Improving Idaho School Facilities
Main Street Town Hall Episode 13—Representative Matt Bundy
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Representative Matt Bundy from District 8A joins us for his first appearance on the podcast. Host and Executive Director, Brennan Summers, learns of Bundy's 20-year career as a combat aviator turned high school civics teacher, as well as his transition to the Idaho Legislature. Bundy provides his own insight to the current legislative session and his efforts to help school facilities.
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Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (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 to the Main Street podcast. We're here with the representative out of District eight, a high school teacher, a former combat aviator, city councilman from Mountain Home. Joining us today, representative Matt Bundy, representative, thanks for joining us today.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (00:28):
Well, I appreciate the opportunity to sit here, to [00:00:30] chat with you and to talk about Idaho and all the great things about Idaho and District eight and all the fun things that we're doing and about the legislature. So thanks for the invitation.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (00:38):
Invitation. Absolutely. We got a lot of exciting things we need to talk about today, and we're just going to jump right in. When I was a kid, I remember a pope passed away and as they were like all the cardinals got together to choose a new pope, my dad had us all grilled to the glued, I should say, to the TV and waiting to see if the white smoke would come, and every day we'd ask, is today the day we choose a new pope? That's not my question [00:01:00] for you today. My question is, is this week, the week that the session ends,
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (01:05):
We were taking a poll at lunch. We had a very short little meeting with some of the J FAC members and we were trying to pick a day for the pool on which day the session would end. I tried to take tomorrow, but I think that was a little bit optimistic. So I think the consensus is that we will be done by Friday,
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (01:23):
So not Tuesday, but maybe Friday. As you think about the session, what are some of the big [00:01:30] things we've learned this session?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (01:33):
Well, I think we've learned that as many things as we discuss and debate. I think on a lot of the big issues, we came together and did the right thing for Idaho. Over the past few years we've seen that we have some trouble at the local level with our school facilities and the state is stepping up here and we're putting in some good efforts to help the districts [00:02:00] with their facilities where we're trying to get the right number. It's always a difficult thing on how much is too much and how much is too little. But I think where we're at right now is going to give the districts the ability to make some significant advancements in their facilities and it's going to give them the idea or the promise of ongoing facilities of money so that we can take care of our tenure facilities plans. So I think that the way we've come together on that and we've also adjusted once again our tax rates, so that's been a really good thing.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (02:29):
Sure, [00:02:30] sure. And I'm excited to dig into more of education and your perspective on it, but if it's true that we wrap up this week, what can we expect, if anything, to be pushed through the pipe before you guys all wrap up and go home?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (02:47):
Well, as I said before, my primary duty on J fac is the budget. So I'm personally looking at, I just got the official wording and the version after the, [00:03:00] excuse me, after we did all the motions in Jfa. So I'll be working with the community college's budget and we're also coming with the K 12 budgets, and I think the good news in the K 12 budgets, there's been a lot of folks asking us about that supplemental, and we are working, we're working very, very diligently to get that money out to the districts in a non-discretionary fashion through the supplemental for the money that was allocated for this year. But there was some slight reductions as we went from [00:03:30] attendance, excuse me, as we went from enrollment to a DA. So we're going to allow those school districts to meet their obligations this year. We'll see a little bit of right sizing on the budget next year as we move to an A DA, but I'm also very optimistic that our numbers and our enrollment are going to continue to increase after a year or two of stagnation and that our attendance will also pick up and we'll be able to recover that funding even though we're going to go to an A DA.
(03:54):
So those are two big things that I'm looking at right now are K 12 and the higher ed budgets.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (03:59):
Let's dig in a little bit [00:04:00] more on that one. There's probably a few people listening that may not be familiar with the transition here. From going to a a walk us through what that is, what we were doing in terms of the budgetary process and then what this will look like when we make the transition to 88
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (04:19):
A DA is a average daily attendance. And so for the last few years in J fac, we created our budgets based on the current rule or code. And last year when we created [00:04:30] this budget, we were still in the second year of an enrollment based funding formula. For example, I'll just use an easy number. If I have a thousand students enrolled in my school, I figure out my support units and my funding based on the enrollment of a thousand students. When we went away from, this was a decision, the enrollment base was a temporary measure, and so then we got to the point where the pandemic was gone. We were back to looking at an average daily attendance. So [00:05:00] if I have a thousand students enrolled in my school, but I average 960 a day in attendance under the average daily attendance, it's a slight reduction.
(05:10):
You're funded based on how many students actually show up. And I think part of the reason we went back to an A DA is to reinforce the value of in-person education. And so last year when we created the budget, we created it for everybody enrolled, and then we went to average daily attendance [00:05:30] during the process. And so the schools were being allocated a slightly less amount of money even though they built their budgets based on an anticipated amount. So we're going to get that anticipated amount back out through a supplemental, and then we will rightsize the budgets next year.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (05:46):
Perfect. That makes sense to me. So it should make sense to most Now I think it's important to kind of stop and take a breath and look back at everything you and your committee were able to do. We talk a lot [00:06:00] about the appropriations process. We had representative Ray Boldon last week and she had all of our heads spinning with all of the things that she was talking about. What are some of the big wins that you think that the jfa committee has been able to produce this session?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (06:17):
Well, I think a big thing is we've been able to create, and like I say, I think folks are going to really be happy with our higher ed and our community colleges and our K 12 budgets. We've been able to take care [00:06:30] of the business, we've been able to project for the future. So I think our education budgets, nothing's ever perfect, but when you're working in a committee of 20 and then you have to take it to 70 house members and 35 senators, there's some things that you have to take into consideration so that you're successful in that larger group. The other thing, I think that just last week I was able to participate in the Department of Agricultural bill signing. The beautiful thing about being on JPAC is I get to learn a lot of new stuff. So in the Department [00:07:00] of Agriculture budget, we have added some veterinarians so that we can help out the dairy industry, which is a billion dollar industry.
(07:07):
We were able to put in some more testing stations for QUA so that we can make sure for the next five years that we're convinced that the qua muscle has been taken care of. There's just so many things, but very quickly, the big thing that we do in JPEG is we make sure through our very, very precise vetting process that we're doing budgets that make sense [00:07:30] that we are not just rubber stamping requests of the departments and the divisions, but we're making sure that those are things that idahos need. But more importantly, it's things that we can adequately fund with our general fund bottom line as well as, for example, like Parks and Rec, we're able to do some things because they're generating a lot of dedicated funds, which means that people are going to our state parks and recs and they're paying their entrance fees and they're camping at the campgrounds. And so we have that money that people [00:08:00] spend on the parks to turn back around and improve it and enhance our parks and recreation system here in Idaho, which I think is a great way to do business is that we have something, I mean, people can't create these parks on their own. They need the state help, but then when they go to 'em, we make sure that we use those dedicated funds to improve and enhance them. So there's been a lot of things that we've done that are fun.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (08:22):
Yeah, you talk about learning lots of different stuff, and I can only imagine all [00:08:30] the budgets and all the details and all the line items you got to go through. But why don't you talk to us a little bit about what the committee was able to do in appropriations to public safety regarding some of these police budgets and anything we can do to alleviate the surge in crime that this nation's experiencing?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (08:46):
Well, I think we've done a lot of good things. You might've seen, we pass the bill for the mandatory minimums on fentanyl. And what we've also been able to do is we have been able to fund through the JPAC process, through the appropriations [00:09:00] process, the ability for the governor to send Idaho state patrol or Idaho State Troopers down there, and they are basically working with and learning from folks that are on the border and they're learning skills on the go. I mean, they're down there doing it. This is not a classroom environment, it's more of a real world environment. They're down there on the border learning things and techniques and tactics that they can bring back to Idaho and to help keep us safe and to protect us from [00:09:30] some of those things that are coming across the border into the United States and Idaho. So I think the bottom line here is the ability to fund that mission so that we can send troopers down there to get real world experience and then bring it back and train the other troopers that they work with on how to best protect us against a lot, a lot of things that are obviously are not good.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (09:51):
Yeah, I mean from a national standpoint, how frustrating is it as a conservative lawmaker to have to handle all the issues that come as a byproduct of [00:10:00] the kind of failure at our border? I mean, talk to us a little bit about you don't get to decide national border policy, but sometimes you have to deal with the consequences of it.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (10:11):
That's a great point, and I appreciate you bringing that up. And that's why we have continued to fund police, local police. We're working on some rules that will allow the local police to work more closely with federal, federal departments when we find or when we locate [00:10:30] an illegal alien or somebody that shouldn't be here, that we can take steps to remedy that situation. But I do really want to give the Idaho State Police, I think they just celebrated one of their major anniversaries here a couple of weeks ago in the Capitol. The folks that dedicate their lives to protecting us here at the local level, I think is admirable, and we try to give 'em what they need. And we've done a lot of good things with them, but I really think that training environments and allowing them to go down there with [00:11:00] our support to learn real world what's going on is really going to enhance Idaho law enforcement capabilities.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (11:07):
Yeah, I agree. I have the utmost respect and love for the Idaho State Police when I'm coming up on a rack and they've got everything sorted and everyone moving in the right way when they're keeping our streets safe, my feelings towards 'em change a little bit when I'm getting pulled over for speeding because every experience I've had, they're not warning givers, but that's more of a me problem than an US problem representative. [00:11:30] Let's transition to education. You sit in a very unique seat in that you've spent 16 years in the classroom. Is that correct?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (11:38):
This is my 20th year in the classroom. Oh boy. I always feel so blessed when I look at the ability that I've had to have two 20 year careers and two professions that are very different but similar at the same time. So this is my 20th year in the classroom, so right now I'm kind of a split contract, so I do a lot of the planning and a lot of the overseeing, but that's another [00:12:00] reason why it's going to be great to get done this week so I can get back into the classroom next Monday and start to hang out with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds that really, really keep my ideas fresh and really give me a nice perspective into the future of Idaho. And I'll tell you, I know you didn't ask this, but I always love to tell people that based on my knowledge and my working with the seniors in high school over the last two decades, Idaho is in good shape. We have super, super kids coming out of high school that are taking on business roles and government roles, [00:12:30] and obviously for mountain home, a lot of our kids at a much higher rate than anywhere else in the state join the military. So there's a lot of really super future leaders and current leaders of Idaho that are coming out of our public school system and other systems also.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (12:45):
Yeah, we needed to hear that because Casey and I are studio tech. Were talking about, man, it's got to be tough being a teacher in these day and ages and what we see on TikTok from the same age group you talk about doesn't give us the most optimism about the future, but you're seeing a different crop [00:13:00] of kids. You're seeing homegrown Idaho boys and girls, you talk about what they're doing, the jobs they're going into. But what else is it that you see in the classroom? It gives you so much optimism about the future.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (13:11):
Well, like I say, I've been doing it for 20 years, so I kind of jokingly say I left the Air Force as Lieutenant colonel and people say, Hey, how was the transition? And I say, well, the first time I walked into the classroom, no one stood up. I said, I knew I was in a different environment, but I'll tell you that the students, their ideas [00:13:30] and their desire to learn and to integrate new ideas into the way they do things, I think inspires me to continue to also want to learn new things or as I said earlier, learn new stuff. I guess sometimes I use the teenage vernacular, but I really enjoy sitting with them and talking with them and listening to what they assignment I do where I have them pick a historical or a political figure and talk about them. And people say, well, [00:14:00] should we coordinate who we're going to talk about? So we don't talk about the same person? And I'll be honest, out of the class of 25 to 30, very rarely do they pick the same person. So they're picking different historical or social role models or people from society. They tend to pick different people, and it's really a fun thing to sit and listen to 'em, identify with something that someone's done or ideas that they have or how they're going to take other ideas into the future anyway, but that's [00:14:30] a ton of fun.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (14:31):
You got to give us some examples. What are some of the people that they choose?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (14:36):
Well, you're always going to get your George Washington's and your Ben Franklin's, but you're going to, I get Rosa Parks and I get Joshua Chamberlain from the Civil War, or I will get somebody that has what I really like it is when somebody will choose like their grandfather, how they survived or that now would be more of [00:15:00] a great grandfather, how they survived the depression, or I've had students bring in parts of a journal from someone that they've known in the past, and I've actually had students talk about other fellow teachers, which is always a lot of fun. So it's interesting, maybe more so now than when I was a kid, a lot of these students are interested in their past and the people that have kind of paved the way for them. So I think, I don't know if it's a generational thing, but I have noticed that a lot of students are interested [00:15:30] in their relatives and they talk more about their relatives and things like that, and those that have done things that have been very, very inspirational and that we would've never known had they not had the opportunity to talk about 'em.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (15:43):
Now, you were chosen as Idaho Civics teacher of the year for 20 19, 20 20. Congratulations on that. Thank you. And my concern among others is we talk about politics and voting and we're gearing up towards a primary season [00:16:00] and then a general election in November, man, voter turnouts, low representative, I mean a Republican caucus. We had less than 10% of people are making a decision about who they think should lead our country. We get into Republican primaries in Idaho where in most places the Republican primaries determining who's going to carry the ballot through November, and it's still significantly less than 50%. You see a third of the people in Idaho are deciding who's leading as a civics [00:16:30] teacher. I imagine that's frustrating. Do you see a solution?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (16:35):
I think historically that 18 to 25-year-old demographic has been low voter turnout. And so I always do, usually in the fall and in the spring, I do a voter registration where I talk through how to register as a voter in Idaho and explain the various facets of how to do it. And I think that I've had students and [00:17:00] kind of the beauty of living in a smaller town is I'll be sitting maybe on my park bench in my park. I always like to tell everyone that Legacy Park is Mr. Bundy's park because it's right by my house. And I did a lot of work on it when I was in city council, but over the past year, I'll just be sitting there and I'll have somebody walk by and they'll stop and they'll say, Mr. Bundy, do you remember me? And I do, I've been teaching for 20 years, and if you do the math, it's about 3,500 students.
(17:28):
But a lot of them, and I've noticed a trend [00:17:30] here is they say, well, they'll think back as they get to maybe 25, 26, maybe 30, and remember something we didn't in government class. So sometimes the benefit of civics instruction may not be immediate, but it might be five or 10 years down the road. And I've had quite a few students and it's really humbling. Someone remembers what you did 10 or 15 years ago. But my point there is I think a lot of times when we put that spark in 'em as 17 or 18, it may not [00:18:00] catch fire for a little while, but I've been pleased to know of a lot of students that at some point later in the next five to 10 years or so, they become politically involved, they become voters. So that's how I treat it is I'd like you to vote right now, but if this ember doesn't take spark for another few years, I'm glad that I was a part of it even five or 10 years later. So it's kind of a longer answer to a short question, but you're correct that [00:18:30] we do need to increase our voter and make voting accessible too.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (18:36):
I like the idea of this though. That's some good insight about investing in these young minds that may not pay dividends until later when it kind of clicks that they need to participate. But you're still doing the Lord's work there in the classroom, getting these kids to understand and to want to care about things that really do matter. So that's noteworthy, I imagine. So yet 20 years, we're still going to 20 years in the classroom, but we haven't had 20 years in the legislature. So [00:19:00] I'm just assuming that there were probably some pain points as a teacher that sparked your decision to get involved. Now, you were a city councilman before joining the legislature, but were there some things that you saw that the Idaho legislature maybe could do better when it comes to education that you and the teachers chair thought, man, they're just not quite seeing this?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (19:21):
Well, actually, so I started teaching in 2004, and [00:19:30] then I coached for 10 years. So I was a baseball and a basketball coach, and the mayor of Mount Home about 10 years ago called me and said, Hey, I heard some good things about you. Would you like to get involved in one of our economic development committees? And I said, that sounds great. And I really was not that in tune with economic development at the time, but I did, and we did some great things. We did a downtown renovation and I was able to, we worked with the Department of Commerce and ITD so that we were able to combine forces [00:20:00] and save a lot of city taxpayer money by using outside grants and type of things like that. And so I started to get to see and to know how you can integrate the city government, county government and state government to get a much better product and at a much better cost savings for taxpayer.
(20:22):
And so I was doing that and just loving it. And then there was a city council opening, and some folks came and said, Hey, we think that you'd be a great candidate [00:20:30] for city council. And so I said, I'd love to because I want to continue to grow the downtown and to grow that mountain home economy. And so I was serving in city council for about four or five years, and then a similar thing happened where the incumbent decided to run. So it created an opening in the state legislature, and I was encouraged to run for that. So I basically entered into these various levels of government responsibility [00:21:00] when folks had a need and they thought I might be the guy that could be able to fill that. And so it's always an honor to have people say, I think you would be good at this. And I've been very glad that I've been able to over the course of the last decade, work in public service. So it's not that I saw anything I wanted to do differently or change, it's just the fact that people showed confidence in me and I appreciated that.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (21:23):
As a rural high school and as a rural high school teacher, I'm sure you wrestle [00:21:30] with, as you mentioned before, issues with school facilities with public funding of education, and as you gear up for another election cycle, are those issues that you still think there's work to be done on?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (21:43):
I do. And Mountain Home is not just because I live there, but for many reasons it's unique. We have the Air Force base, and that's what brought me here in 1999. So I've been in Idaho for 25 years, is about 40% of our students are affiliated with the base. [00:22:00] So we're a rural school where we have a ton of agricultural kids, but we have a lot of kids associated with the military. And so when I moved here, my daughter was a junior and I had a young son that was a ninth grader and another son that was a fourth grader. So we came here after moving around the country for a long time. We did 10 moves in 20 years. And so we're rural, but we're also very diverse. And so that's kind of a little bit interesting about our rural school, [00:22:30] but also a mountain home.
(22:31):
One of the buildings that we use is over a hundred years old, but I think in facilities, people may, I'm sure everybody knows that it's expensive to maintain and keep up to code a building that's a hundred years old. Our high school is 70 years old. We use the a hundred year old building as kind of our alternative high school. But when you have to repair a 70, 80, a hundred year old building, that money tends to come out of your general fund that you can't use for other educational [00:23:00] purposes. And we're not unique. Mountain Home is not unique that we're using buildings that are 70, 80, 90, a hundred years old, and that's where we tend to get in trouble because it's difficult with the super majority to get a bond through as it should be because you're expending taxpayer funds. But then we end up with the 70 and like I say, very old buildings that we have to maintain.
(23:22):
And we also, a lot of folks don't know that we have an elementary school out on the Air Force base, so the Air Force School [00:23:30] is run by Mountain Home School District, and that building is also getting old, and we're working on how to upgrade that facility also. So we do, I think a lot of rural schools are having difficulty with the super majority on the bond, and I think this facilities money that we're putting in place right now and some of the other money that we're putting towards the bonds and levies that are out there will help property taxes reduce and hopefully let us get our buildings where they need to be.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (24:00):
[00:24:00] Yeah, yeah. We had Senator Lent on here talking about the same thing, and he said people would be really surprised how much it costs to build a new building. Just as you pointed out, I think we'd all be surprised how much it costs to keep a hundred year old building up to code and go. And I think I had a neighbor and she was a hundred years old, and it was new hips and all sorts of things. I mean, people aren't cheap to keep updated at that age, so buildings are just as bad.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (24:24):
Yeah, we are definitely giving those buildings new hips. That is a good analogy.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (24:28):
Thank you. Thank you. Now then, you [00:24:30] talked about how you kind of stumbled into the legislature through a bunch of optimistic and opportunities that opened doors for you at good points in time, but you've got public service in your blood. In fact, you had an ancestor that served in a legislature. Do you mind sharing that story with us?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (24:46):
That's funny. It's funny. Some of the students were talking about some of their ancestors, and I knew my heritage on some level. On my mom's side, they immigrated from Germany. So on my mom's side, I'm first generation [00:25:00] citizen here, born here. But on my dad's side, I knew it went way back to North Carolina. And so sometimes there's a gap in your genealogy. Well, it got filled over the last couple of years, and I was able to figure out that on my dad's side, directly back all the way to 1650, a guy named William Bundy came from England to North Carolina, and he was a Quaker. And so he had a son whose name was Caleb, so Caleb Bundy. And I found the documents when I saw something and I went back into the [00:25:30] North Carolina Colonial Archives. And so in 1703, Caleb Bundy, direct descendant, just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
(25:41):
Straight back was a member of the North Carolina House of Burgesses. And like I said, they were Quakers. And so when they got a new queen in 1703, they made a law in Parliament that you had to take an oath to the Queen. And if you remember your Quaker history, they don't take oaths. And so it was a big deal [00:26:00] where Caleb and a couple of his other Quaker legislators signed a letter saying that they would not sign an oath to this new queen based on religious ideas. And so it's kind of a cool story back in 1703 ish that Caleb Bundy, a direct descendant of mine, was in the North Carolina House of Burgesses. And so people ask me what my takeaway from that is. And my takeaway from that is about every 300 years somebody in the Bundy line is full-hearted enough to [00:26:30] want to be in the state legislature.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (26:33):
That is a wonderful story, and I hope that that is the ancestor that they remember. That's the Bundy name we want people to associate you with is that legislature. And I also would point out that there's probably a lesson to be there about swearing allegiance to things other than voters. I imagine that you often get asked to swear allegiance to all sorts of groups and associations, and I assume your allegiance still falls to the voters.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (26:55):
I think it's interesting that we always talk about people came to [00:27:00] the colonies for religious freedom and then even in the early days, they struggled with religious freedom. So it's a religious freedom, freedom of ideas are things that even three centuries later we're dealing with now. And so yeah, there's a lot of lessons to be learned in that very short story that I found in the history of North Carolina that I'm associated with. But it is kind of fun to think that on one side of my family, I'm [00:27:30] first generation born in America, and on the other side of my family I go straight back to 1650 coming here from England. So I've got really both sides of that whole immigration pattern.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (27:41):
Yeah, I love that. And there's definitely something to be said about getting in touch with our roots in England. They've got on their two pound coins on the room of it, it says standing on the shoulder of giants. And I often think back to people came before us that helped us get where we are today, and we need to remember that. So I think that's a wonderful story of your ancestry. Now, [00:28:00] I would be in trouble if during this podcast we didn't spend some time talking about your days as a combat aviator. Is it as cool as it sounds representative?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (28:12):
Well, I joined my commissioning program in 1982. I was very, very young at the time, so if you're doing the math in your head, I'm just kidding. But 1982 was a different time than 1995, 2005, and even [00:28:30] 2020, it was not, it wasn't as popular. It wasn't as well accepted to join the military in the early eighties. We're still in kind of the Vietnam hangover. And so I joined in 1982. My dad was a wonderful man. He was a public school teacher for 33 years, but I didn't grow up. My dad didn't serve in the military. He would've loved to, but the circumstances just didn't warrant it. So I just kind of on a, trying to figure out what I wanted [00:29:00] to do with my life, I decided that I would go through ROTC at the University of Utah, and I was offered an aviation slot. So the best way to describe it, if you've seen Top Gun, I was Goose. That was the weapons office.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (29:14):
You're speaking our language.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (29:16):
So I started in 1984 when I was commissioned, I went to flight school. I flew B 50 twos first, so my career is bookended. I started off with Nuclear Alert against the Soviets where we would be on alert [00:29:30] with a jet loaded with nuclear weapons for deterrence. And that is an interesting historical conversation. And then at the end of my career, I had transitioned to B one about 1990. I did a combat deployment post nine 11 into Afghanistan and flew combat sorties against the Taliban. And so it was really fun. It was a lot of excitement, [00:30:00] something I could hang my hat on, but really all, when I mentioned Top Gun, that's when the attitude changed. All of a sudden before that, it was like, oh, you joined the military, couldn't find anything else to do. And then Top Gun comes out, and I think all we do is play volleyball on the beach.
(30:14):
And then everybody thought it was a really cool thing to do. Not that we didn't play volleyball on the beach in Guam when we would do a night sort and then we'd play volleyball the next day. But the Top Gun phenomenon really increased the awareness [00:30:30] of the military. And then of course, desert Shield, desert Storm. I was in Desert Shield over in Guam for a little bit, and then I came back to train in the B one and the Desert Shield Desert Storm kind of enhanced our pride in the military. 2001, I think galvanized it. And I think we're still a very pro-military country, which I think is awesome. But there's a lot of things. I moved my family 10 times in 20 years, so I think it was hard on them. And luckily, and I'm very, very blessed that my three children still like [00:31:00] me and my wife was hung by my side this whole time.
(31:04):
And both of my sons have served in the military and continue to serve in the National Guard. So I love the military and I would do it again, but I've also, I think the military experience in some ways has made me a better teacher. I'm not saying that everybody needs to serve in the military to be a teacher, but for me that combination worked. And so there's a lot of career educators that are wonderful, wonderful [00:31:30] teachers, and we're starting to see over, when I came into teaching 20 years ago, it was rare to see a second career teacher, but you're starting to see more of that. And I think that's a good thing to combine teachers that are in the classroom for 30, 35 years with other folks that have done something else for 10 to 15 years or five years and then come into the classroom. So that's kind of a neat development.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (31:52):
In what ways did serving in the military affect the way that you view your service in the Idaho state legislature?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (32:00):
[00:32:00] That's a great question. Sometimes I tend to be very friendly. I tend to be very congenial. So I think sometimes I don't meet the typical military stereotype. And part of that is because as an aviator in the Air Force, I did a lot of study of military history and leadership. And one of my, even though patent is stereotypical, he actually [00:32:30] was very well loved by his immediate set of advisors and a piece of advice that Patton gave his advisors. If everybody in the room is thinking the same thing, then somebody's not thinking. And so I've tried to take that into the classroom amongst other things where I encourage students to challenge my ideas, and I let them know that when I'm asking them a question, it doesn't mean I disagree. It means I'm giving them the opportunity [00:33:00] to explore their own thoughts and to be able to adequately discuss their ideas.
(33:06):
And so I think that when you're an officer in the military and you're doing strategic thinking, you need to analyze all of the different avenues that you might have to pursue, and you have to come to an agreement, reach a consensus. And I think that type of thinking is very prevalent or needed in the Idaho legislature where you have to understand that there's a diverse [00:33:30] group out there, diverse needs, and you need to come together and let people know when you have a different idea and if you can move an idea or making an idea better.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (33:43):
Yeah. Well, I think we're going to have to have you on at some point just to talk about your career in the military, introduced us to some stories that are going to be coming, and we'd love to dig in more on that. But we've got a tradition before the podcast ends today that anyone, first time [00:34:00] interviewees join the podcast. There's two really tough questions we throw at 'em. Okay, so buckle up. The first one, and this is going to be perfect for you as an educator, is if there was a book that you've read in your lifetime that you would recommend everybody else needs to flip through, what book would that be?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (34:18):
I just finished a book about Joshua Chamberlain on Great Fields, and we tend, if you're familiar with Joshua Chamberlain, he was 20th, Maine, little round top Gettysburg, [00:34:30] but that was just a small portion of his life. The other things he did as a minister and as a college professor and as a governor of Maine, and there's a story in there at the end when he's the governor of Maine, that there was an armed insurrection or an armed rebellion that wanted to take over the capitol. And the way that he handled it and the way that he addressed it, I think is a lesson that we can learn, that you can have [00:35:00] disagreements and if the right person is at the place at the right time, he diffused it. And it's a nice lesson for history. And it also talks about, and maybe part of the reason that it resonated with me is because he was a teacher and a military man also, as you try to juggle those two divergent ways of thinking, but they're actually very similar in nature. So it's a great on great fields about Joshua Chamberlain.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (35:26):
Perfect on Grateful. That's piqued my interest because no, I'm not familiar with Joshua Chamberlain, but [00:35:30] I will be. You've made the book list so excited about that. Now the second question's, even harder representative, you've got a great district there that you represent. If I'm driving through your district, where is somewhere I need to stop if I need to get a meal?
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (35:45):
Well, let's see. I've got Elmore County, Boise County, valley County and Custer County. So there's Elmore County, there's a place called S Stoney's on Main Street. That's a lot of fun. And it's [00:36:00] a local venue on your way up to Donnelley. It's called the Cougar Cafe, I believe it's right there kind of outside of Donnelley. And so there's some fun places up there. I would go there. I was just yesterday I got to drive 500 miles to a chalice back and forth. So it was about almost 10 hours in the car and I got to go through craters of the moon, Arco on my way up to [00:36:30] Mackey, and we did a little event, a place called Living Waters up there. It was really nice. So I've got the largest geographic district, so if you're driving through my district, it's either a week long trip or you're specifically going there. So
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (36:45):
Those are some good recommendations and any that are not mentioned, we hope that you didn't lose their votes, I'm sure.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (36:50):
Correct. They're all
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (36:51):
Good. They're all good. We'll qualify that representative. We've talked through a lot of your titles today. We've talked about you as a representative legislator. We talked through you as [00:37:00] Mr. Bundy talked to you as a lieutenant and even Goose, and we appreciate you walking us through not only what's going on in the legislature, but kind of how you got there and the way you envision things. We're hoping for the session to end this week and that we can have you back on to kind of recap everything that finished and what we're looking forward to in the coming years.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (37:24):
Well, I appreciate that. And you said earlier, I kind of want to think of it, maybe I was led into the legislature, [00:37:30] not that I stumbled into the legislature, so I'm just kidding. This has been an awesome opportunity and I appreciate the ability to chat with you for a few minutes.
Brennan Summers - Executive Director Main Street (37:40):
Absolutely. We're glad you're in the legislature and we know you didn't stumble there. That mistake is on me, but we'll get that one fixed in post-production. We'll see if Casey cuts it. No, we're fine. Thanks for joining us today.
Representative Matt Bundy - District 8 Idaho (37:51):
Alright, you have a great day.
