Schools chief Sherri Ybarra on teacher pay, student fees and when to speak up
Four years ago, Sherri Ybarra was an unknown.
The former Mountain Home teacher and school administrator ran a quiet campaign in 2014. She surprised many with her victory in that year’s Republican primary, then narrowly prevailed over her Democratic opponent that fall.
Now, Ybarra is the incumbent. She has four legislative sessions and a stint on Gov. Butch Otter’s higher education task force under her belt — as well as experience as part of a committee examining the public schools funding formula. She’s again relying on a relatively simple, quiet campaign to beat Democratic challenger Cindy Wilson and achieve a second term.
The superintendent oversees Idaho’s K-12 public schools system. He or she is also a member of the state Land Board and the State Board of Education.
Ybarra earlier this month spoke with the Idaho Statesman’s Editorial Board about her goals and this year’s election. Her remarks here have been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What’s the biggest single need for public education that requires additional funding?
If we had all the money in the world, it’s likely not to be enough for education.
But the one thing that we’re focused on, and was a huge focus in my budget, is the safety initiative as well as teacher pay. Those were the two, probably the biggest highlights. When I sat down and crafted the budget for public schools, the stakeholders really wanted to make sure that the No. 1 priority that stayed in place was the career ladder.
And as you can see, if you took a look at my public schools budget, we invested more in the career ladder than it was originally scheduled because we understand that the career ladder did give a lot of the increases to the early novice teachers. And I want to be clear that I respect all teachers, I was an early novice teacher myself at one time, but we are noticing that we are not able to keep our veterans. And so that is one of the reasons that we made sure that we invested in the career ladder, that was the No. 1 priority of the stakeholders who met for the budget.
Q: If there isn’t enough money in the budget to fund those two items without doing an adjustment to the tax system, what adjustments to the tax system would you recommend?
The superintendent of public instruction does not have one vote or one say in adjustments to the tax system. That’s completely up to the Legislature.
Q: But you can recommend.
I don’t get one vote on the floor, and I don’t get one say.
Q: So you have no position on the tax structure?
That’s completely up to the Legislature.
Q: On teacher pay: How can we get the funding into the state budget that makes us competitive with our neighbors, so we aren’t the training ground and don’t lose talented people to states surrounding us?
(Again, that’s) the career ladder. I think we have to kind of look at all the gains that we made, and I’ve gotten great feedback from teachers, emails about “thank you for making sure the career ladder stayed in place, thank you for the increases and the raises.” But we also recognize, like you said, that there is an opportunity for folks to live in Idaho and drive right across the border to states with deeper pockets. But, to me, the career ladder was put into place as one of the solutions to that.
The No. 1 company to work for in the nation, the employees will tell you that they’re not there for the pay, they’re there for the culture. And one of the No. 1 things that I know I’ve worked very hard on in my term is changing the culture around education, to a more respective and supportive environment. We had public service announcements around that.
Now, at the same time, I do recognize that we need to continue to invest in teacher pay or we’re going to continue to lose our veterans to the surrounding states. And that is why you will see the asks in the career ladder that I submitted.
What educators have told me is, “No more new shiny objects, continue on the path that you’re continuing on, keep that momentum going, keep working on that culture, we’re liking the direction that we’re going, continue to work on our pay.”
Q: Where do you stand on Propositions 1 and 2?
As the superintendent, I’m not taking a position on those two ballot measures.
Q: Why not?
Because I’ll go in that booth and vote just like everybody else does. It’s not actually going to affect K-12 specifically, and I don’t really have a say in that besides my vote.
Q: The TV ads say it does affect schools. You don’t think it does?
[Indicates “no.”] I’m going to go in there and vote just like everybody else.
Q: Do you support or do you oppose school districts charging student fees?
That’s a local issue. It’s completely up to the district.
Q: But it’s also a state issue. What’s your position?
So I’ll go and give you an example. Some of my teachers, when I was a building principal, thought that it would be a better idea — instead of sending home this huge list of supplies, and saying we need a box of Kleenex and we need some Ziploc baggies — that they would just charge parents $5 ... and I said, guys, we can’t do that. First of all, you’re not supposed to charge parents, it’s free public education. However, I do know that if you send a list home to parents, we need to come together as a team, we need to make sure that it’s something that you need and if a parent can’t afford it, you can’t deny them to enroll in school.
And so, with that, I know that there are supplies and things that classroom teachers need, and I do know that parents are willing and able to supply those things to districts, but if a child can’t afford it that doesn’t mean that they’re not able to enroll in school.
What I told my staff is you cannot charge parents to come to school.
Q: The Supreme Court has said this is unconstitutional with respect to a single school district. Do you think that the Supreme Court should readdress this and look at it statewide, rather than just with the West Ada School District?
I can’t speculate on what the Supreme Court should or should not do. But I do know that there’s laws in place, like you mentioned earlier, and I do believe that school districts understand that there is limits to what a family can afford, and they understand that you cannot charge kids to go to school. ... If teachers need supplies and parents are willing to supply those, then there is nothing wrong with that.
Q: How about fees for being in the school band, or being on the football team, that kind of thing?
For electives, we know as parents — my son is a high school student and he is a senior this year — and we do know that I understand that if my son is going to take an elective and he has to pay for something, as a parent if I want to pay for it, I do. And he has the opportunity to make choices about what classes he wants to take.
Q: You don’t feel you should be giving any directives out of your office to the districts on how to handle this?
Districts have policies. They know how to handle student issues. If there’s questions, we will answer it.
Q: Do you believe the current state funding structure for public education is constitutional?
That’s why we’re looking at the current state funding structure. I think there’s questions, there have been questions around that. And I’m pleased to be a member of that committee that’s finally getting the opportunity to take a look at that.
But again … we are only a group of folks who can make recommendations, and those recommendations will go to the Legislature, and the germane committees will make those decisions. But at this time, there are always going to be, the way the structure is now, folks who can run a levy and be successful and folks who cannot. And we’re in a cult of haves and have nots, and I am pleased to see the folks, the decision-makers, sit up and pay attention to that, and recognize that, and me being on that funding formula committee to have discussions about the direction that’s going to go.
Q: Some other superintendents of public instruction have been more outspoken on certain issues. How do you approach that process? When do you choose to speak out?
I don’t know that I limit my advocacy, but I base it on what schools and students need. … I’m the voice for education in Idaho, and I always make sure that everything I do represents and reflects what it is that they want. I would never want to advocate for something that schools and districts are like, where did that come from? Or, I’m always asking them, what’s going to help you? ... What can we do to support the work that you’re already doing? What is it that you need out of your superintendent?
I’m still very close to the education arena, I’m an educator, still very close to the issues and still very close to what’s going on, boots on the ground. And I think that knowledge helps myself and my department to know exactly where we need to be in that arena. I do have a superintendent’s cabinet that I lean on a lot to talk to me about the issues. But I consider myself the voice for education during the legislative session, and so if I’m not representing schools and districts in their interests, to me that’s not advocating and supporting schools and students to achieve.
And the education arena is very verbal about where they want me to be. And very opinionated. And they also feel very comfortable emailing me and letting me know those issues and positions too, and so I take a lot of cues from the field a lot, too.
Q: And that’s where you feel speaking out on the propositions and similar things would then violate that?
Yeah. Their No. 1 priorities are the educator shortage and safety, the educator shortage and the career ladder, making sure they think those two things are at the top of their list, and safety as well. ... The funding formula is something they’re watching very closely and they’re very concerned about. They don’t want to be the loser district, and I don’t blame them.
Our job is not to come in and be a compliance department and a box-checking event. It is more about changing the culture and serving them. I’m a public servant. The people hired me. And I truly believe, even sitting here with you right now, this is my four-year evaluation, and people are going to tell me how they feel.