MY TURN: Our public schools

2023 will mark 20 years for me as a local public school educator. I have worked in various positions (classroom teacher, administrator) at three different schools and two different levels (middle, elementary). I am also a parent to two middle school-aged children who have attended local public schools since kindergarten.

Here is what I know to be true about our public schools.

1) They make our community stronger. The state of Idaho intentionally structures funding to be offset by the local community, and we have been blessed for decades by solid, consistent community support. As such, our schools are strong and vibrant places where students learn at high levels, feel safe, have access to regular meals, perform well in athletics and other extracurricular activities and return to serve their communities. Some of the brightest students I taught in the classroom now stand as educators beside me. Many who have come through our public schools serve our community, spanning from the plumber who arrives at your home to fix an issue to the surgeon who repairs your rotator cuff injury.

2) Public schools take all students who enter their doors and live in a school’s zone. Not just some. We take the ones who can see, hear, walk and read as well as the ones who cannot. We take the ones who have been born addicted to drugs and those who have suffered unimaginable trauma alongside those who have not. We take the ones who live in mansions next to the lake and ones who live in cars or doubled up with grandparents or aunts. And we take all who fall somewhere between these two divergent ends.

3) Given the above, the work of educating our citizenry is more complex than most people can fully appreciate. And yet, I have watched my comrades day in and day out for the past 20 years help students in their care grow through their warm demand, rigorous expectations, supportive scaffolding and gargantuan grit. Educators deserve professional athlete status and pay. Many of the people who easily criticize our schools would not last one day doing this work. In kindergarten. I do not joke here. (Sidenote: For many, their bullying behavior would have them in the principal’s office most days.) I invite them to study for four years, student teach for a semester, sign up for low pay and then ensure every student learns at a high level despite numerous factors that may help or challenge that student’s ability, all with around 45 minutes of prep each day. The faint of heart either do not apply or do not last more than 2-3 years if they try.

4) The notion that our public schools promote CRT is false. Take a peek at the list of Idaho State Content Standards and you will quickly see that educators don’t have the luxury of squeezing in a complex college level theory such as CRT. When accusations of CRT surfaced a few years ago on the national level, most educators I know had never even heard of it, let alone could fathom teaching it. Teaching students to be critical thinkers and kind humans is our wheelhouse. One only needs to look around and realize how much more of these two traits our country desperately needs.

5) Idaho public schools do a lot with a little. We get a good bang for our buck here in Kootenai County. Despite the need for community tax dollars to “supplement” the support from the state, our local tax rate continues to remain low. In fact, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene school districts are among the lowest of the 12 largest school districts in the state. If I own a home in Coeur d’Alene with an assessed value of $500,000, my yearly school district tax rate will increase by around $138 when I vote yes on both levies for a total of $498 for the year. What a deal! For $498 per year, my children can receive a quality education, enjoy a myriad of activities and clubs, remain safe and realize their potential as humans. Families with small children pay more in day care in one month for one child. $498 is worth every penny and then some.

6) The supplemental levy is far from supplemental in Idaho. This local funding mechanism pays for all the things that keep our students in school. Let’s be honest, learning is hard work. It takes focus and patience, thinking, emotional control and willpower. The programs that offset this daily grind are the ones students choose. These programs impact their learning in ways that are no less significant to their academic growth and well-being: choir, band, orchestra, weights, art, shop and PE; technology; sports; clubs; enrichment. A levy like this one also includes not-so-supplemental folks like school nurses, bus drivers, tech assistants and SROs (school resource officers). Imagine our schools without these “supplemental” programs and people. We would have far fewer successful students — and a far less educated and skilled workforce to fill our local jobs.

7) Safety is more important than ever. So far in 2023, our nation has suffered 71 mass shootings (USA Today, as of 2/15/23). Something is awry in our society with a number such as this. But that’s a column for a different day. What I can tell you is that our public schools have a strong relationship with local law enforcement. When a safety issue arises, our men and women in uniform respond quickly and with courage. I have seen firsthand in a school building how they descend ready to defend anything and everything to protect our greatest asset: our children. The safety and maintenance levy will continue to strengthen our campuses through upgraded fencing and security cameras, and the supplemental levy will help us continue to have SROs in our schools. It has never been more important in recent history than now.

8) Our North Idaho school buildings are not fancy. Many are old. And not surprisingly, when we have asked voters to supplement school funding, we have not asked for enough in this realm over the years because we have prioritized more-appetizing programs such as sports and SROs. No one wants to replace a furnace, repair broken asphalt or update carpet, even in their own homes. Gutters don’t make great students. But all of these systems behind the scenes contribute to a safe environment in which to learn. And it’s a shame the state does not think it is part of its job to ensure. Ask teachers who work in a classroom in Kootenai County if they exist in luxury. They will chuckle. However, our students deserve to be comfortable in buildings that are safe, healthy and clean. These traits impact their ability to learn well. Upgrades are unfortunately necessary over time to prevent more catastrophic costs and repairs.

9) Our staff is humble. For 20 years now, I have worked alongside incredibly talented human beings. In education, news organizations often report on test scores and graduation rates, sports and special events. The real stories are not statistics one can easily measure. It is the exponential growth of a kindergartner with special needs who entered unable to use the restroom on her own or speak intelligibly, who now, as a first grader midyear, can talk intelligibly, urinate on her own and advocate for her needs. It is a team worried about a student who is too quiet and finds out about abuse and neglect; sets up counseling through a community partnership; and years later, sees a thriving young adult. It is the high school senior who tells his former eighth grade teacher that he would have killed himself in middle school if he had not been able to eat lunch in her classroom, that a small number of students bullying him for being gay outside the earshot of adults ate away at his very soul. Stories such as these abound regularly in every single one of our public schools. The work is exhausting, the decisions heavy, the worry regular. Yet educators save and enrich lives on the daily. There are few greater gifts to give the world than a healthy, productive adult, and our public school educators have been doing this work for decades with little fanfare or loud appreciation.

10) We uphold democracy and continually strive to do better. Public schools in Idaho are strong. We continue to be a great equalizer as we welcome our students each day, expect them to work hard, challenge them to grow through difficulties, build their capacity to solve complicated problems, work with them to communicate effectively and assist them in creating a life where they contribute to the greater good. We do this democracy-upholding work with those who come to us with nothing as well as those who come to us with everything. And we do it with a spirit of love, caring, integrity and support as we continue to learn about the best ways for us to teach and for our students to learn.

It has been an honor to be an educator in this community and I am grateful my own children have the opportunities here. Let’s continue to keep our schools strong. Please join me and vote yes twice on March 14!

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Jody Hiltenbrand is a resident of Dalton Gardens.