In the graphic above, the School is Timberline High School, the District is the Boise School District, and the State is Idaho for the year 2023. The chart is take directly from the Idaho State Dept. of Education website. As you can see, Timberline High School does relatively well well compared to the Boise School District and State public school students. But consider the numbers above in a larger context. Only 41.5% of public school students across Idaho scored proficient or above on the mathematics section of the 2023 ISAT. That means that nearly 3 in 5 Idaho students tested less than proficient. In an age where artificial intelligence is rapidly gaining ground and technology companies are large employers in Idaho, we must do better in preparing our students for the future.
We must do more to support great teachers and teaching in the classroom. According to Idaho Education News, the average teacher in Idaho earned $55,368 during the school year 2022-23. The average teacher in the Boise School District (BSD) earned $66,942. According to the 2023-24 BSD budget, BSD spent $12,362 per student for the school year. For an average classroom of 17 students, this equates to $210,154 per classroom/per year. That means that in the school year 2022-23, only 31.85% of BSD spending went directly to teacher pay in the classroom. Wow!
We must also recognize that every student is unique and special. They have unique interests and talents. They learn in unique ways and are motivated by different things. I recently read an article about a young woman, Alexis Noel, who went through school unmotivated and adrift in the standard setting until she went to an Explorer Post/STEM club event at Boeing and heard the words "youth aviation". She related that in those two simple words her entire being awoke to something that excited her. She is now a young and highly motivated part of the next generation of aviators. No doubt, Idaho's youth could relay countless similar stories. Families know their children best and are motivated to see their future success. Educational choice for families also means educational choice and empowerment for teachers. It would allow teachers to more fully partner with parents and hold them accountable for their end of the educational partnership. It would also provide incentive and opportunity to improve and react to changing needs on the part of children and in the classroom.
Freedom is an extraordinary part of our national conscious and our individual rights. It needs to apply to K-12 education if we want to have any hope of sustaining that precious right. We have all seen the intellectual manipulation that is happening on campuses like Harvard University. Historically, a large number of government leaders and corporate CEOs come directly from the graduates of Harvard. The simple reality is that our freedom is at huge risk, not just from other countries such as China, but from within as well. We must do our part here in Idaho to protect this precious and rare right for the next generation. Our children can see the choices we make. If there is no freedom in K-12 education, how much do we really value freedom for ourselves and others? It's time to think differently about how our K-12 educational system in Idaho functions.
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