Idaho Gov. Brad Little on Monday proposed spending $2 billion over 10 years to help school districts repair and replace their aging buildings. This would mark the largest investment in school facilities in state history, he said.
The proposal, announced during the governor’s annual State of the State address, follows an Idaho Statesman and ProPublica investigation, which showed how Idaho’s restrictive school funding policies and the Legislature’s reluctance to make significant investments in school facilities have impacted students and teachers. Hundreds of students, teachers and administrators shared photos, videos and stories with the publications about the conditions they deal with on a daily basis.
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Idaho has long ranked last or near last among states in spending per pupil, and it spends the least on school infrastructure per student, according to the most recent state and national reports. Districts across the state struggle to pass bonds — one of the few ways they can get funds to repair and replace their buildings — because Idaho requires two-thirds of voters for a bond to pass. Most states require a simple majority or 60%. Many superintendents told the Statesman and ProPublica that reaching Idaho’s threshold has been nearly impossible in their communities, and some have given up trying altogether.
As a result, students have had to learn in freezing classrooms and overcrowded schools, with leaky ceilings, failing plumbing and discolored drinking water. These conditions have made it difficult to learn, students and educators said, and have, at times, caused districts to temporarily close schools.
I’m in Indiana. Teacher pay here is abysmal. Now they have school vouchers. Up to $6000 from the state if you send your kid to a private school. Not even a peep about a teacher pay hike.
My daughter has had shitty teachers almost every year she’s been in school. We pulled her out of school last semester and put her in online school because of bullying, but the local online school program run by the county school system was utter shit (she’s in 7th grade and they were having her read 17th century texts because they were public domain) and the teachers there were even more inept and worthless. This semester we’ve put her in a state-sponsored online program, meaning there’s no tuition, but it’s contracted out to Pearson. Pearson is an evil company in many ways, but they must pay their teachers better because after just one day of online school and sitting through their lessons with my daughter as the school’s required parent “learning coach,” I can already tell that they’re actually decent. And responsive. All of them have told the kids to email, phone or even text them whenever they need to. Despite the fact that each online class has over 70 kids in it.
This online school is going to be challenging, even with me to help her through it, but I can tell just with this short time with the teachers and looking at the curriculum that she’s going to get a better education this way. It’s kind of infuriating that it had to come to this for her to get an education she deserves.
I am very sorry to hear about that.
Though many people in my life have told me I would make an excellent father… I would never consider having children unless I was able to provide a quality life for them.
And I frankly do not see that as possible for at this point anyone, anywhere I have ever met.
I am not trying to say like you shouldnt have had your kid, that this logic should apply to other people, obviously there is much more to raising children than just your income level compared to where you live, like the nature of you and your partner, how much time you can spend with the kids, how many good friends or family you can count on to help with such things.
But I have never known anyone reliable and trustworthy in my family, and all of my former friends turned out to only be interested in what I could give to them, with no capacity for reciprocity.
All my former partners so far, with one exception, have turned out to be astoundingly unreliable, astoundingly selfish, astoundingly emotionally and mentally unstable, and / or just outright cheated on me…
… So, at age 34, still single, never married, no children, no family or friends I can count on for anything beyond playing video games with online, my thoughts about potentially raising a child are basically that I would have to somehow either make enough money to I guess adopt one and be a single parent, or perhaps have a random fairy tale like encounter with someone who is unlike basically every romantic partner I have ever known.
I realize I am rambling but I mean to convey sympathy and empathy for your situation. Many of my former exes are the ones who told me I would make a good father because they saw how good I was with their sisters kids or cousins or something like that. And part of that comes from being concerned for their access to education.
I… do not see this country in general becoming better. When a society fails to educate its children well… many bad things happen fairly soon afterward.
A prerequisite, essentially assumed as a given, for a functioning democracy, as envisioned by the ancient Athenians … is that the population is reasonably well educated, informed, capable of discussing and investigating complex nuanced topics. We do not really have that any more.
I wish you and your daughter the best of luck, and I hope that your family is able to do the enormously difficult task of raising a child to be a curious and informed person without any further burdens from our decaying society.
Perhaps she will find some topic she is passionate about learning more about by the time she becomes a teen, and perhaps she will seek out knowledge with zeal.
My best to you and yours.
Thank you for your sympathy. She is already a teen (just barely, 13) and she does seek out things that interest her, which I am glad about. It has not hurt her desire to learn new things. It has hurt her desire to learn them in school, but since I’m going to be with her on this journey, I’m going to try to make it as fun for her as I can.
As far as having kids, I do not blame anyone for not having them. I don’t think anyone should have kids unless they absolutely want kids. Kids are a ton of work and very expensive and none of them deserve to be unloved or neglected. I would much rather be one of the few parents in this world if kids are going to be treated badly. That said, I was 34 when I had my daughter and plenty of people have kids when they’re a bit older than that, so if you do want kids, you still have time to find someone. Either way, I wish you good luck in your life and my best to you as well.
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