Empowering Idaho Students - Representative Julie Yamamoto - Episode 13
An educated citizenry is not only desirable, it is paramount to the wellbeing and continuance of our constitutional republic.
Education is the key that unlocks the door to freedom — It equips individuals with the ability to think critically, to question, to make informed decisions, and to safeguard their rights.
Ultimately, education is the catalyst that allows each of us to reach our fullest potential. It's the embodiment of the American Dream – the idea that with hard work and education, anyone can achieve greatness.
Today’s podcast guest, Representative Julie Yamamoto currently serves as Idaho’s Chair of the House Education Committee. She received her Educational Specialist and Doctor of Education from the University of Idaho, and knew from an early age that she would be a teacher.
Rep. Yamamoto's commitment to guiding students towards becoming virtuous citizen leaders is inspiring. In today’s episode, she emphasizes the need for teachers to guide students through their educational journey and raise virtuous citizen leaders.
Yamamoto aims to create a collaborative lawmaking environment and push forward legislation to serve Idaho's students and families.
In this NEW episode, you’ll discover:
How Idaho plans to invest in its young minds through the new Launch program.
Current hot topics, from school choice to building maintenance to the library bill.
How faith plays a significant role in her approach to governance, and how she finds common ground with those who may not share her views.
Follow Along With The Transcript
Brennan Summers (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome. It is Main Street Idaho's podcast. And here we are with Representative Julie Yamamoto out of District 11. She had to correct me, right? I had 10 earlier, but we had a change in districts. But representative, you're coming out of Caldwell today, correct?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (00:26):
Correct.
Brennan Summers (00:28):
Well, we appreciate you joining us. Now, you chair the House Education Committee, so you can imagine we're going to talk a lot today about education.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (00:37):
I would expect that
Brennan Summers (00:41):
This will be a great experience for me who's followed your career for a while. A lot of issues came up. We had Senator Dave Lent earlier this year come and talk to us about some education issues. That was fantastic. So we're excited to get the house perspective on some of these issues. Now, you were a seventh grade school teacher, a first grade school teacher, and then you went on to become an administrator. You helped start a charter school. You're on the board of a charter school. You have a doctorate in education too, I believe. So first question, representative, what is it about education that you find so
Representative Julie Yamamoto (01:16):
Impactful? Well, I knew from a very early age that I was going to get to be a teacher. I knew it from before I was six years old and started school myself. And I knew that there is just something about when you are working with young people, whether it's teaching them to read, which is just an incredible experience, or if it's guiding them through middle school years, which are just when you ask them why they do things and they say they don't know, they mean it, they don't know. And then as they're working with them in their high school career and what is going to come beyond, you are not their parent, but you are with them with the better part of their waking hours. And so it's important for you to know that an educated electorate, Thomas Jefferson wasn't wrong when he said that's what the Republic, a constitutional republic is going to be dependent on people being educated and knowing what they stand to lose and what it's all about and how to be a part of that. So I always thought from the very beginning that we were raising virtuous citizen leaders. They were going to go forth and keep things moving in a good direction for not just Idaho, but the United States and really the world.
Brennan Summers (02:36):
It's safe to say that if you're one passion in life, you had to choose one is education.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (02:41):
Oh, yeah. It was given to me as not just a job, it was a vocation and an vocation. I felt like it was my joy for it to be my life's work.
Brennan Summers (02:53):
So maybe walk us through how it felt when you first found out that you'd be chair of the House Education Committee.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (03:00):
Well, that was overwhelming and actually went back to Speaker Mole before the announcement was made and asked him if he was sure that was what he wanted to do, because I recognized that we'd had such a turnover in the house and for somebody who was in their second term, there were a couple of us who were tapped to be chair of committees, and that's unusual. Usually somebody has been there quite a bit longer, and so it was overwhelming. But Dave Lent, who chairs the Senate ed, we had decided early on that we would work together and that presentations that we would have on Mondays in the house in the afternoon, we would have the same presentation in the Senate so that the two committees were working somewhat in tandem looking at what are the big issues, what are the things that are going well? How do we help move those things forward? So I felt like I had some good help along the way.
Brennan Summers (04:09):
Yeah, so we try to highlight on the podcast the importance of committees. So whatever I'm chatting with elected leaders, I try to lean into their role on the committee and the things they do. We are finding that our average listener understands what their elected leaders do in terms of voting for bills and proposing legislation, but the idea of committees is sometimes lost on the average Idahoan. Can you briefly walk us through what the process is like of chairing a committee and what that entails and why that matters?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (04:41):
Well, the most important thing is, is that somebody comes to you and says, here, this is a bill that we would like to have heard in your committee. And so the first thing I do is sit down with them and ask them, well, what is it about? Let them talk me through it. Then I read through the bill as well. If I have any questions or concerns, then I talk to that person about that. Ask them who else they've talked to on the committee and encourage them to let people know what's going on with their bill before it gets in front of the committee. A lot of the times you'll get some from personal experience, I have written some bills, and then when I put them out for people to give me feedback, they have caught some things that why not catch it before it gets in front of the committee and not have to go back and redo it and ask for a whole new number? Because that's what it requires is that if you get your RS and then it is actually heard and given a bill number, then if you need to amend it, sometimes you just have to go clear to the beginning and start over again. And so we try to, as chairs, we've been asked to not tell people what to do with their bills, but to give wise counsel so that whatever comes in front of the committee, a lot of the questions have already been answered and concerns have been addressed.
Brennan Summers (06:08):
So first off, your first role is to act as a filter in some sense to ensure that the committee's time's not wasted.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (06:15):
Right. And I know some people think that that means that you draw bills. I made a real effort to not do that, to say that if they had enough interest on the committee for it to be heard, whether it was an educational savings account or whether it was the library bill, all of those things that we heard them, I think there were only two that we ended up not hearing. And it's mainly because we got so late in this session and we needed to get the rules taken care of, which is another part of committee work that probably the average person doesn't know or maybe even care about. But it's pretty important that we're reviewing the rules that are to our germane committee. And so we just got caught in a time crunch and there were two that we didn't hear.
Brennan Summers (07:04):
But there's something to be said about even bills that you opposed in committee, you still brought forward and let the debate occur.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (07:11):
Agreed. And I know there were people who felt like that the chair, that it is your prerogative to just say, I'm not going to listen to. I'm not going to hear it. I didn't approach it that way. I believe that the political process, even if there are people who, I mean it was actually said, well, we win either way. Either we win because the bill gets passed or we win because we have people on record as voting for or against whatever it is. So I suppose that there's, there are those who would say it would've been prudent to not let some of those come through, but that's not the process. The process is that people are elected 105 of us to come to Boise and to cash this stuff out and to debate these issues. And I think that that is the process, and it's a good one. It means that laws don't get usually passed, usually not easily. And I think the library bill is a really good example of that. That's something that maybe needs more time and as they say, to bake and not just a knee-jerk reaction to pass.
Brennan Summers (08:29):
Well, I'm excited to get into some of these specific bills that you mentioned, but when you became chair of the committee, you said that a goal of yours was to create a collaborative lawmaking environment and push forward robust legislation to serve Idaho's students and families. So you've already mentioned one way you've created a collaborative environment, and that's by hearing bills and allowing the education process, the debate process and the lawmaking process all play out in your committee. What are some of the other ways you feel like you've been able to achieve that goal at your short time so far? As chair of the committee,
Representative Julie Yamamoto (09:04):
One of the things that we did is we really looked at that, what does the constitution say as our job is to provide a system of free, thorough public common schools? And it was something that we put the exact wording right on the back of everybody's nameplate. So it was in front of us every day that we were meeting and that we were deliberating, or as we were listening to the presentations that came to us, and we had a couple of discussions about that. It didn't get as far as I would've liked to, I would hope that we would maybe try to come to some kind of a consensus about what did that actually mean, because some of the friction that you see on that committee is what a difference of opinion you could have on what it means to be thorough and what it means to have common and what it means to have a system.
(09:58):
And does that really not take care of individual students just because you call it a system? So those were the things though that I felt like that if we could talk about as a committee, it's a pretty large committee with very diverse views, could we get to a common understanding of what those terms meant? And I think we started down that path, but as you said, one session, we certainly didn't finish that conversation. The other part of it is just bringing people in so that we have so many new people on the education committee just to know all the different, they call it the alphabet soup, but there's everything from the School Boards Association to the Idaho Education Association, witchy, which is the upper ed, the colleges and universities, B-S-U-I-S-U, all of those to bring them in and to give them an opportunity to present so that we start having a common experience and understanding to approach the bills that come before us.
Brennan Summers (11:10):
Yeah. You mentioned a lot of different groups that you've brought forward. You mentioned previously collaborating on the senate side with Chairman Lent. I assume you probably have to work pretty closely with the State Board of Education and our new state superintendent. Why don't you tell us a little bit about working with superintendent Debbie Critchfield. She's new. How's she doing? What's she doing that you like? Where do you see opportunities for her and her organization to venture into new fields?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (11:38):
So Superintendent Critchfield just brings such a positive energy, and she has surrounded herself with people like Ryan Cantrell who is just at the top of his, he's in his A game as far looking at what do all schools need to be successful, Greg Wilson has great policy background, and then the people that they are putting into positions to help guide schools, they are people who truly care about students individually and then as collectively and then as teachers and as local education group, school districts. And I think that that approach of being truly collaborative with the schools that you are representing, with the superintendents, with those principals, and coming alongside to help and to give clear direction about what it is, this is what it says, this is what it means. Julie Oberly, Gideon Tolman, these are the finance people. They have forgotten more than I'll ever know about school finance.
(12:50):
And they have just been excellent guides as Debbie has developed her budget for this coming year. And I really like how she has put it into, she's trying to look at what does the constitution say and then put it into these different buckets so that we're looking at it with a little different framework as far as why are we spending this money in this way? And I just feel like that all of those things that she's trying to listen to what her stakeholders, she brought people together for that finance to the modernization of the school funding formula, which in and of itself is just a beast. And just this idea that she's listened. And when we met last Monday, the things that she has put in place to address, you could draw a line from what somebody's concern was to where it is in the budget. And to me, that is somebody who's listening and not just listening to pander, but listening to really move the work forward. I have high hopes for where we're going with education, and she's working with the governor's office, working with the state board since she was on the state board. She understands that role, their role better than the average person, and I feel like there is a true collaboration there. So I give her an A and she's just, it's a work in progress.
Brennan Summers (14:16):
Yeah, gleaming review from the chair to the new superintendent. We're going to have Debbie on the podcast here in a week or so, and I expect her to give you such positive remarks as well. So we'll hold her to that. So that's great. That's great. You're working closely with her and her team. Love to hear you talk specifically about not just the boss at top, but all the people helping her making things run. You as chair and Debbie as superintendent, a lot of unique issues came forward this last term, this last cycle, last session. I would like to quickly get into a few of them if it's okay with you. We've got a lot of 'em, so I'll hold you to some shorter answers, but I think our listeners are really going to be excited to get your perspective on some of 'em. We'll start with a non-controversial, really easy one.
(15:03):
How about school choice? Okay, so we're under the impression, and we've heard often that Idaho has numerous choices for students and parents when it comes to places to be educated. A bill came forward that you referenced a little while ago that we would call ESAs Educational Savings Accounts that allow a student and a parent to take the public funds allocated for public education of that student and take it with them to a private organization or homeschool in order for them to be educated. Then the dollars can follow the students that came before your committee. You opposed it, but it was heard. Maybe walk us through briefly why you opposed it and where you see the issue going from here.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (15:49):
A I'll start with the end. It will be back. I've been told that and what form it takes, I don't know. But I think the issue becomes back to what the Constitution says is our job as state legislators, and that is to provide a system of thorough system of free common public schools. And I know that we had one representative who felt like, because it didn't say specifically not private, that it didn't close the door on private, but the Blaine Amendment does close the door on that. And what I had been told last year from the attorney general's office was that once you open that door, then you can't close it. But Idaho has not been providing funds for private schools and therefore, yes, giving to parents, but not giving to private schools. So I think that that's part of the issue. Part of the issue is just this misunderstanding of when most homeschoolers that I talk to say that 500 to a thousand dollars is what it takes for them to homeschool their children at home.
(17:06):
So for it to be six, $7,000, they didn't even know how they would even begin to use that kind of cash and concerned mainly with once we take money from the state, we have always been a conservative take on funds given was return on investment and accountability. And what that ESA said is that there would be no accountability. That is just hard to, I've been a conservative all my life, and to think that we're just fork out dollars and accountability square with most of us who have been conservative Republicans fiscally conservative. So I think that those are some of the main issues. And the other part of that is when we see that we have still a funding gap, I understand that people feel like that schools are the black hole, that you never can give 'em enough, but we aren't meeting the obligation. And we just saw something come out that said, our special ed obligation is like to the tuna 66 million short, but now we're going to take money and an average. And that's another misnomer is that when you're dealing with averages of money spent, it doesn't make sense to say that it doesn't cost the same. All students don't cost the same. And so you have those special education students that can be one student a hundred thousand dollars, and then another student, maybe they're the $500, but we're going to do an average.
(18:54):
It logically doesn't make sense.
Brennan Summers (18:57):
Got it. So this comes down to primarily the way you're viewing and reading the Constitution, your responsibility to protect tax dollars and have accountability of what's spent, and then also making sure the numbers work out. So we could spend a long time talking about that. And there's probably a lot we didn't cover with that, but I want to make sure, because you brought up our requirement to the public school system, let's talk about building maintenance. A lot of these schools briefly, what can be done in the legislature to help some of these schools that are struggling to pass their bonds and they're living kind of in tough facilities. We talked to Senator Lent about it, and he was very open to the collaborative approach and bringing in new ideas. What are you seeing through your lens of what we can do to help out some of these school facilities?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (19:42):
Well, the idea that first of all, supplemental levies aren't supplemental anymore. And I think we have to come down to that realization that I understand why it was decided that we would vote on those things to give people more choice in how they tax themselves. But the reality is some of those buildings are 50 or more years old and they are not up to snuff. And so we really do need to look at a different way of funding that and whether people like it or not, that is a state responsibility. So whether it's Senator Lents idea of using endowment land funds or whether it's that revolving loan fund that we talked about, we pass for charter schools with the idea that maybe we could do that for regular public schools, but it really isn't, to me, it's not optional anymore to keep saying that that is our responsibility, but we're not going to need it. And it's up to, there are places like Wilder small school districts that being able to pass a bond to build a school or to fix the one they're in, it just isn't in the cards. And so what is our responsibility as a state? Our responsibility is to provide a safe building for those teachers and kids to work and live in.
Brennan Summers (21:09):
And it's on your radar.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (21:11):
Yeah.
Brennan Summers (21:12):
Yeah. So it's a priority. It's on your radar. It's something you're still going to work to help tackle.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (21:18):
And I think in the funding formula, I don't know that it'll happen this session, but I do believe that it's something that Superintendent Critchfield the state board. It's not that people don't understand it, and it's not that they don't understand the special ed component of it. And that when she said it was a budget buster, she wasn't kidding. But then how do we as a state, how do we approach it? And we had the one bill that from Representative Monks that over time even he said, it's not going to be an immediate fix. It's an overtime fix. And the problem is some of these things need an immediate fix. So I think we're going to have to take another look at that and how we appropriate funds for buildings and maintenance.
Brennan Summers (22:05):
So building maintenance facility funds not the most controversial issue. Very important. Happy to hear that. It's still on your radar. These superintendent school boards are stressing about it. An issue that did draw a lot of attention, there was the library bill that you referenced earlier. This was a bill that on face value, it looked like it was trying to protect children from access to inappropriate materials in their libraries. Can you walk us through, as we are running out of time, but can you walk us through a little bit of what that bill actually did, and then the issue with the private right of action and why that kind of played out the way that it did?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (22:42):
So if you looked at a and B of that bill, I don't think anybody would argue that those materials should not be in the hands of children, and I would maintain or not. When it became problematic was any other harmful materials. Now that becomes very subjective. And then you add to that then that private right of action that I could keep a school district or a public library in litigation constantly. If I was a person who wanted to set up somebody to go in and find something that I decided was other harmful material. And that to me, anytime that you're asking taxpayers to sue for taxpayer money, that also does not make sense to my conservative fiscal brain. I think if somebody isn't using money appropriately, then you look at that appropriation and that the bill that I hear might be coming through that would address that instead of a private right action would look at withholding of funds if in fact these things are not met as far as what is, there is a measure that is clear about what is harmful. But once you get to that subjective, we saw it in Davis County the day after it went on the Idaho House floor and pass. The next day someone in Davis County asked for the Bible to be taken off of shelves, and it did. Since that time, it's back on. But it required a process, which is time and money, taxpayer dollars I think that maybe could have been used in a different way to actually impact what's happening in the classroom.
Brennan Summers (24:26):
Do you foresee a bill coming to your committee that addresses this, that you would support such as the one you talk about of withholding funds versus taxpayers suing for taxpayer dollars?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (24:36):
I've been checking in with the folks along the way because let's face it, who does want little ones seeing things that are, that pornography OB seen? You don't. I don't. Nobody does. But to say that that's all that bill was to me, that was a disingenuous argument, and it was more than that.
Brennan Summers (25:00):
Now, there are those who, no matter how much you explain yourself on issues from ESAs to this library bill, they'll never get to the same place you will. What do you say to those that just will categorically disagree with you on some of these issues? How do you find a point of agreeing to disagree with those who are pretty vocal in their opposition to some of the stances you've taken?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (25:22):
Right. I think that I tried to model what I believe that my faith in God requires, which is in as much as possible live at peace with all people, and that they are entitled, they have First Amendment, free speech rights to disagree and to do it vociferously. And my job isn't trying to squash them or not let their position be heard. It's to be a voice of reason and calm and to hear and first seek to understand, and then just at, I refuse to count them as my enemy. And that's just the long and the short of it is I refuse to have enemies. We might disagree, but I'm called to love others and to treat them as I would want to be treated. And that is my standard, and I'm going to stick to it.
Brennan Summers (26:17):
Yeah, I know your faith plays an important role in your life and in the way that you lead and govern, and I appreciate that. Now, as we're wrapping up here, as a former educator, as somebody that deals extens education policy, we've got to ask if there was one book out there that you would recommend to everybody that they need to run down the library and get, what would you say that book is?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (26:38):
I would tell them that they need to read the book of Proverbs.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Okay.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (26:43):
People will say, life doesn't come with an instruction manual. Oh, I beg to differ. I think it does. And I think that if we would read that, and then you should follow it closely with Psalms, because I think those two just work together as far as what is just and true and write, and then how to live your life in such a way that you're doing the right things for the right reasons and in the right way.
Brennan Summers (27:11):
And they can find that book at Davis in the Davis County Library now because it's been returned. Yeah, they can praise the Lord. That's right. Now, in your district, I love to ask our elected leaders, if you had to pick one place that you'd recommend as the best place to eat in District 11, what would you choose?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (27:28):
So you've done this with others and I've been thinking, oh, what would I, it is tough, but I will tell you what I call my second. My office is Mr. V's on 10th, and it is just, it's a family owned and run business. There's somebody who's, Tammy has worked there for 30 years, and once you're part of that family, they tend to keep them there. And I don't know, it's sort of like cheers, but without the booze. It's everybody knows your name and it's just really good food too. Bacon. Really good bacon.
Brennan Summers (28:04):
There we go. All right, we're taking notes next time. We're over that way now. Representative, we started talking about your calling to education, your incredible experiences, and educator is an administrator. We got into your goal in a collaborative environment and talked about how you're working with all the stakeholders, the Senate, and we got your a plus rating from Superintendent Critchfield and her staff. We even got to talk a little bit about school funding formulas, about building maintenance, about ESAs, about the library. Bill, we've got to talk about a lot of things today. Now, as we end and wrap this up, why don't we finish on a really positive No. Tell us what you look forward to as being, what gets you excited about the future in Idaho? As you think about the kids entering the K through 12 system. What is it that you can say this is the right place for them to be and this is the right place for them to be educated?
Representative Julie Yamamoto (28:59):
Well, the one thing we didn't talk about is launch, and I know you've talked about launch with others, but to me, this idea that we're going to invest in young people early and often, and well with the idea that we want them to stay in Idaho, and the idea that we're going to help you do that, the schools that I've been in have had a very large low income component, and that going on, whether it be CTE or two or four year has just been out of reach. So to put it in reach, to actually put behind our words some action that says, we're going to invest in you. This is very exciting to me. So I'm hoping that we can start seeing the wisdom and the value and investing in children early with early childhood education, and then all the way through to let's launch them into their future, and let's hope that future includes a lot of them wanting to stay and raise their families in Idaho.
Brennan Summers (30:01):
Absolutely a priority for the governor, and something that you were a strong supporter of Idaho's launch program, so I too am excited to see how that plays out. The representative, we know you love your district. We didn't get a lot of time to talk about all the issues from property taxes and water issues and all the other things that are important to District 11. We're going to have you back on and we'll talk a little bit less about education, then we'll go more into those other issues. But we really appreciate taking the time to chat with us today.
Representative Julie Yamamoto (30:27):
I appreciate your time too. Thank you so much.
