Education activist group seeks ballot initiative to raise teacher, staff pay
By Eric Valentine
If you ask Luke Mayville about the biggest story in local education news, it’d be a safe bet he won’t say it’s the 20 swastikas and 4 N-words scrawled on a bathroom wall inside Wood River High. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra’s re-election bid? Not even close. Masking mandates? Nope. The founder of Reclaim Idaho says it’s the “crisis-level shortage of teachers and staff” the Gem State isn’t truly dealing with.
Wood River Weekly recently crossed paths (literally, on a hiking trail) with volunteers from Reclaim Idaho who helped facilitate an online interview with Mayville. What follows is our questions and his answers verbatim.
WRW: First Luke, as the founder of Reclaim Idaho, in your own words what is the group’s core and/or various political goals? I find the name interesting in that it suggests 1) an outside entity has claimed Idaho and 2) it is focused on issues beyond education.
LM: Idaho has a long history of commitment to public education going back to our state constitution, established in 1890, which guarantees a quality public education to every Idaho child. In recent decades, Idaho’s political establishment has abandoned this commitment to education. Instead, they’ve prioritized tax cuts for special interests and the wealthy. We are working to reclaim Idaho’s tradition of commitment to public education. In a broader sense, we aim to reclaim an Idaho where government works for all Idahoans and not just those with the most money and political influence.
WRW: The details of and the need for the Quality Education Act are spelled out pretty clearly in RI’s collateral. But as you go to various legislative districts, and in particular in the Wood River Valley, does the populace feel similarly about the details and the need. Are there any sticking points?
LM: Idaho’s failure to invest in public education is resulting in a crisis-level shortage of teachers and support staff all around the state. This problem is severe in the poorer districts of the state, where pay is too low to compete with other job opportunities. Pay is higher in the Wood River Valley, but the strain on educators remains because housing costs are so unbelievably high.
WRW: Talk about the challenge of getting volunteers to 16 legislative districts (the new state law regarding ballot issue petitions).
LM: In order to put the Quality Education Act on the ballot, we need about 2,000 signatures from each of 18 legislative districts. This means that we need to be active in communities all across the state, and we need local teams of volunteers to join the effort. It’s a big challenge, but we’ve found that there are people in every community who are fed up with Idaho being dead last of 50 states in education funding and who are ready to do something about it. Our job as an organization is to find those people who are ready to take action and to help them get organized.
WRW: Please confirm date/time/location of the Blaine County volunteer efforts.
LM: We’ll meet at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26th at the Hailey Public Library.
WRW: Give us some background on yourself… Idaho native? Field of study? Full-time work?
LM: I grew up in Sandpoint and attended public schools there, and then went on to graduate from the University of Oregon and later to get a Ph.D. in political science from Yale. I wrote a book on John Adams and I’ve taught political philosophy at Columbia, American University, and the Boise State University Honors College. Together with friends from North Idaho, I co-founded Reclaim Idaho in 2017 and our organization spearheaded the Medicaid Expansion initiative, which resulted in Medicaid coverage for over 120,000 Idahoans. I am currently the full-time director of Reclaim Idaho and the Quality Education Act campaign.
The Quality Education Act
What it does
Raises $300M to pay teachers and staff better
Restores corporate tax rate to historical rate of 8%
What it doesn’t do
Raise taxes on anyone making under $250K/year
Raise taxes on married couples making under $500K/year
