Video: Candlelight Church Hosts Legislative Town Hall With Hundreds In Attendance — Local Reps Speak About Issues, Legislation
Candlelight Christian Church in Coeur d’Alene hosted a legislative town hall on Saturday, drawing in hundreds of people who wanted to hear their new legislators speak about what they have been up to in Idaho’s capitol city.
10 legislators from Kootenai County were present at the event: Sen. Phil Hart (LD2) Sen. Doug Okuniewicz (LD3), Rep. Vito Barbieri (LD3-A), Rep. Jordan Redman (LD3-B), Sen. Ben Toews (LD4), Rep. Joe Alfieri (LD4-A), Rep. Elaine Price (LD4-B), Sen. Carl Bjerke (LD5), Rep. Ron Mendive (LD5-A) and Rep. Tony Wisnewski (LD5-B).
Senator Toews who sits on the Senate Education Committee, spoke extensively about the new School Choice legislation introduced last week by Senator Tammy Nichols.
Toews said that the bill would allow parents to access around $6k of their own tax dollars, per student, per year, to help pay for education related expenses if parents decided to homeschool, or send their kids to private school, instead of keeping them in Idaho’s Public School system.
The money would be tax-exempt, and would roll over from year to year, encouraging frugality, and, at the end of a child’s education, the money left over in their Education Savings Accounts could be applied to their College Studies, should they decide to continue their educataion.
Representative Elaine Price made sure to note that the program is “opt-in,” meaning that parents who do not want to participate in the program, don’t have to.
She also warned constituents about Brad Little’s “Corporate/College Welfare” program, called the “Idaho Launch” bill:
Other topics discussed include:
Gov. Little’s “state of emergency” being rolled back
Legislation preventing private money from Facebook and other NGO’s from being used in local elections
Changing School Levy votes to November, for higher voter turnout
Hardening Idaho’s electric grid to protect against EMP attacks
Legislation removing pornographic books from Idaho’s Libraries
Legislation ensuring all ballot-counting machines are made in the USA
Legislation preventing transgender surgeries for minors
And much more….
Watch the full legislative town hall below:
