BY DICK DORWORTH
Sally Toone is the Democratic candidate to represent District 26 Seat B in November’s election for the Idaho State House of Representatives. Her challenger for the seat being vacated at the end of the year by Democrat Donna Pence is Republican Alex Sutter. Pence is retiring after serving seven terms in office, is an old friend of Toone’s and serves as her campaign treasurer for this election.
Toone, 60, was born in St. Maries and has lived her entire life in Idaho, the last 45 of them in Gooding where she worked as a math teacher in the Gooding and Wendell school districts and, since 2014, as an adult education instructor for the College of Southern Idaho. She is also a consultant with Boise State University through the Idaho Leads project, mentoring young teachers. Both of her parents and her maternal grandmother were educators.
It is not surprising that education would be Toone’s top priority in the Idaho State Legislature.
“The state has not kept up with funding for the growing number of students in the school system of Idaho,” she said. “ There are 18,000 more students in Idaho schools than there were in 2008, and the state is ranked 49th in the country in per-student funding.”
Toone’s campaign website reiterates, “The Idaho state government must accept the responsibility of adequately funding education and must not rely on local property taxes to continually close the gap.”
Local property taxes for education give more money to schools of wealthy counties, like Blaine County, than to poorer ones.
Toone is also a strong advocate for protecting the quality of Idaho’s air, water, land and wildlife while maintaining its agricultural and recreational economies.
“I believe a healthy environment and a healthy economy can coexist and that we can all be good stewards of the land,” she said. “There needs to be an ongoing conversation between all parties, especially about water. Agriculture is a major economic driver in Idaho and being good stewards of the land is an absolute must. But no one perspective can be greedy.”
A featured platform on Toone’s campaign website reads: “Idaho public lands are not for sale to the highest bidders or special interest groups. They are public lands because they belong to all of us, and that is part of our great heritage as Americans and as Idahoans.”
Sally and her husband, Mark, have been married for 36 years. They have two sons and four grandchildren. The entire family is involved in owning and operating family farms and cattle ranches in Gooding and Camas counties.