the Core” rally featured Dr. Geoffrey Thomas, superintendent from the Madison School District, Russ Fulcher, former state senator and current governor candidate, and Dr. Duke Pesta, Wisconsin professor and advocate for repealing Common Core.

Idaho brought Common Core standards and testing into the state in 2010. Only 13 states are using the SBAC test now, and unfortunately, Idaho is one of them. The testing is expensive, unreliable and frustrating for many students and teachers. Citizens and rally speakers shared several concerns with this centralized, top down approach for education.

Two bills from our Freedom Agenda have been delivered to the education committees addressing the Common Core issue. One would repeal Common Core as a state mandate, making it optional. Schools that like the program could keep using it. This would leave education choices to local districts. The other bill would the SBAC testing and associated data collection on our students.

If you want to express your voice about Common Core and the SBAC test, you can contact the committee members at GrowingFreedomforIdaho.com

n Committee situation

After a 20-day moratorium, Speaker Scott Bedke decided to reinstate me back to my assigned committees and restore full representation of District 1. This decision has been a long time coming and is good news for our district and the people throughout Idaho who believe in a republic form of government.

Considering the fact that punitive actions to this extent have never been taken against a legislator in the state of Idaho, I believe this situation has highlighted the overreaching authority of the Speaker of the House, Rep. Scott Bedke of District 27, and exposed larger issues and corruption in the legislature. The unprofessional manner in which this entire situation was handled reveals that there is room for improvement in communication, mutual respect and leadership inside the Idaho House of Representatives.

I will remain positive and will continue to be a strong defender of the First Amendment — no voice or opinion should be silenced. You can keep up to date on this issue at http://www.repheatherscott.com/boise-situation

n Laws, laws, laws

Legislators have almost completed the administrative rules review process of reviewing hundreds of pages of rules regulations and fees. When approved, these rules, regulations and fees will be added to our state code. All rules can be viewed at https://adminrules.idaho.gov/

Committees are now starting to focus more on legislation. As of Tuesday, Feb. 3, the House has printed 104 bills (Senate has printed 41) and seven resolutions. Many of these bills are part of the 111 agency bills that were previously shared by the Division of Financial Management at https://dfm.idaho.gov/legislation/2017LegislationIndex.html

Many legislators have been working on the Growing Freedom for Idaho Freedom Legislative Agenda, and are excited to be moving forward through the process. We currently have around 25 bills (at the RS stage) that are ready to be heard, working their way through the committees. One bill to lower the state income tax has passed committee and will be voted on by the full house later this week.

A citizen’s voice is heard the loudest and has the greatest impact at a committee level. To find out what bills are in what committee and who will be voting on those bills to get them you can go to http://growingfreedomidaho.com/bills/

I will continue to work to protect & defend the U.S. and State Constitutions, and push back on federal overreach. I plan to help work to make Idaho a strong sovereign state.

In liberty.

Rep. Heather Scott represents District 1 in the Idaho House of Representatives, seat 1A.