Opinion: Whole state must shape education vision

Editor's note: After this opinion piece was submitted Wednesday, Mr. Lanza emailed to say he misunderstood comments from Task Force member Ken Edmunds. Here's what Edmunds wrote to clarify his position: "In the editorial that you are distributing to the media, you incorrectly represented my position. I am concerned the ideas being presented in our (task force) meetings have unrecognized costs. I believe that in order to fund the ideas being presented, we will need to change the historical methods of operating our education system. We continue to talk about education improvement by modifying the existing system without acknowledging that our current model cannot meet our children's educational needs. Your statement that I suggested that we only look for ideas that do not cost anything or are free misses the point."

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As the 31 members of Gov. Otter’s Task Force For Improving Education debated ideas and the mission of the group at our first meeting, it seemed the conversation boiled down to one unspoken question: How good a school system does Idaho want?

That’s a question that this task force and all Idahoans must confront if we really want to talk about improving education, because we really haven’t had a public dialogue yet about what we want from our schools and how to achieve that.

At that first meeting, Rep. Reed DeMordaunt, chairman of the House Education Committee, suggested that we should settle for no less than a public school system that is “number one.” No one disagreed with that sentiment, and many on the task force were clearly happy to hear that coming from the House Education chairman.

We also heard Ken Edmunds, one of the state Board of Education members on the task force, suggest that the panel only consider proposals for our schools that don’t cost anything.

Should the governor’s task force limit our options only to those that are free—in other words, should we pursue only the politically easiest solutions?

Or to frame the question another way: Should this task force narrow its focus to figuring out how to keep Idaho at the bottom nationally in what we spend on public schools, regardless of what that means for our schools, our kids, and our economy?

The entire state is watching this task force. The public has been asked to believe that by bringing together the various parties with a stake in public schools—including many accomplished and experienced educators, legislators with deep backgrounds in education issues, parents, and business leaders—that this process should and will succeed in achieving real progress for our schools.

Idahoans are being asked to have faith that this process will bring progress not just for the school districts with more resources, but all school districts across the state.

In just the past two years, I’ve learned that Idaho possesses a wealth of smart, committed, experienced people in education. We have the ability to create great schools.

We on the task force do not have the luxury of aiming low. That is not why voters demanded that educators and others be brought together to work on these problems.

We have a duty and responsibility to aim high. The public expects us to figure out what it will take to create an excellent system of public schools in Idaho, one that can be a model for the nation. I think everyone on this task force believes that goal is entirely feasible.

But we’ll only get there if we have the boldness to aspire to that.

Certainly, whatever this task force produces will have to face the test of surviving in the political arena. It should have to face that test. That’s how democracy works.

But our mission should be to tell Idahoans what it will take to create that excellent school system. And then the people of Idaho can decide whether they are willing to do what it takes to create it, because we all know that won’t be easy.

We must give Idaho that choice.

HELP US NOW.

1. Contact the state Board of Education at taskforce@osbe.idaho.gov and insist that the task force hold public meetings across the state on the future of Idaho’s public schools; that those meetings be scheduled in evenings, to ensure better public attendance; and that the meetings be long enough to permit many people to speak.

2. Ask the state board to employ all possible means of gathering public input, including Web-based surveys.

3. Write letters to the editor of your newspaper sharing your thoughts about our schools and what you think the mission of the task force should be.

We face a new political paradigm. After the Luna laws were supported by many of our state’s political leaders, voters repealed the laws. The people now in a position to take the lead on the future of our schools are the voters.

This task force will succeed if the public demands that it succeed.

—Mike Lanza is co-founder of Idaho Parents and Teachers Together and a member of the governor’s Task Force For Improving Education