MY TURN: Public education — a personal perspective

With all of public education’s complexities, what has always been a given is that we could pretty much guarantee every 5- to 18-year-old in our last hundred plus years had the opportunity to go to school. The vast majority of Americans have received their education in public, not private, schools. Private schools have never been able to guarantee access for all.

My hometown of Pocatello, Idaho, was a bit of a melting pot due, I think, to the large historical presence of the Union Pacific Railroad. From grade 1, I learned, played and became friends with a diverse group of European descendants such as Polish, Greek, Italian, German and non-white-skinned kids with Japanese, Chinese, Hispanic, African American and Native Americans heritage. My first best friend, Doug, was Japanese. We learned rudimentary chess and made our first alpine skiing turns together. Doug and his family introduced me to chopsticks and the Japanese American Citizens League. His mom, Alice, was our Cub Scout den leader. To this day, I remember her wisdom, kindness — and woodburning the Scout emblems in my scrapbook around her kitchen table.

Kenny, an African-American friend, learned our first two guitar chords together and “jammed” at our homes — although I think we could only manage doing “Louie, Louie.” As the civil rights movement trickled down to little old Poky, we shared it together.

These experiences would never have happened except for public school. Familiarity begets connection begets comfort with those who are different begets acceptance and begets friendship. Thank you, public schools!

Again, we’re defending public education, funding it through levies because Idaho has taken a different approach to its constitutional requisite to fund a system of public education. Please vote for the school levies in front of us and reject the current plans for cannibalizing public schools further, regardless of the misleading arguments of “school choice.”

“Education leads to questioning, which leads to independent thought, which leads to a desire for freedom.” Amen.

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Rick Palagi is an Idaho native and retired to Kootenai County five years ago. He has been educated in public schools from kindergarten through master's degrees.