National recognition caps three-year campaign that ended taxpayer support for the Idaho Education Association
Dallas, TX — The Freedom Foundation has won the State Policy Network’s (SPN) 2026 Bob Williams Award for Outstanding Policy Achievement in the “Biggest Win for Freedom” category, recognizing the organization’s three-year campaign that ended taxpayer support for teachers unions in Idaho.
The award, presented annually at SPN’s national meeting, honors state policy organizations doing exceptional work to advance free-market solutions with lasting impact. It is named for Bob Williams, who co-founded the Freedom Foundation with Lynn Harsh in 1991 and passed away in 2022.
The Freedom Foundation was recognized for its role in securing passage of HB 516, which prohibits Idaho school districts from using taxpayer funds or resources to support teachers unions like the Idaho Education Association (IEA). Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law on April 10, 2026.
The campaign began with a comprehensive 2024 report analyzing every teachers union contract in the state and documenting how public dollars subsidized union operations and political activism — with a subsequent Freedom Foundation analysis finding that 93% of the IEA’s 2024 political spending benefited one political party. Over three legislative sessions, the Freedom Foundation built a coalition of a dozen organizations, ran a statewide speaking tour and digital ad campaign, and overcame committee chairs who blocked hearings before ultimately securing passage through a rare procedural maneuver.
The law, which took effect July 1, ends roughly $4.4 million a year in taxpayer-facilitated union dues deductions for more than 5,000 teachers and bars districts from providing paid release time for union activities, providing teachers’ contact information to a union without their consent, subjecting teachers to coercive union sales pitches, distributing union communications, and more.
“This award belongs to the teachers of Idaho, who deserve a union that fights for them instead of a political machine that fights for itself,” said Aaron Withe, CEO of the Freedom Foundation. “It also belongs to Max Nelsen, who spent three years buried in union contracts and spending disclosures most people wouldn’t touch, then turned that research into a bill the Idaho Legislature actually passed. This is the model — dig up the facts, build the coalition, and don’t let up until the law changes. Idaho families are better off because of it, and we’re going to keep replicating this win in state after state.”
“Idaho taxpayers were subsidizing union activism for decades without ever being asked whether they wanted to,” said Maxford Nelsen, the Freedom Foundation’s Director of Research and Government Affairs, who led the research and legislative effort. “HB 516 closes that loophole for good, and it gives lawmakers in other states a tested, working blueprint for doing the same thing in their own backyards.”
The winner was selected by a majority vote of attendees at SPN’s annual meeting in Orlando in August.
