I had my step-daughter go to Lowell Scott Middle School and sign a consent form that would allow me to talk with teachers and administrators about my grandsons academic performance and extracurricular activities. I have been increasingly concerned about the fact that my grandson reports that students have no textbooks checked out to them to read at home. This results in these students being significantly disadvantaged to those students in other states that do have textbooks. The problem is our governor and legislators have underfunded education to the degree that schools no longer have the funds to purchase and issue textbooks to students in every (or in my grandsons case any) subject. Not everyone learns the same way. Some students learn best by hearing the word by lecture; they are primarily audio learners. Some students learn best by seeing the word; they are visual learners. Some students are kinetic learners who learn best by doing. Many learn in combinations of hearing, reading and doing. Kyle is given homework to do in some subjects but has no textbooks to refer to once he gets home in which to help him decipher the answers to his homework. I found this situation to be unacceptable. Its not, however, the teachers fault. They are simply underfunded and now our schools face with a problem of pandemic proportion. With budget cuts to education over the past 8+ years with rising enrollments, the number of student to teachers per classroom has risen. The are more students per classroom now than ever before. Add to that problem the fact that students no longer are issued textbooks to take home to read or digital copies to download put our children and grandchildren at risk for a lesser education than those children in other states. Are you hearing me, Governor and State Legislators? You have caused this crisis in education. The answer shouldnt be left to each school district to resolve by levy. This should be the priority of the state to fix as it is a problem caused by the states failure to address and properly fund over the past 8+ years. Instead of properly funding education in years of surplus, you chose instead to store millions of dollars of tax revenue in rainy day accounts. Well, Governor, its raining!!! Many districts, if not all, have no monies to buy books to issue to students. I find this situation pathetic. The West Ada School District allows parents at tool to see how their child is performing in school called Power School. Power School is an online program that tracks a students past performance up to date per class and subject. I contacted Kyles teachers, with my step-daughters consent, to find out what texts they are using or referring to in order to obtain them to help Kyle so that those of us in the family can help tutor him. All 5 of my children are college graduates. One is a RN. One is now attending nursing school. One is now in his 4th and final year of medical school. Education is a primary value in my family. My father left school at the end of eighth grade. My mother graduated from high school. I went through college with the assistance of financial aid. Now college is exponentially more expensive to complete than when I went to college. If legislators love and care for Idaho and their constituents, they will move heaven and earth to fix this problem; one they helped create. Now I understand that Idaho is 49th amongst 50 states in funding education per student. Its time to fix this problem. Students should be given every opportunity to succeed. That includes the purchase of textbooks or materials to take home to read. Im pleased to report that in Kyles case we were successful in getting 3 teachers to identify what books they are using so that we could go to the library and check them out to help Kyle at home. But it took hours to resolve this problem. First, I had to write a number of emails to Kyles teachers requesting the information about what texts they are using. Then my step-daughter had to go to school to sign forms to allow the teachers to give me/us the information we needed to help our grandson. This endeavor is ongoing and continuing. Education is of primary importance to my wife, children and I. Im looking for legislators who share those values to be elected or re-elected who are focused on fixing this problem. Our children and grandchildren deserve that much from us. We dont want our children/grandchildren to rely simply on Fox News and the Internet for resources of where they get their information and education. How do you expect them to succeed and/or excel without giving them the resources to do so. Imaging a surgeon who has no tools to perform surgery; a lawyer with limited access to a law library; a farmer with no tractor or other equipment to plant or harvest his crop. Thats the situation our state government has place our children and grandchildren in. Its time to fix this problem.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 09:36:32 +0000
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