{"id":12865,"date":"2012-11-08T06:00:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=12865"},"modified":"2012-11-07T22:33:22","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T05:33:22","slug":"why-idahoans-rejected-proposition-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/11\/08\/why-idahoans-rejected-proposition-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Idahoans Rejected Proposition 3"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

An informal poll of voters who cast their ballots here, at Boise's Longfellow Elementary, showed strong opposition to the package of education laws known as Students Come First.<\/p><\/div>\n

Idaho voters delivered a ringing defeat of Propositions 1, 2 and 3<\/a> Tuesday, rejecting the three-part education overhaul backed by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, and approved by the Legislature in 2011.<\/p>\n

The most resounding “No” came on Proposition 3, which addressed online education and technology in schools.\u00a0 Voters rejected it by a two-to-one margin<\/a>.\u00a0 It’s worth asking: Why was that measure so overwhelmingly unpopular?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

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Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Jennifer Thornfeldt, who went to the polls with her daughter, Stella, was one of many Idahoans to reject the package of education laws known as Students Come First.<\/p><\/div>\n

At her North End polling place on Election Day, mother Jennifer Thornfeldt offered one answer.\u00a0 \u201cThere are districts that don\u2019t have money for books or for supplies, and teachers are buying them out of their own salaries,” she said.\u00a0 “To appropriate money toward buying computers seemed to me to miss the mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thornfeldt called herself “dyed-in-the-wool left-wing,” but her anxiety about committing a lot of state dollars to laptops and online education was clearly shared by Idahoans of diverse political persuasions.<\/p>\n

“I think that a lot of Idahoans resented the idea of replacing teachers in the classroom with online courses,” says Andrus Center for Public Policy Director David Adler.\u00a0 “Secondly, I think there was a lot of concern about the cost to the state of purchasing or leasing the laptops.”<\/p>\n

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