SCHOOLS: Accountability in education

I enjoyed the opinion title of Chris Cargill’s piece on accountability in education. In my time involved, charter schools were the innovators in public education. Some like the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy have stepped up and provided outstanding education for their students. Other charters have not done as well. I am convinced that the same can be said for private schools.

Federal statute requires Idaho to test public school students in grades 3-8 and once in high school. Now that Idaho taxpayers are also funding educational opportunities in other than public schools, why not mandate that those students also be administered the same tests? While curriculum can vary and should, the basics are the same; science, math, social studies and English language arts. Those areas need to be tested. I would add civics at the high school level and financial literacy.

House Bill 93 calls for surveys as a measure of accountability in private schools. I would suggest that surveys are subjective and not a true measure of education. I hope that the legislature, in the next session, addresses further accountability. After all, what is good for the goose should be good for the gander.

JOHN GOEDDE

Goedde spent a decade as Idaho Senate Education chair and a term as co-chair of the Education Committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures.