Bridging the chasm

As the Idaho Legislature wrestles with bills that would change the way public schools educate our children, the chasm separating the general public from those entrenched in the ongoing battles seems to be widening.

Acrimony flourishes in the absence of understanding. And without understanding, disappointing conclusions are virtually guaranteed. How did we get to this point of name-calling, finger-pointing fury that threatens the ultimate goal of figuring out ways to provide better education with less money?

In our view:

• Teachers and administrators should have been more a part of the formal planning that went into Students Come First. Much of what we see today is backlash from what they perceive as pure and simple disrespect - not to mention an attempt to take away from them money, benefits and control.

• That's not to say that even if the education establishment had been a more intricate part of the process developing Students Come First, they'd like what's on the table today.

n The Idaho Education Association did itself no favors by organizing rallies around the state last fall, as union members actively campaigned for Stan Olson - the Democratic opponent of Republican public schools boss Tom Luna. When the teachers union works overtime to throw you out of your job, how encouraged are you to welcome them in the formulation of a new approach to public education?

• We believe the general taxpaying public not only respects the job most teachers and administrators do, but values it. Consistent passage of levies is proof. Unfortunately, as in so many other walks of life, it is the complainers whose voices often carry. More parents need to speak up for the excellence that exists in education. Just as the poor teachers need to be quickly weeded out, great teachers should be elevated to the highest stature in any community.

• Understanding needs to improve virtually everywhere. Taxpayers should avail themselves more to what's actually happening in today's classrooms; educators should avail themselves more to what's happening outside those classrooms. Many citizens are struggling like never before; so are many educators. More teamwork at the local level is essential.

• Union members should abandon the divisive tactics that are disenfranchising the mainstream public and, in fact, hurting the union's cause. Name-calling ("Luna-tic") and personal insult ("What we have currently as our state superintendent of schools is somebody who has no educational background," one union member declared at the Coeur d'Alene political rally last fall) are the very lowest forms of communication. Further, they erode the public's confidence. If this is the way teachers behave in public, imagine how they are in the classroom?

• Reason must replace pervasive partisanship. Is it reasonable for a union spokesperson to declare that a small volunteer school board in a remote district is a bully, and that the innocent victims are the 13,000 members of the Idaho Education Association? Until we can all think clearly and debate honestly, we're afraid students are destined to come last.