Idaho bill to provide free period products in schools fails
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/03/2023 (1018 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A bill that would have provided free menstrual products in girls bathrooms in Idaho public schools failed in the state House, with at least one Republican lawmaker calling the proposal “very liberal.”
The measure advanced earlier this month from the House Education Committee with a “do pass” recommendation. It failed on the House floor 35-35 last week.
It was expected to cost $435,000 to install product dispensers and about $300,000 each year to stock them to provide menstrual products for female students in grades six through 12, according to the bill’s fiscal note. State budget analysts have forecast a $1.4 billion tax revenue surplus at the end of the fiscal year, the Idaho Statesman reported.
“It’s not a lot of money in the state’s budget,” Rep. Rod Furniss, a Republican, told the committee in speaking about the bill. “Today is a step to preserve womanhood, to give it a chance to start right, to not be embarrassed or feel alienated or ashamed, or to feel like they need to stay home from school due to period poverty.”
The state currently pays for toilet paper, paper towels and soap in public school bathrooms, Furniss said. But in schools that don’t offer period products for lack of funding, students without their own products must ask teachers, administrators and friends for help, according to bill supporters.
There are 59 Republicans in the House and 11 Democrats. Thirty-five Republicans opposed the bill, including Republican Rep. Heather Scott, who called it a “very liberal policy.”
“Why are our schools obsessed with the private parts of our children?” she said.
Republican Rep. Barbara Ehardt said phrases such as “period poverty” and “menstrual equity,” which were used to describe inaccessibility to menstrual products, were “woke terms.”
According to the Alliance for Period Supplies advocacy group, as of last year, 15 states and the District of Columbia had passed legislation requiring schools to offer free menstrual products to students.
In Florida, Republican-backed legislation would ban discussion of menstrual cycles and other human sexuality topics in elementary grades. That bill is pending in the Florida House.