SCHOOLS: Race to the bottom

Thursday's article in The Press, "At least we're not last," shows the lie behind Republican efforts to destroy the teachers' union in Idaho. Despite the fact that per pupil spending in Idaho is 49th in the nation (thanks Utah) and is more than $3,000 per pupil less than the national average, NAEP scores for eighth-graders show Idaho students ninth in math and 15th in reading compared to other students across the nation. It's like entering a Chevy Aveo in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race and finishing in the top 10!

Must be those dang union teachers. According to SDE spokeswoman Melissa McGrath, the most important factor in academic success is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. I'd say that it takes some pretty good teachers to take next to last funding in the nation and get the level of student performance that we see in Idaho. Which begs the question, why do Luna and the Republican-dominated state legislature want to destroy a system that isn't broken?

The obvious answer to the question is that these efforts are entirely political. This year's Luna laws purpose is to weaken the political opposition. The IEA is one of the few organizations with enough clout to fight back against further cuts in education spending. The fight isn't just about teachers' salaries, either. The IEA has pushed to keep class sizes smaller, to maintain quality art and music programs, to get school nurses and counselors, to have quality textbooks, to develop better teacher evaluation methods, and better testing that more accurately measures student performance.

Fortunately, it appears that we may get a chance in November to vote on the lunacy passed by the Legislature this year. If and when we get that opportunity, I hope that voters remember that the motivation behind these laws was never to make education in Idaho better, but rather to weaken political opposition. If these laws are allowed to stand, we may just win the race to the bottom. After all, we only have one state to beat.

DOUG STRONG

Fernwood