Protecting Idaho’s Future
Main Street Town Hall Episode 4—Senator Cook & Rep. Mickelsen
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Hard to believe we are already in the third week of the 2024 Legislative Session!
The last few years have seen an increase in legislative activity in the education sphere. Education issues receive so much time and attention in the State House these days because it's the NUMBER ONE priority in the state.
Today’s podcast guests, Senator Kevin Cook and Representative Stephanie Mickelsen, are working hard in the areas of education policy and funding.
Cook and Mickelsen both represent District 32 (Bonneville County) in the Idaho Senate. In today’s podcast episode, these two go into detail on the new vision for investing in Idaho schools and some well-intentioned proposals that aren’t right for Idaho
Our children are the future.
One of the hot-button issues last session was a proposal for the creation of an Education Savings Account (ESA) program, and it sounds like a similar version of that bill will return again this year.
There is no bill yet, but our guests said the new proposal could be a state budget buster. There are numerous concerns they have about this proposal, including a lack of accountability and its constitutionality.
The Blaine Amendment to the Idaho Constitution serves as a separation of church and state, to prevent public dollars being used by private, religious institutions. This is why Idaho has a constitutional obligation to ensure a “common, thorough, free public education system”.
Currently, the State of Idaho is on excellent financial footing, but there is fear a proposal like this could put that situation in jeopardy. There are several states with similar programs in place, like the State of Arizona. After their ESA program was established, Arizona found themselves in a $400 million budget shortfall because they are losing over a billion dollars of potential revenue as a result of those tax credits. Such a significant shortfall can greatly affect a state’s ability to provide the essential services to keep things functioning and satisfy constitutional obligations to their citizens.
Senator Cook and Representative Mickelsen are excited about the passage of Idaho LAUNCH last session and the immediate results it has produced. The LAUNCH program is going to help fill the gaps for in-demand careers and accelerate the growth of Idaho businesses and industries. Representative Mickelsen noted there was already an enrollment spike at the College of Eastern Idaho, which proves more students are able to pursue post-secondary education and growth opportunities.
Follow Along With The Transcript
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Director (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to I Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome back to I Idaho's Main Street podcast. I'm your host Brennan Summers, and really excited today to have two guests who we just had on talking about education issues. Today we're going to talk about something a little different. Really excited to have Senator Kevin Cook and representative Stephanie Mickelson coming live from the Boise State Capitol today. Talk to us and so they're in the middle of it. We're excited to get their perspective on a few things. Senator, thanks for joining us today.
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (00:40):
Thank you. Good to be here
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Director (00:42):
Representative. How's the sore throat feeling?
Representative Stephanie Mickelsen, District 32 ID (00:47):
It's getting better, but it's been a week, so hopefully another couple of days. I'll be completely over it. So
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Director (00:53):
Now both of you have been on the podcast before, twice now, and talked about a lot of different issues. When Senator Cook was on, one of the issues we talked about was some legislation that he was working on, and this was man back in the summer that we met Senator. Talk about this. My sister just recently discovered the podcast and she texted me last week and she said, I just listened to the segment with Senator Cook and I'm dying to know what happened with this cell phone bill that's supposed to protect kids. She has two kids that attend district 93, 1 in middle school and one in high school, and they just got their first cell phones for Christmas and she's very curious on how parents can get involved in this. So the first thing we got to do is note that this is an issue of importance. Senator, why don't you remind us a little bit about what this bill is that's supposed to protect our kids and some are deem a cell phone bill. Give us a little refresher on what the bill does.
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (01:46):
Alright. It's a very, very simple bill. It really is. It's basically if you have a mobile device and you activate it within the state of Idaho and you're activating it for a minor or it is the minor that's activating it, then turn on or enable the parenting filtering software software that is already installed on your mobile device. You don't have to subscribe, buy, purchase, or install it. It's already there. Just enable it, turn it on. And that's kind of the gist of it. When this passes as an adult, if you want to see objectional material harmful for minors, you have full rights to do that. You'll never see a difference when this bill passes, you'll continue to stream objectional material that you love. You'll be able to still see that. The only person that will really notice a difference will be minors. They will realize that, oh, I can't see that the objectional material that I wanted to see, and it should pop up and say, Hey, you know what?
(03:05):
You just clicked on a link and it has objectional material and we're not going to show it to you. And so that the miners will see that. But what this does, it does not take away your first amendment right from the adults and it gives you as parents some tools to help your kids, help them to keep them steer that social media that the internet safely. Now I say social media, this is a very, very narrow bill and it only has effect on search engines. So your search browsers and you might think, well, what the heck? What is that worth doing? It is not going to do anything. And I started to think that same thing all you've got Facebook and you've got Twitter and you X and your ex and Instagram and all the other social media stuff that kids get on and love.
(04:01):
And so this summer I was sitting down talking to the manager of internet Crimes against children here in the state of Idaho. We have a division that does that and that's their whole job. I said, sir, is my bill worthless because I'm not doing all this social media, all I'm doing is search engines and I was afraid he was going to say yes, it's worthless, but he didn't. He says, no, says what happens. It's usually the innocent eight, nine, 10-year-old that is out searching for things like greatest baseball moments in history, and they do that search and sooner or later you will get a link that pops up that has objectional material harmful for minors that will happen. This bill says, no way. It's not going to happen. If I click on that link and it has the objectional material, it will tell me, sorry, we filtered that.
(05:04):
You cannot see that. Now what if I need to see it? Okay, what if I'm doing a history class or an assignment where I need to do some studying and I need to see that website and it's blocked. I can still go to mom and dad and say, mom, I need to see this. I need to be able to see this website because this is the study I'm doing on it. And so they can make that decision. Parents can unblock that website and let it go forward. But how often was that going to happen? I don't believe it's going to happen very often. A big example that people often use is, what about Michelangelo's statue? David, right? Beautiful statue. Statue. Well, is it going to block that? I got news for you. We are getting very, very good software wise recognizing the difference from flesh and marble.
(06:00):
You hear about ai, we're getting really smart with our computers almost. It's almost scary, but these are smart devices and we can get the filter on there and we can recognize the difference and we can steer that. There's lots of good stuff in this. It is not taking your first amendment right. In fact, this bill is patterned after the Supreme Court's suggestion coming out of the Ashcroft versus the ACL. That's what it's based on. And so it's got the age verification on there. It's a good bill, but it is not the perfect bill. It will not block everything. Your kids can still get harmful stuff, harmful to minors using social media. That still can happen, but we're just suggesting very, very narrow. And you might say, well, why not go after the Smart TVs and the Xbox and everything else? And simply because there's too much too many people that will come and fight against it. And so we're just doing it very narrow and I need your support to get it across the finish line. I need anybody and everybody's support on this bill. If you want to go look at it, you can look at it. The legislative Idaho Republic legislator, you can go out to Kevin Cook for Idaho and I've got that bill there. You can download it, you can look at it and I hope you'll sign up as a supporter of it. So that's kind of in a nutshell. Maybe I went too long. I
Representative Stephanie Mickelsen, District 32 ID (07:40):
Was going to say I'm really excited about Kevin's bill because as a mother and a grandmother and having studied a lot about this, addictions start when kids are young and they generally happen through a device and most people don't want to say that they're trying to attack it from other ways, but the reality is it's coming on devices to small kids and before they know it, they're addicted to it and they don't know how to get away from it. So this is a great opportunity for parents to have a block in that process of even getting kids started down that road.
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (08:17):
So I've talked to a lot of parents about this and a lot of politicians and lobbyists and a lot of 'em say, just take the phone away. Yeah, that's an option. You could certainly take the phone away or the mobile device and take it away, but we do so much on those mobile devices nowadays. There is so much good information that it's important for them to be able to have access. Even if you say, I'm not going to purchase my son or daughter mobile device. Okay, that's fine, but sooner or later they're going to need something to do. Some, they'll use yours to play a game or to go out and research and search on some stuff. Wouldn't it be nice to know that? Yeah, I can give my mobile device to a son or daughter, a grandchild and not worry about what's going to pop up.
(09:09):
And most parents talk to their kids. If you see that harmful material for minors, come and talk to me and they go over and over again. Well, when an eight, nine, 10-year-old sees it for the first time, they are so embarrassed coming and talking to mom and dad is the last thing on their mind. Or they're so curious that there's no way that they'll come and talk to you. And so it's just something to help you as parents and I think it will be a great help to you. You can still turn if you want your child to see that you have the right, you can turn it off. You can turn it on. You can do whatever you want. And maybe just, Brenda, if I keep talking too much, you get me started on this and I just can't stop. But the other thing about this is some people say, well, you're getting inside of my bubble.
(10:05):
You don't do that. And these mobile devices, they're already inside your bubble whether you like it or not. And we're not asking them to do anything more than they're already doing. We're not asking that. We're not requiring, we're not telling 'em how to do that. But they do know where you're at and they know if you're in the state of Idaho or if you're in New York. And just think about it, when you fly from here to East Coast, your mobile device changes through the time zone, daylight savings time. When it came to an end of November, it changed without you doing anything. The people in Arizona, it didn't change because they don't participate it. So your mobile device knows where you're at. I'll stop talking there.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Director (10:54):
No, senator, your passion on this issue is contagious. And I appreciate Representative Mickelson giving us a perspective of what she's done. It's hard to go through a day and not see a mugshot of people in our community who are going behind bars for a long time for accessing or sharing explicit material that involves minors. And it's heartbreaking and we're disgusted when we read what they were involved in. And it's hard not to think mint, what can we do to stop this epidemic? It's been referred to as the new drug. We laugh when you use the word, it starts with P and rhymes with geography because we've been told that if we use certain words on here that it'll flag our podcast. So that's why you're hearing the senator use words like obscene material, explicit. My grandfather would call it smut, right? And that's what this is, is there's smut out there, Senator. A lot of people are listening and they're like Representative Mickelson saying, this is a no-brainer. This is something we should be doing, but you couldn't quite get it across the finish line last session. Help us understand where the opposition is coming from and what we're doing to be able to squash that this upcoming session.
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (12:03):
Alright, so this is the third year. I've tried to bring it last year. It mis passing the Senate on the floor by one vote. I think. Well, I thought I had the votes last year or two up to a week before, and then everything kind of fell apart this year. I think I have the votes. I hope I have the votes. I'm trying. Well, my hardest to work that and I need you guys to talk to legislators across the state, your friends and neighbors to call their legislators and not just in your area. Because in your area, I think everybody is going to vote for this bill, but it's across the rest of the state. If you have friends and neighbors, get them to help. So last year my bill was scored by the Idaho Freedom Foundation as a negative five. Negative is bad, positive is good in reality.
(13:00):
And then that's how they score it and they did a negative five. So they analyze the bill and they give it points based on where they feel like it fits. And so this year the bill changed just a little bit, but this year I got a negative eight. Negative eight is huge. There's not many bills that go beyond a negative four. And so I have a negative eight. And why? Well, as you read through their reasoning, and I've got that and I've read through everything that they've gone and I've went and commented on it and I just think, I don't know what they're reading. I don't know. I think they've got the wrong bill. I don't know what they're reading because the stuff does not make sense. But you know what I did late last night? It was kind of an interesting exercise, is I removed filter from their analysts, their document removed and or filter and put in the word librarian.
(14:09):
I removed the word, the P word or device and put books. Now I don't know if you know it, but the Idaho Freedom Foundation is all over this library. Bill house bill three. Yeah. Well, so I just took the same stuff I'm doing and replaced it with library and with books and it fits perfectly. There is really no difference objectional material. And yet they're willing to throw a librarian in prison but not hold two or three people at the very top of some of the biggest companies in the nation and hold them accountable for doing the same thing that they're saying the librarian has done. There is no difference. There is no difference at all. They're still disseminating
Representative Stephanie Mickelsen, District 32 ID (15:17):
Harmful material for
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (15:18):
Minors, harmful material for minors, the P word. Okay? They're still doing that. And we are the greatest nation on earth and we're dealing with this kind of crap. And if you want to have it as an adult, great, but it's not good for our children. The state of Idaho recognizes that the federal government, our nation, recognizes that it's in our law books. It is against the law to disseminate in any form objectional material harmful to our minors. And so I need your help pass it. There's those that are fighting against it. And you might say, well, why? And it's because big money, big tech money. And the lawyer that they had come and turn the thing last year was a lobbyist for your big social media, Google, Twitter, all of those. That's where he worked at. He was a lobbyist and a lawyer and he kind of turned the corner and the things he said were not true. The things that IFF have written up in this analyst is not true. I am not sure they even read the right bill. It's not right.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Director (16:42):
Well, but I'll say if campaign season rolled around and you had a candidate that said, I am against protecting children. I am against empowering parents. I am for human trafficking, I'm for grooming. If you had a candidate that said these things, they would be unelectable. And yet your bill that does the opposite. We're finding there are people who are voting against it, who it really doesn't match the way some people campaign. So you know, got a big supporter in me of this bill. Senator, if somebody really is filling so strong right now, what's the best way? You mentioned reaching out to other legislators. How might they go about helping you get this bill across the finish line?
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (17:26):
First off, go to www.kevincookforidaho.com. There's a strip menu across the top and it has bills. Click on that and there's one in there that says, who's supporting this bill? Go down there and sign up your name. That's one. Get familiar with the bill, know what it says, know what it's doing so you can talk the talk. Not that you have to argue, but just to be able to talk the talk. And again, if you're listening to this and you're in southeast Idaho, I believe all of the legislators in southeast Idaho are for this. And so you've got to talk to some friends that are in different sections of Idaho and get them to call their legislators and get them on board. Again, it's not the perfect bill. It does not take every objectional material from children. It does a small part and it's a start to keep the innocence in our children intact. You're eight, nine, and 10 years old and don't think that they don't ever see that. They do. I've talked to hundreds of young men and young women that their first
Representative Stephanie Mickelsen, District 32 ID (18:41):
Exposure,
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (18:42):
Exposure to this stuff was when they were eight, nine, and 10 years old and they were not looking for it. They stumbled onto it accidentally. We can do better. We can simply do better
Representative Stephanie Mickelsen, District 32 ID (18:56):
And we should do better.
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (18:58):
Yep.
Brennan Summers, Main Street ID Executive Director (18:59):
I love that. Okay. We can do better. We should do better and we're going to do better now. You two are late for meetings, so we're going to have to cut it off there. But thank you so much. Senator Kevin Cook, representative Stephanie Mickelson, we really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today.
Representative Stephanie Mickelsen, District 32 ID (19:13):
Thank you, Brendan.
Senator Kevin Cook, District 32 Idaho (19:15):
Appreciate it.
