Candidate Cindy Wilson on kindergarten, plus how Idaho prisons and schools are linked
The last statewide elected office Idaho Democrats held was the superintendent of public instruction, from 1999 to 2006.
They nearly recaptured the seat four years ago, when little more than 1 percent separated current Republican Superintendent Sherri Ybarra from her Democratic opponent.
Cindy Wilson, this year’s Democratic nominee, is now making an aggressive push for the job. The retired Capital High School teacher worked in rural districts in north and eastern Idaho and in the West Ada School District before coming to Boise. She was also part of Gov. Butch Otter’s K-12 education task force and has served since 2015 on the Idaho Board of Correction, overseeing this state’s prisons department.
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.
Wilson 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: You have talked about the education level of those in prison. What do you think the factors are that cause these young people to drop out from high school to begin with?
There’s a tremendous amount of research that shows us where we start seeing students lag behind. We studied this when I was on the task force that we worked on in 2013, that tells us that if a student is not reading by grade level at 3rd grade, they’re going to really struggle because after third grade, everything you do is content-related, so you’re reading for content from that time forward.
By junior high, a lot of those children that were struggling at school are now behavioral problems, or they’re acting out, or they’re not doing their work because they have fallen behind. They can start dropping out by end of ninth, 10th grade.
We know, today, there was a study done just this last summer in Idaho, 50 percent of children who came in to first grade were unprepared to read. ... The first-grade teachers are saying that they have some students who are coming in who had preschool, they were fortunate enough to be in a district that offered a full-day kindergarten, and they come in first grade and they’re already reading some things and they’re ready to go. And then you have the child, didn’t have any preschool, did not go to kindergarten because it’s not required in the state of Idaho, they’re in that same classroom and that teacher is trying to navigate to ensure that those students who were prepared can move forward and have achievement of their own, but still trying to teach reading to students who are not prepared with the skills necessary to learn at that first-grade level.
What I propose is that we make full-day kindergarten available to everybody. ... So many districts really believe in that that they’ve already started doing it. ... But the travesty, and this is true in so many darn areas in this state, it’s not equitable. You can get full-day kindergarten at some districts across the state, but so many don’t have it because it’s only funded half-time through the state. And then if you’re a single parent, which I was for seven years, I get what that’s like ... I had to figure out a way that I could get him from kindergarten to the daycare because I was teaching at the time.
I’m excited about what we can do in a public-private partnership with that. After visiting with so many people on this issue, I don’t believe this should be mandatory. And frankly, and I think everybody would agree, the ultimate place for early childhood education is in the home. But if we’re realistic, that’s not happening everywhere.
Q: What’s the biggest single need for public education that requires additional funding?
Preschool.
Q: If that requires raising taxes, what taxes do you support increasing?
We don’t have to do that because there are some things we can do to change funding right within the system now. Currently there are programs being promoted that are not effective and, in some cases, are actually duplicating programs in other agencies.
Q: Can you give examples?
The safety program. So, school safety is a hot topic right now, and there is a push from the state department right now talking about spending $21 million on these grant programs and putting money into allowing districts to request funds for different things that they want to request. Over here we have the [Office of School Safety and Security] that goes into every school in the state, and they do an audit, and they determine what are some needs that your school has that aren’t being met, how can we meet those needs.
What they’ve found, and I attended a meeting on this just about three, four weeks ago ... they met together with the state department, and they’re duplicating what needs to be done on public safety in schools. Why? Why are we not collaborating more with our partners?
[Editor’s note: Ybarra disputes the suggestion that her safety initiative duplicates the OSSS’ work. “We do work with them, and they were part of this conversation,” she said during a separate Editorial Board meeting. Ybarra also said state law and constituent concerns compel her to address safety and security. OSSS staff and the chair of its advisory board have told IdahoEdNews.org that they were not part of developing Ybarra’s plan.]
Then the other place that I would look, and this would take some time, but it goes back to our corrections budget. You’re looking at a $500 million ... increase in beds for inmates statewide. ... There is research that clearly shows us, if we can put more of that money into the early childhood programs for children, we can turn around kids.
In our prisons, we have a huge increase in mental health offenders right now. We recently heard, one of my fellow board members on the board went to a conference on mental health and corrections, and they said that when children experience trauma in the very earliest years of their life, if you can get them help early on, you can actually change around from them moving into schizophrenia (or) to bipolar disorders and other mental health problems. By creating these public preschool opportunities and getting kids into kindergarten all across the state, we can identify some of those. And I believe very strongly, in the long run, that’s going to pay off for us as a state.
Here’s my problem with what I think is happening in Idaho, after serving as an educator and on the Board of Correction. We don’t think long-term. We’re thinking from budget to budget, or from election cycle to election cycle. What I’d like to do is get everybody together, Education, Corrections, Health and Welfare, let’s bring everybody together and try to solve these problems with a strategic plan and goals for 10 years down the road.
Q: What about charging students fees? We’ve got at least one court decision that says you can’t do that. But the lawsuit was limited to one particular district.
Oh yeah, that was really ugly. I taught in that district about the time that was happening.
Article IX, Section 1 of the Idaho Constitution clearly states what needs to be provided, and it says the Legislature will provide a fair, thorough, equitable education for every single child in Idaho. … So my opinion is it’s unconstitutional to charge fees.
Q: Is there a need to back up and have the courts opine on the constitutionality of all funds for school districts?
Well, they just did that in Washington, and I think it required a 17 or 18 percent increase in their education funding. And that’s killing us here, because I was in Coeur d’Alene talking to a colleague who teaches and just left to go over to Spokane, got $30,000 more a year, plus they’re paying a stipend for her national board education. So that’s going to kill us. Again, I think it’s there, it’s available to us, but I prefer trying to tell the story of what’s needed in education first of all, really focus on that needs-based budget, tell the story and try to move public opinion first before we push that.
Q: How is a Democratic constitutional officer going to convince a Republican-controlled Legislature that something is unconstitutional and needs more money?
I don’t believe this should be a partisan office. I don’t believe kids come to school for a Republican or a Democrat education. They come for an Idaho education.
I am a lifelong Idahoan. My family are Republican Party committee chairpeople down in Franklin County. I identified to the left after the Luna Laws and my frustration and disgust over what happened in trying to take over public education for private sake. I’m not a partisan person. I taught for over 30 years in a classroom, and my students didn’t even know my positions.
I’m not a partisan person, nor do I believe in following a partisan line on education issues. There are some who will never get over that, and boy, I’ve met them. No matter what I want to say, they will not talk to you because of that D on your name. So, what I have to go by is people who have known me my entire life as I’ve lived all across this state, and I tell you what, I’ve got a lot of Rs voting for me, because they know me, they’ve lived next to me, I’ve worked with them at church, in school, in the community. They know I’m not a crazy liberal you-know-who.
Q: Where do you stand on Propositions 1 and 2?
You’re the first newspaper to ask me to do that.
Prop 2 I didn’t have to think about. It’s a natural for me. I’m definitely for Prop 2, and Medicaid expansion, because I do believe that helps children in schools. When families are taken care of with their medical needs, children can focus more on learning.
Prop 1 is problematic. You know, I used to go down to the park and watch the horse races. My family lived in Preston, and across the valley, we had the west side and they had a track there, and we have people who made it really big in horse racing that went to California and did really well. So I appreciate that. What I don’t like is adding more slots-type gambling to this state, and I don’t think that revenue coming off that is really going to benefit schools, so I’m probably voting no on 1. Unless somebody can convince me otherwise.