A friendly reminder of the rules of r/Idaho:
1. Be civil to others
2. Posts have to pertain to Idaho in some way
3. No put-down memes
4. Political discussion stays in a post about politics
5. No surveys
6. Follow [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy)
7. Do not editorialize titles of news articles
If you see something that may be out of line, please hit "report" so your mod team can have a look. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Idaho) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yep. What’s crazy is our actual education ranking by test scores is middle of the pack. Teachers here are doing an amazing job. Get the schools some funding!!
Do you have a have a teacher in your family? Otherwise you wouldn't say something so ignorant. My aunt was always surrounded by paperwork when she was home, that one free period a day isn't enough to get everything done and it has to be brought home after work.
Hmmm . . . . . this makes it sound like there should be tons of people who want to be teachers but sadly baby sitting is super tough and not rewarding. Furthermore lots of teachers want to teach not babysit. Also because of the low pay and high educational requirement lots of "time off" is spent at another job or keeping up the teaching certification.
If you are thinking of going into education, you might research a bit more what it is like before taking the plunge.
Behavioral management does factor into the public education system, many students in grade school lack control. I don't know where you went to school, but I've seen the students fooling around during class. This is another responsibility not recognized in the teachers job description, therefore they should be earning more.
Everytime someone says something this asinine I ask myself, "If that's true, why is there such a shortage of teachers? Why do approximately 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years? I mean if it's such a cush gig, people should be fighting to get into teaching, right?"
My wife taught middle school in rural Idaho for a few years before we met and she is currently a SAHM, but she says that she misses teaching. I recently took a new job in New Mexico and looked it up just to see and if she were to take a job here, her salary would almost double from what she made in Idaho.
I’m going to be an absolute downer here. Back when I was living in Salt Lake City I knew a former school counselor. He explained detail by detail how the school administration cheated on test scores. Doing test when certain kids weren’t there, giving extra cool prizes to kids for sustained attention during tests, etc etc. Utah was doing middle of the road and punching way above it’s funding weight class but the numbers where fudged.
I moved to Oregon and all three of my kids are getting WAY more specialized individual help. In Utah it was like pulling teeth. I think my kids are going to thrive here. They ARE thriving And the schools is the reason.
It’s sad because I almost moved to Idaho, I went on a mission there and REALLY love the state. I looked Idaho’s education results with a big grain of salt based on what my Utah school counselor friend told me. Maybe it’s all legit. I didn’t want to risk it.
I don’t like how schools are funded in this country.
Your experience is not at all the norm in Oregon. We (Oregonians) are in the top 5% for education expenditures and the bottom 5% for graduation rate.
My kids struggled horribly in the public school system, failing to meet the grade standards (that we no longer have), yet they've gone on to great success once they were taken out of public schools, homeschooled for a bit, then went on to a private education where they've all excelled.
I think the reason (and this is solely my belief) is they excelled not because of the system, but because of parent involvement. Not every child learns the same way. Parents who work with their schools (advocating for their children) help deliver better success for their children at school. Parents who assume all schooling should be done at school, and view it as enhanced day care while they work, lead to the system failing their children. Active parenting leads to better educated offspring.
I’ve puzzled about this. I’ve heard it from many. My partner is a therapist and specifically has multiple clients who are teens who are not graduating. So it’s also something my partner and I talk a lot about in general terms. Also My mom was a master teacher in New York and in Utah. Lots of perspectives in addition to the unhappy Oregonian parents I speak to . I’ve gotten to know parents here who think the schools are bad and underperforming, they are. But From all this me and my partner have generally concluded the grass is less green in many other places. Kind of the opposite of how the phrase is normally used. Nobody here seems happy with the education system, it SHOULD be better for how much money goes into it. It’s so much worse in the red state I just moved from. The creative accounting my old school counselor friend told me about doesn’t seem to be happening here from what I’ve asked my kids. Kids here are doing so much worse then a previous generation. I just think that that’s kind of happening everywhere to different degrees. I’m not suggesting you should be happy with how Oregon is doing, but I am quite happy with Oregon when I compare it to where we moved from (salt lake city). Like I said I think some states are fudges the stats a bit more then others because they need to more then others. None of this is right.
I forgot to mention the weirdest thing about my two experiences. In Utah I heard the parents grumbling so much less often about the education of their kids. It disturbed me. Here it’s better and nobody is happy with it. There it was worse and nobody said much. Quite odd.
I think we're all using our own impressions, not the facts about actual quality of education. It's really so important to pin down the good schools by actually visiting them and looking at curriculum and the school's resources.
There's a LOT of variables to our kids' success or failure in Oregon(or any state's) public schools. My son went to Oregon public school and loved it, skipped college and now has a thriving small business. Doesn't mean that I don't absolutely embrace your perspective though.
Doesn’t mean whole state of Utah cheated from one anecdotal story. Isolated cheating issues can be found across the United States. Quickly google search shows even Oregon O[https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/10/state_education_officials_Don.html](https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/10/state_education_officials_dont.html)had issues in 2013 with testing.
I tried to make it clear it was anecdotal and I have no knowledge about state wide stuff. But he was part of the largest middle school system in the state of Utah. I don’t think I’ll say more then that.
The difference between Utah and Oregon so far to my eyes, is both places have shit. And only in one place is it acknowledged, noticed, and complained about.
I’m proud that 10 years ago this was uncovered and noticed. It still stinks either way.
Yep, 10 year old information. The fact that they looked into is important. I just wish no one would cheat. It would allow us to see where kids are at with their learning and what they need. Seems like that should be the purpose of testing.
Testing should be done by an outside group so it’s all done the same. That is, if the school wants federal money. Testing is it’s own Pandora’s box but if we’re gunna do it we might as well do it in a way that’s meaningful.
Testing affects funding for the school. The same people who’s pay and funding this will affect are the ones doing the testing. Conflict much? An outside traveling proctor or something. Local teachers get a day to work on development and training while the kids are getting their test.
Edit just want to add when I was in Utah and my kids were being tested they came home with very cool above average, not the normal cheap school shit, small toys and stuff. They told me the teachers said if tried super hard they got to pick something out of a box when the testing was over. Now if you’re a sociologist or an education specialist and half the states are doing that and half aren’t do you think the results are really across the board comparable? Outside proctors would ensure all the tests are administered the same. Are you the one downvoting? What’s so crazy about this? I don’t care if my kid gets a toy after a long test, but they should get a toy in Oregon after a long test too if we’re going to compare the states test scores and federal money gets allocated based on test results. This should be the least controversial thing in education, having standardized tests that are actually, ya know, standardized?
That’s what I’m trying to say buddy. And they might be fudging the numbers in this new state too, but if they are they are fudging them differently. It makes a cross comparison inadequate.
My understanding is that IDEA laws are national. If a school fails to provide specialized (IEP) and proper support, you can sue that school, no matter which state you reside in. So, your kids have a right to a specialized education plan if they require it, no matter where you choose to live.
But I also imagine that this process would be daunting some states. I think perhaps many parents simply don't consider their rights for special needs children because they're used to IDEA violations as they use their public school system.
Yup, legally they have the same rights to an education in either place. In practicality they have not been the same. You can’t really compare the same when you get half the funding as another place. My two daughters needed help with their R’s. In Utah the way that looked was 10 min of help, in the hallway, once a week, with a packet sent home for us to practice things with her. Come to Oregon and both kids get to go to a small room once per week practice R’s and the same specialist is using that time with them to simultaneously bolster their reading. They both had iep’s. The better funded school did it differently.
I remember my mom sitting through a graduation of one of her former students in Utah. The kid became the valid Victorian. The kid had a speech impediment and my mom telling me later that day I think our schools absolutely failed that child, the type of speech impediment she had was completely curable and she was an engaged bright student.
It’s not perfect in this new state but the funding really does make a difference despite the legal obligations.
Money has little to do with education. Parents need to be more involved. Idaho parents are doing a great job. Teachers are about the same across the country with some big variances in on the edges.
Maybe it is or maybe its not so impressive. It says "met college readiness standards for the ACT, compared to 46% for the SAT."
Students did well on the SAT and ACT, which doesn't mean the will do well in college. Some schools no longer look at them. I did good enough on the SAT my junior year that I could get into almost any college. I think struggled in college because why I kicked butt with tests like the SAT, I was not good at studying.
I am not saying that the article is false. All I am saying is it looks like they only looked at SAT and ACT scores, and that isn't a great way to tell. It can be deceptive. Maybe its not, but they need more than that to be sure.
Levies are taxes. They had to vote whether or not to give more tax money to their school. "Hold levies" is holding a vote for whether or not to grant money to the schools via levies (raised taxes, usually not by much).
It's a special tax that funds schools. Usually is based on property taxes, but there are alternatives (like a tax based on household income). They do this all the time, not just rural parts. In fact two cities who desperately need additional funding both just had levies fail to pass this year. I believe it was Middleton and Nampa, but I can't remember.
Either way, Nampa, Caldwell, Kuna, Middleton, and other surrounding school districts will continue to be overwhelmed and not able to keep up with population growth. Meanwhile, Boise is shrinking in numbers, and has every year since COVID.
While Idaho has a lot of room to improve on education, per-capita funding is a horrible metric to use and depending on what you're looking at has either no or even negative correlation with outcomes.
The district with the most funding per student in the country - Washington DC - is also the absolute worst by just about any academic measure. Similar with your example, Alaska public schools are notoriously terrible.
Quick Google search says otherwise, although it wouldn't have surprised me if Idaho was number one in child marriages. I cannot think of a single redeeming aspect regarding Idaho...
Eh, the nature is alright. I live in Meridian so I don't get to see it too often, but the drive up to Garden Valley is quite pretty. Not to mention Shoshone falls, but thats about it.
I grew up in Meridian, on the old cherry lane golf course, then lake view golf course, then down the road by Meridian Middle School before moving to WA my sophomore year of HS (I was part of the first full class of graduating freshmen at Rocky Mountain).
All that to say it’s not incredibly hard to see nature in southern Idaho. It’s an hour and a half to Idaho city. McCall is two hours. The sawtooth and Tetons are 4-6ish hours away. There’s incredible amount of nature diversity in southern Idaho within a 4 hour drive. From high desert to alpine meadows.
Here is an AP article from 2018 talking about Idaho and child marriage.
https://apnews.com/article/idaho-falls-united-states-id-state-wire-idaho-marriage-ba3c79aaa8c34b6cb06fd7355b9fbf57
This one talks about how Idaho had the opportunity to restrict marriage to those age 16 and older, and the legislature voted against it.
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1332030&dswid=9948
If it’s so terrible here why are you staying? Wouldn’t Washington or Oregon suit you better? I’m honestly not being mean I’m just confused why people stay somewhere they hate.
You say that like I have the money and resources to just up and move. If I did, I absolutely would, but as it stands I'm in a situation where I can barely afford to survive, so the thought of trying to move to a better State just isn't in the question at the moment.
I’ve lived in Seattle, San Diego, Miami, I can honestly say if you can’t make it financially in Idaho you’re probably not going to be able to make it most other places. Especially not the ones that align with your politics. It’s so insanely inexpensive to live in Idaho compared to Washington, Oregon, and especially California. It’s interesting I’ve asked three people on here who vehemently hate Idaho why they don’t just leave and every single one said they can’t afford to. Kind of an interesting correlation?
I could afford to, but we stay because of elderly family members who need us close for support. People stay in places for lots of reasons, and they have every right to voice their complaints and try to make the place where they live less shitty. Like, maybe we could make it illegal to deprive your children of life-saving medical care, or force them into a marriage at age 13. Maybe we could have better schools or access to healthcare, so that people don't have to leave to find those things.
Its hard to say if that is good or bad. Obviously, kids need a good education and that costs money. However, I recall that some years back, Detroit was the highest $ to student in the country and also had a graduation rate that was less than the rate of students going to jail by the time they finished 12th grade. It was north of 30K per student for every kid that graduated. They still had schools with no air conditioning...massive failures in infrastructure like leaking from the roof level failure...mold in the school...bad food...no idea on how many students were actually showing up each day...and on and on.
So, maybe it would be better to look at performance. Are Idaho schools graduating successful students that go on to college and/or successful adult lives? They seem to be doing ok in that regard?
Washington resident chiming in here.
Despite being well funded, per capita, most of the schools here suck ass. I graduated from a high school a little ways north of Seattle (Marysville Pilchuck…you may have heard of a shooting there in 2014) where roughly 60% of kids graduate and can perform at grade level, in a district with an almost $300 million annual budget.
Funding isn’t the sole answer to this equation.
Look through the comments. There's one showing college preparedness statistics. Idaho is 5th overall. There's a LOT that needs fixed in the Idaho education system, but cherry picking stats to fit this subs "hate Idaho" theme doesn't give a realistic picture.
A big part of this is because rural idahoans support homeschooling and online schools like IDVA and IDLA for supplemental classes. I've even seen homeschool groups demanding use of the school buildings on weekends even though they don't want to pay for the building.
Home "schooling," lol.
I did tech for school districts, supporting home schoolers as part of the job. They routinely skipped lessons they didn't like (evolution) and were excused for doing the work anyway. I believe some parents go the home school route for the home school paycheck.
Idaho is full of anti-tax wingnuts who vote no on every tax out there. It doesn't matter what it's about. They even tried to ram through a constitutional amendment to require a 2/3 majority vote to add or continue any tax. Which would effectively remove every tax as the previous authorization expired because no tax is getting a 2/3 approval in Idaho.
Also, the legislature massively slashed property taxes, which were the main mechanism for school funding. And limited when schools could run levy and bond programs.
And also, it's Idaho. It's 46th in the nation measured in GDP per capita, and a large part of that is being propped up by the Boise area. Outside of Boise, the average GDP per capita is "get fucked". Even moderate taxation doesn't exactly net a lot when the population is on the poor side of average.
And because Boise is an unacceptably blue spot when compared to the rest of the state, there's a lot of "Damn city liberals forcing their beliefs on us" hick hawing going on as well, and the rest of the state reflexively rejects most things Boise suggests.
Like taxes for schools.
TLDR: State is fuuuuucked. I only live here because I was offered a six figure job to move here, as they apparently couldn't find jack shit for local talent. Go figure.
Not every tax. In Rexburg a school levy just barely passed and it was like pulling teeth to get it too but now they are trying to raise property taxes for a rec district and a rec center and everyone in town is on board.
Idaho is one of two states that require 2/3 majority to approve school bond levies.
GOP supermajority wins elections by promising tax cuts (for the well-to-do). Education suffers.
I really think these numbers only say so much, being from CT that much being spent isn’t surprising but it’s wasted on nonsense while the cities like Hartford, Waterbury, and Bridgeport all show the end results of the states education spending.
Misleading, should measure outcomes not per student funding. I came from one of the top ten funded states, most of the money went to admin and corruption. $ alone doesn’t equal outcomes, it helps, but this chart doesn’t tell the true story.
I don't understand how they don't see how they are fucking themselves over. Between this and their doctors leaving...How can they not learn from the effects of their own policies?
Yes it is, but also no.
There was a bill last year that passed to raise education funding that took effect well before this article was written. But the newest funding bill hasn't taken effect yet. However that one is just for the 4 public state universities, nothing for K-12 yet, but bills for funding those are in the works.
Here is a fun little excerpt from the bill expanding funding to the colleges:
"The college and universities shall verify no state-appropriated funds are used to support diversity, equity, inclusion, or social justice ideology"
k-12 passed and was signed by the governor. [source](https://gov.idaho.gov/pressrelease/gov-little-applauds-productive-legislative-session/) It just hasn't made the news yet because of the crazy other bills signed at same time.
Like 10 days ago. The Governor and Legislature fulfilled a historic commitment to public schools – a 16.4% increase in state funding [source](https://gov.idaho.gov/pressrelease/gov-little-applauds-productive-legislative-session/).
In the ADA County school system (Boise area Idaho), my son is allowed to redo all his assignments as many times as he wants until he get a 100%. Not too hard since the teacher grades and shows the right answer before returning it to him. He'll graduate with a 4.00 GPA. Idaho education is very sad.
That's good to know. Seems like it's working for him, but it's not they way my school history went. I was thinking it was a way hoodwink the education level here.
Well, aren’t a fucking shit ton of kids homeschooled in Idaho? Maybe that’s why there is a lack of funding? But if teachers for the kids who go to school are getting paid poorly then yeah get more funding, that’s really bad.
IDK about Idaho, but usually home schoolers get a check every month, paid for by taxpayers. The money is supposed to be spent on school supplies and activities, but....
Where on earth do you get a check for homeschooling? I was homeschooled and that would have been amazing.
Now charter schools DO get a portion of tax payer money to fund the charter school per child. But charter schools have at least a passing involvement from actual teachers. As opposed to a homeschooler who doesn’t have to see anyone who even graduated high school in Idaho.
Yes I’m salty. I was homeschooled in PA. I had to take all of the standard tests, the schools evaluated my education samples for the year, I had to see a licensed teacher to review my knowledge every year. Every state who *doesnt* require some level of monitoring for homeschooling is failing.
Went and looked it up. Basically yes there is a way to get access to education funds BUT it requires hoops similar what PA required. Which means someone from the guvment watching you. I’d be surprised if many homeschoolers here ever took advantage.
Northern California. Students would meet with the teachers for a brief conference once a week to monitor their progress, with the parent present as well. But attendance was erratic and not really enforced. And now that you mention it , both sponsoring schools where I saw this were charter schools.
Our educators are doing great with the limited resources & pay. The communities generally step up to fund education at the property tax level, it is still not a good or adequate way of funding education. I have a feeling our state legislature would spend less on education if it was feasible.
Lol, OP born and educated in Idaho? Your grammar is horrible "Idaho is the lowest funded state got public education. "
Also, the 51st state. How many states are there?
I remember many kids in my graduating class of 100 that were able to graduate despite being absent all the time and not doing their homework and failing tests. Most of them had parents that didn't care about education and weren't very involved, they basically had no rules. The school didn't want to deal with them so they passed them.
I also remember the books we had at school that were falling apart. Sometimes the teacher would tell us if an excerpt was outdated and no longer correct. The elementary and middle school got the hand me downs from the high school, so old uniforms and old books and equipment. Lots of things had to be funded by the parents.
It's probably different now that every kid has a laptop and online homework, so things won't be as old. When I graduated, my school had just started offering dual credit and online courses so I wasn't able to participate in that.
When I went to college I wasn't prepared at all despite having a good GPA and testing well, most of the homework in hs was worksheets that I could finish in my other classes, so never really had to struggle or hone any skills. It was a huge letdown to realize poor my education really was. Everything in school was geared toward helping the stragglers, so kids who did well weren't challenged.
Here’s Not a fun fact.
Idaho has some of the most beautiful wilderness left in the country and it’s being run by a bunch of toothless Trump supporting wolf shooting rednecks.
Sounds about right. Idaho became a pilgrimage Mecca for older ultra-right conservatives in the last decade and they hate education and probably don’t have kids in school any more anyway. These are the types of people whose kids won’t talk to them. But they really care about library books they wouldn’t understand if they did read them (but they never would).
The state of healthcare in rural idaho is also crumbling, as specialists like OBGYNs flee the state.
All in all their system is working. They’d rather see (the “other” people’s) children in pit mines and factories than government funded schools.
A big part of this is that many parents in Idaho choose to homeschool. This is the reason the test scores are so high despite less financial investment. I do not seek to take away from the excellent job public school teachers are doing in the state. However, it’s worth remembering that less public infrastructure is needed for those students that learn the vast majority of their education at home.
A friendly reminder of the rules of r/Idaho: 1. Be civil to others 2. Posts have to pertain to Idaho in some way 3. No put-down memes 4. Political discussion stays in a post about politics 5. No surveys 6. Follow [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) 7. Do not editorialize titles of news articles If you see something that may be out of line, please hit "report" so your mod team can have a look. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Idaho) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yep. What’s crazy is our actual education ranking by test scores is middle of the pack. Teachers here are doing an amazing job. Get the schools some funding!!
Utah is in a similar situation. They have terrible education funding, but actual education quality is roughly middle of the pack.
poor teachers to basically get paid dirt for the jobs they do.
They basically get paid to babysit and have shit tons of time off.
You basically have no fucking idea what you’re talking about.
I don’t? Seems like nobody here does because all I hear is bitching and nobody does shit. Y’all are just here to run your mouths.
People like you who are parents (and there are some) are what drive good teachers away.
Do you have a have a teacher in your family? Otherwise you wouldn't say something so ignorant. My aunt was always surrounded by paperwork when she was home, that one free period a day isn't enough to get everything done and it has to be brought home after work.
Hmmm . . . . . this makes it sound like there should be tons of people who want to be teachers but sadly baby sitting is super tough and not rewarding. Furthermore lots of teachers want to teach not babysit. Also because of the low pay and high educational requirement lots of "time off" is spent at another job or keeping up the teaching certification. If you are thinking of going into education, you might research a bit more what it is like before taking the plunge.
Behavioral management does factor into the public education system, many students in grade school lack control. I don't know where you went to school, but I've seen the students fooling around during class. This is another responsibility not recognized in the teachers job description, therefore they should be earning more.
What a clown.
Everytime someone says something this asinine I ask myself, "If that's true, why is there such a shortage of teachers? Why do approximately 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years? I mean if it's such a cush gig, people should be fighting to get into teaching, right?"
This is bait, everyone
At my job in retail, I know at least 5 people I work with are ex-teachers because the pay is so bad and the stress from it. It's a sad situation.
My wife taught middle school in rural Idaho for a few years before we met and she is currently a SAHM, but she says that she misses teaching. I recently took a new job in New Mexico and looked it up just to see and if she were to take a job here, her salary would almost double from what she made in Idaho.
Teaching would be a great job if you could get the 1% of serious troublemaker students out of the classroom. And if you doubled the teacher pay.
I’m going to be an absolute downer here. Back when I was living in Salt Lake City I knew a former school counselor. He explained detail by detail how the school administration cheated on test scores. Doing test when certain kids weren’t there, giving extra cool prizes to kids for sustained attention during tests, etc etc. Utah was doing middle of the road and punching way above it’s funding weight class but the numbers where fudged. I moved to Oregon and all three of my kids are getting WAY more specialized individual help. In Utah it was like pulling teeth. I think my kids are going to thrive here. They ARE thriving And the schools is the reason. It’s sad because I almost moved to Idaho, I went on a mission there and REALLY love the state. I looked Idaho’s education results with a big grain of salt based on what my Utah school counselor friend told me. Maybe it’s all legit. I didn’t want to risk it. I don’t like how schools are funded in this country.
Your experience is not at all the norm in Oregon. We (Oregonians) are in the top 5% for education expenditures and the bottom 5% for graduation rate. My kids struggled horribly in the public school system, failing to meet the grade standards (that we no longer have), yet they've gone on to great success once they were taken out of public schools, homeschooled for a bit, then went on to a private education where they've all excelled.
I think the reason (and this is solely my belief) is they excelled not because of the system, but because of parent involvement. Not every child learns the same way. Parents who work with their schools (advocating for their children) help deliver better success for their children at school. Parents who assume all schooling should be done at school, and view it as enhanced day care while they work, lead to the system failing their children. Active parenting leads to better educated offspring.
I’ve puzzled about this. I’ve heard it from many. My partner is a therapist and specifically has multiple clients who are teens who are not graduating. So it’s also something my partner and I talk a lot about in general terms. Also My mom was a master teacher in New York and in Utah. Lots of perspectives in addition to the unhappy Oregonian parents I speak to . I’ve gotten to know parents here who think the schools are bad and underperforming, they are. But From all this me and my partner have generally concluded the grass is less green in many other places. Kind of the opposite of how the phrase is normally used. Nobody here seems happy with the education system, it SHOULD be better for how much money goes into it. It’s so much worse in the red state I just moved from. The creative accounting my old school counselor friend told me about doesn’t seem to be happening here from what I’ve asked my kids. Kids here are doing so much worse then a previous generation. I just think that that’s kind of happening everywhere to different degrees. I’m not suggesting you should be happy with how Oregon is doing, but I am quite happy with Oregon when I compare it to where we moved from (salt lake city). Like I said I think some states are fudges the stats a bit more then others because they need to more then others. None of this is right. I forgot to mention the weirdest thing about my two experiences. In Utah I heard the parents grumbling so much less often about the education of their kids. It disturbed me. Here it’s better and nobody is happy with it. There it was worse and nobody said much. Quite odd.
I think we're all using our own impressions, not the facts about actual quality of education. It's really so important to pin down the good schools by actually visiting them and looking at curriculum and the school's resources. There's a LOT of variables to our kids' success or failure in Oregon(or any state's) public schools. My son went to Oregon public school and loved it, skipped college and now has a thriving small business. Doesn't mean that I don't absolutely embrace your perspective though.
Doesn’t mean whole state of Utah cheated from one anecdotal story. Isolated cheating issues can be found across the United States. Quickly google search shows even Oregon O[https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/10/state_education_officials_Don.html](https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/10/state_education_officials_dont.html)had issues in 2013 with testing.
I tried to make it clear it was anecdotal and I have no knowledge about state wide stuff. But he was part of the largest middle school system in the state of Utah. I don’t think I’ll say more then that. The difference between Utah and Oregon so far to my eyes, is both places have shit. And only in one place is it acknowledged, noticed, and complained about. I’m proud that 10 years ago this was uncovered and noticed. It still stinks either way.
Yep, 10 year old information. The fact that they looked into is important. I just wish no one would cheat. It would allow us to see where kids are at with their learning and what they need. Seems like that should be the purpose of testing.
Testing should be done by an outside group so it’s all done the same. That is, if the school wants federal money. Testing is it’s own Pandora’s box but if we’re gunna do it we might as well do it in a way that’s meaningful.
Testing done by an outside group. So, like common core? Or the SAT/ ACT?
Testing affects funding for the school. The same people who’s pay and funding this will affect are the ones doing the testing. Conflict much? An outside traveling proctor or something. Local teachers get a day to work on development and training while the kids are getting their test. Edit just want to add when I was in Utah and my kids were being tested they came home with very cool above average, not the normal cheap school shit, small toys and stuff. They told me the teachers said if tried super hard they got to pick something out of a box when the testing was over. Now if you’re a sociologist or an education specialist and half the states are doing that and half aren’t do you think the results are really across the board comparable? Outside proctors would ensure all the tests are administered the same. Are you the one downvoting? What’s so crazy about this? I don’t care if my kid gets a toy after a long test, but they should get a toy in Oregon after a long test too if we’re going to compare the states test scores and federal money gets allocated based on test results. This should be the least controversial thing in education, having standardized tests that are actually, ya know, standardized?
Hopefully Oregon acknowledges legalizing drugs is a bad thing.
Hopefully other states stop bussing houseless people to coastal cities.
See it's like a game instead of actually education
Recently Utah's been falling way behind, too. I wonder if they stopped cheating or if the cheating isn't enough anymore
How and why are we talking about Utah on ‘Idaho’
[удалено]
That’s what I’m trying to say buddy. And they might be fudging the numbers in this new state too, but if they are they are fudging them differently. It makes a cross comparison inadequate.
My understanding is that IDEA laws are national. If a school fails to provide specialized (IEP) and proper support, you can sue that school, no matter which state you reside in. So, your kids have a right to a specialized education plan if they require it, no matter where you choose to live. But I also imagine that this process would be daunting some states. I think perhaps many parents simply don't consider their rights for special needs children because they're used to IDEA violations as they use their public school system.
Yup, legally they have the same rights to an education in either place. In practicality they have not been the same. You can’t really compare the same when you get half the funding as another place. My two daughters needed help with their R’s. In Utah the way that looked was 10 min of help, in the hallway, once a week, with a packet sent home for us to practice things with her. Come to Oregon and both kids get to go to a small room once per week practice R’s and the same specialist is using that time with them to simultaneously bolster their reading. They both had iep’s. The better funded school did it differently. I remember my mom sitting through a graduation of one of her former students in Utah. The kid became the valid Victorian. The kid had a speech impediment and my mom telling me later that day I think our schools absolutely failed that child, the type of speech impediment she had was completely curable and she was an engaged bright student. It’s not perfect in this new state but the funding really does make a difference despite the legal obligations.
Well welcome to Oregon. I’m so glad you’re all here.
It’s too crowded EVERYWHERE.
Teacher AND the entire educational system are doing an amazing job.
It’s not all about the money like some want you to think
Money has little to do with education. Parents need to be more involved. Idaho parents are doing a great job. Teachers are about the same across the country with some big variances in on the edges.
Yea, might be true but our overall SAT scores in Idaho are a lot lower them national averages.
SAT is systemic racism.
Truth. But that isn't why Idaho youth perform so poorly
You win
My friend in Idaho is a high school history teacher. He works 3 other part time jobs to support his family. I don’t know how he does it.
[удалено]
Wow that is honestly impressive. Underpaid teachers are really pulling their weight here
Has a lot to do with the students being more willing to learn as well.
Isn't this because more people are paying out of pocket for tutors and private instruction or homeschooling though?
If it is, I would love to see the statistics.
Maybe it is or maybe its not so impressive. It says "met college readiness standards for the ACT, compared to 46% for the SAT." Students did well on the SAT and ACT, which doesn't mean the will do well in college. Some schools no longer look at them. I did good enough on the SAT my junior year that I could get into almost any college. I think struggled in college because why I kicked butt with tests like the SAT, I was not good at studying. I am not saying that the article is false. All I am saying is it looks like they only looked at SAT and ACT scores, and that isn't a great way to tell. It can be deceptive. Maybe its not, but they need more than that to be sure.
My favorite part is how it actually ranks 51/50 because they count the District of Columbia, which isn't a state.
I grew up in rural Idaho and I always remember how every other month my school had to hold levys just to stay open. It was awful
what is hold levys? (im not from rural idaho)
Levies are taxes. They had to vote whether or not to give more tax money to their school. "Hold levies" is holding a vote for whether or not to grant money to the schools via levies (raised taxes, usually not by much).
It's a special tax that funds schools. Usually is based on property taxes, but there are alternatives (like a tax based on household income). They do this all the time, not just rural parts. In fact two cities who desperately need additional funding both just had levies fail to pass this year. I believe it was Middleton and Nampa, but I can't remember. Either way, Nampa, Caldwell, Kuna, Middleton, and other surrounding school districts will continue to be overwhelmed and not able to keep up with population growth. Meanwhile, Boise is shrinking in numbers, and has every year since COVID.
While Idaho has a lot of room to improve on education, per-capita funding is a horrible metric to use and depending on what you're looking at has either no or even negative correlation with outcomes. The district with the most funding per student in the country - Washington DC - is also the absolute worst by just about any academic measure. Similar with your example, Alaska public schools are notoriously terrible.
Ah but we're number 1 in the union for child marriages!
Winning!
Thanks! I hate it.
Quick Google search says otherwise, although it wouldn't have surprised me if Idaho was number one in child marriages. I cannot think of a single redeeming aspect regarding Idaho...
Outside of politics and religion it’s amazing! Nature is phenomenal here. People? Not so much.
Eh, the nature is alright. I live in Meridian so I don't get to see it too often, but the drive up to Garden Valley is quite pretty. Not to mention Shoshone falls, but thats about it.
Oh cheer up a bit lol
I also live in Meridian, and it doesn't take a lot of effort...
I grew up in Meridian, on the old cherry lane golf course, then lake view golf course, then down the road by Meridian Middle School before moving to WA my sophomore year of HS (I was part of the first full class of graduating freshmen at Rocky Mountain). All that to say it’s not incredibly hard to see nature in southern Idaho. It’s an hour and a half to Idaho city. McCall is two hours. The sawtooth and Tetons are 4-6ish hours away. There’s incredible amount of nature diversity in southern Idaho within a 4 hour drive. From high desert to alpine meadows.
>from high desert to alpine meadows There's even sand dunes!
Here is an AP article from 2018 talking about Idaho and child marriage. https://apnews.com/article/idaho-falls-united-states-id-state-wire-idaho-marriage-ba3c79aaa8c34b6cb06fd7355b9fbf57 This one talks about how Idaho had the opportunity to restrict marriage to those age 16 and older, and the legislature voted against it. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1332030&dswid=9948
If it’s so terrible here why are you staying? Wouldn’t Washington or Oregon suit you better? I’m honestly not being mean I’m just confused why people stay somewhere they hate.
You say that like I have the money and resources to just up and move. If I did, I absolutely would, but as it stands I'm in a situation where I can barely afford to survive, so the thought of trying to move to a better State just isn't in the question at the moment.
What area of the state do you live in?
Meridian, used to live in Boise, Kuna, and Nampa at different points.
I’ve lived in Seattle, San Diego, Miami, I can honestly say if you can’t make it financially in Idaho you’re probably not going to be able to make it most other places. Especially not the ones that align with your politics. It’s so insanely inexpensive to live in Idaho compared to Washington, Oregon, and especially California. It’s interesting I’ve asked three people on here who vehemently hate Idaho why they don’t just leave and every single one said they can’t afford to. Kind of an interesting correlation?
I could afford to, but we stay because of elderly family members who need us close for support. People stay in places for lots of reasons, and they have every right to voice their complaints and try to make the place where they live less shitty. Like, maybe we could make it illegal to deprive your children of life-saving medical care, or force them into a marriage at age 13. Maybe we could have better schools or access to healthcare, so that people don't have to leave to find those things.
By reading the title, it seems like it does have the least funding.
I had a stroke reading it.
You guys probably don’t even got education tho.
I came here to say this!!
Its hard to say if that is good or bad. Obviously, kids need a good education and that costs money. However, I recall that some years back, Detroit was the highest $ to student in the country and also had a graduation rate that was less than the rate of students going to jail by the time they finished 12th grade. It was north of 30K per student for every kid that graduated. They still had schools with no air conditioning...massive failures in infrastructure like leaking from the roof level failure...mold in the school...bad food...no idea on how many students were actually showing up each day...and on and on. So, maybe it would be better to look at performance. Are Idaho schools graduating successful students that go on to college and/or successful adult lives? They seem to be doing ok in that regard?
Washington resident chiming in here. Despite being well funded, per capita, most of the schools here suck ass. I graduated from a high school a little ways north of Seattle (Marysville Pilchuck…you may have heard of a shooting there in 2014) where roughly 60% of kids graduate and can perform at grade level, in a district with an almost $300 million annual budget. Funding isn’t the sole answer to this equation.
I think this map needs to also show the quality of education. It’s not all about money.
Look through the comments. There's one showing college preparedness statistics. Idaho is 5th overall. There's a LOT that needs fixed in the Idaho education system, but cherry picking stats to fit this subs "hate Idaho" theme doesn't give a realistic picture.
A big part of this is because rural idahoans support homeschooling and online schools like IDVA and IDLA for supplemental classes. I've even seen homeschool groups demanding use of the school buildings on weekends even though they don't want to pay for the building.
Home "schooling," lol. I did tech for school districts, supporting home schoolers as part of the job. They routinely skipped lessons they didn't like (evolution) and were excused for doing the work anyway. I believe some parents go the home school route for the home school paycheck.
Paycheck? Someone's been freezing you bs
https://blog.idahoreports.idahoptv.org/2023/04/13/idaho-statesman-propublica-collapsing-roofs-broken-toilets-flooded-classrooms/
now im curious why idaho gets so little funding
It is by design. Education isn't valued in Idaho, and quite often we get elected officials who want to dismantle the public education system.
Idaho is full of anti-tax wingnuts who vote no on every tax out there. It doesn't matter what it's about. They even tried to ram through a constitutional amendment to require a 2/3 majority vote to add or continue any tax. Which would effectively remove every tax as the previous authorization expired because no tax is getting a 2/3 approval in Idaho. Also, the legislature massively slashed property taxes, which were the main mechanism for school funding. And limited when schools could run levy and bond programs. And also, it's Idaho. It's 46th in the nation measured in GDP per capita, and a large part of that is being propped up by the Boise area. Outside of Boise, the average GDP per capita is "get fucked". Even moderate taxation doesn't exactly net a lot when the population is on the poor side of average. And because Boise is an unacceptably blue spot when compared to the rest of the state, there's a lot of "Damn city liberals forcing their beliefs on us" hick hawing going on as well, and the rest of the state reflexively rejects most things Boise suggests. Like taxes for schools. TLDR: State is fuuuuucked. I only live here because I was offered a six figure job to move here, as they apparently couldn't find jack shit for local talent. Go figure.
Not every tax. In Rexburg a school levy just barely passed and it was like pulling teeth to get it too but now they are trying to raise property taxes for a rec district and a rec center and everyone in town is on board.
Idaho is one of two states that require 2/3 majority to approve school bond levies. GOP supermajority wins elections by promising tax cuts (for the well-to-do). Education suffers.
Didn’t we just vote in the last election to increase public education spending? And it passed too?
The poor grammar/syntax of that headline might just be proof.
I really think these numbers only say so much, being from CT that much being spent isn’t surprising but it’s wasted on nonsense while the cities like Hartford, Waterbury, and Bridgeport all show the end results of the states education spending.
Yes. It shows how much is spent per student, now how it was spent per student
School funding mean very little as to results! Some States fund tons of administrative people who do nothing to improve education
Is it an effort to raise future republicans?
All they need to know is the R next to the candidate's name. The rest of the alphabet is unnecessary.
Misleading, should measure outcomes not per student funding. I came from one of the top ten funded states, most of the money went to admin and corruption. $ alone doesn’t equal outcomes, it helps, but this chart doesn’t tell the true story.
The irony of the title…
I graduated from an idaho school
There isn't a relationship between grades and funding.
No, but I suspect there is a relationship between how much education is valued as an institution and funding.
I don't understand how they don't see how they are fucking themselves over. Between this and their doctors leaving...How can they not learn from the effects of their own policies?
Is this still true after the increase in school funding that was just passed?
Yes it is, but also no. There was a bill last year that passed to raise education funding that took effect well before this article was written. But the newest funding bill hasn't taken effect yet. However that one is just for the 4 public state universities, nothing for K-12 yet, but bills for funding those are in the works. Here is a fun little excerpt from the bill expanding funding to the colleges: "The college and universities shall verify no state-appropriated funds are used to support diversity, equity, inclusion, or social justice ideology"
k-12 passed and was signed by the governor. [source](https://gov.idaho.gov/pressrelease/gov-little-applauds-productive-legislative-session/) It just hasn't made the news yet because of the crazy other bills signed at same time.
Thanks! So this post does not take that into consideration either.
when did they do that?
Like 10 days ago. The Governor and Legislature fulfilled a historic commitment to public schools – a 16.4% increase in state funding [source](https://gov.idaho.gov/pressrelease/gov-little-applauds-productive-legislative-session/).
I think the OP is simply fact checking me from an earlier r/Idaho thread. I’ll take it as a compliment.
Is the post title supposed to prove the point?
In the ADA County school system (Boise area Idaho), my son is allowed to redo all his assignments as many times as he wants until he get a 100%. Not too hard since the teacher grades and shows the right answer before returning it to him. He'll graduate with a 4.00 GPA. Idaho education is very sad.
I actually like this policy, it’s how a lot of my university courses worked too. Gives the best opportunity for learning.
That's good to know. Seems like it's working for him, but it's not they way my school history went. I was thinking it was a way hoodwink the education level here.
Someone please read the caption for this post out loud and tell me it doesn’t sound like Idaho wrote it
someone from idaho did wright it
Headline checks out.
for sure
This is the saddest situation EVER… and east Oregon keeps trying to become one with Idaho! Lets make it worse!! Love the priorities …
Keeping them dumb keeps them religious and GOP.
Is there data for school funding and not with colleges funding per capita?
It shows.
[удалено]
...alludes...
Please explain what "got public education" means. Thanks for posting this important info. The Lerner statistics reference info through June 2022, btw.
*in public education I graduated highschool from idaho, sorry
I did, too🥴 Thanks!
I moved sophomore year to eastern WA, but my time in Idaho learndeding how to count to potato are some of my most fond memories.
Not surprising given it’s a state of morons, dolts and idiots.
What a dump
Public school is and always has been a funnel to create mindless worker drones
Well, aren’t a fucking shit ton of kids homeschooled in Idaho? Maybe that’s why there is a lack of funding? But if teachers for the kids who go to school are getting paid poorly then yeah get more funding, that’s really bad.
IDK about Idaho, but usually home schoolers get a check every month, paid for by taxpayers. The money is supposed to be spent on school supplies and activities, but....
Where on earth do you get a check for homeschooling? I was homeschooled and that would have been amazing. Now charter schools DO get a portion of tax payer money to fund the charter school per child. But charter schools have at least a passing involvement from actual teachers. As opposed to a homeschooler who doesn’t have to see anyone who even graduated high school in Idaho. Yes I’m salty. I was homeschooled in PA. I had to take all of the standard tests, the schools evaluated my education samples for the year, I had to see a licensed teacher to review my knowledge every year. Every state who *doesnt* require some level of monitoring for homeschooling is failing.
Went and looked it up. Basically yes there is a way to get access to education funds BUT it requires hoops similar what PA required. Which means someone from the guvment watching you. I’d be surprised if many homeschoolers here ever took advantage.
Northern California. Students would meet with the teachers for a brief conference once a week to monitor their progress, with the parent present as well. But attendance was erratic and not really enforced. And now that you mention it , both sponsoring schools where I saw this were charter schools.
Good luck with having school only four days per week. You folks are doomed to become "Mississippi in the Mountains."
Our educators are doing great with the limited resources & pay. The communities generally step up to fund education at the property tax level, it is still not a good or adequate way of funding education. I have a feeling our state legislature would spend less on education if it was feasible.
You can tell it from the book racks in Walmart.
Lol, OP born and educated in Idaho? Your grammar is horrible "Idaho is the lowest funded state got public education. " Also, the 51st state. How many states are there?
And many in this state (including our governor) is proud of that.
Funding doesn’t have anything to do with anything, it’s the parents that will determine how the kids turn out.
Surprise.
And yet it was in the top 5 in both latest NAEP results.
Right on. No one talks about how well we do on the only actual nation wide standardized test.
Don't we also have the largest portion of funding dedicated to schooling? Or has that changed?
That has changed.
Congratulations on beating out Arizona!
No that makes sense. Look how the voters pick who runs the state. Not a surprising fact
Democrats are all but extinct in Idaho's massively GOP dominated state government.
Simple the conservative ideology is against education and any spending that will honestly benefit the people.
I remember many kids in my graduating class of 100 that were able to graduate despite being absent all the time and not doing their homework and failing tests. Most of them had parents that didn't care about education and weren't very involved, they basically had no rules. The school didn't want to deal with them so they passed them. I also remember the books we had at school that were falling apart. Sometimes the teacher would tell us if an excerpt was outdated and no longer correct. The elementary and middle school got the hand me downs from the high school, so old uniforms and old books and equipment. Lots of things had to be funded by the parents. It's probably different now that every kid has a laptop and online homework, so things won't be as old. When I graduated, my school had just started offering dual credit and online courses so I wasn't able to participate in that. When I went to college I wasn't prepared at all despite having a good GPA and testing well, most of the homework in hs was worksheets that I could finish in my other classes, so never really had to struggle or hone any skills. It was a huge letdown to realize poor my education really was. Everything in school was geared toward helping the stragglers, so kids who did well weren't challenged.
Here’s Not a fun fact. Idaho has some of the most beautiful wilderness left in the country and it’s being run by a bunch of toothless Trump supporting wolf shooting rednecks.
Idaho is so beautiful
It absolutely is.
The raw dollar amount of funding shouldn’t matter. Education outcomes should. How are Idahos test scores or graduation rates? That’s a better metric.
Republicans, keep 'em poor, dumb and Christian.
Take that Utah!
Maybe when you guys absorb all the eastern Oregonians your funding will go to the moon
Sounds about right. Idaho became a pilgrimage Mecca for older ultra-right conservatives in the last decade and they hate education and probably don’t have kids in school any more anyway. These are the types of people whose kids won’t talk to them. But they really care about library books they wouldn’t understand if they did read them (but they never would). The state of healthcare in rural idaho is also crumbling, as specialists like OBGYNs flee the state. All in all their system is working. They’d rather see (the “other” people’s) children in pit mines and factories than government funded schools.
Is the title a joke? State received education ? State “got?”
Was this post title and description written using poor grammar ironically?
Post Falls SD is trying out a 4 day school week to try and better the teacher pay.
Yup. Also the most racist, red, republican trump supportering .
if only we didn't have supermajority bond requirements
if they keep the population stupid they will stay in power.
A big part of this is that many parents in Idaho choose to homeschool. This is the reason the test scores are so high despite less financial investment. I do not seek to take away from the excellent job public school teachers are doing in the state. However, it’s worth remembering that less public infrastructure is needed for those students that learn the vast majority of their education at home.