The Idaho Senate voted 34-0 in favor of the yoga bill today, sending HB 108 to Gov. Butch Otter’s desk. If he signs it into law, it would ensure that Idaho doesn’t stretch to regulate those training yoga teachers like for-profit vocational schools that train students in truck driving, power line repair or welding.
The Yoga Alliance, a group that represents 80,000 members around the world, most of them in the United States, maintains that yoga teacher training is where people go to deepen their yoga practice, not to launch vocational careers; they liken it to karate enthusiasts earning belts. In multiple states in recent years, the Yoga Alliance has pushed back – gently, of course – against state efforts to regulate its instructors as vocational schools. Washington is among other states considering similar legislation this year.