Idaho House Education Committee approves sending flag-display bill to floor after heated debate

BOISE — The Idaho House Education Committee voted 12–2 to send House Bill 10 to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation after more than an hour of debate and public testimony on whether schools should limit which flags and banners can be displayed on school property.

Representative Ted Hill, sponsor of the bill, told the committee: "The intent of this bill is to assure that the American flag and the state flag are the primary flags in the public school." He said the measure is intended to "bring the unity back" in classrooms by preventing what he called political or ideological distractions behind teachers or in school rooms.

Committee members and members of the public gave sharply divided testimony. Greg Wilson, chief of staff at the Idaho Department of Education, told the committee that "flags and banners are currently a local decision, so we do not have a formal process of recognition" and described two narrow examples the department recognizes: Purple Star School recognition for military-family support and the U.S. Department of Education's National…