OPINION: One-size-fits-all education does not best serve Idaho students

Go to the hardware store and pick a nail. You only get to pick one size and one type of nail. It can be a 2-inch finish nail or a 10-penny common, a ring shank or concrete nail. You’ve got hundreds of choices but you only get to pick one.

Now you’re going to use that nail to build a house. Your objective is to build a dwelling that is structurally sound, aesthetically pleasing, long-lasting and safe, something that will serve you well into the future.

You only get to use one type and size of nail, though.

So a finish brad nail isn’t the best for framing the walls. The duplex nail used for concrete forms makes a lousy drywall fastener. Roofing nails are a poor choice for trim work. And putting on concrete siding with a 20-penny box common nail would be a long lesson in futility. You do need a wide variety of nails and fasteners to build a house that meets your objectives. However, when you limit your choices on how you’ll build that domicile, you’ll have a very difficult time at best and more than likely will fail to accomplish what you set out to do.

We don’t build our houses in Idaho with only one type of nail, but we try to educate our children with only one type of school system. And until we realize that one size doesn’t fit all, we’re doomed to failure.

Article IX, Section 1. of the Idaho Constitution clearly states that: “The stability of a republican form of government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people, it shall be the duty of the legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”

There is no question that the Idaho Legislature has to fund a system of free public schools for state residents. The public school advocates consider that portion of Sec. 1 to be the objective that the Legislature must fulfill. In that thinking, they are wrong. Public schools are the method that the constitutional framers choose to meet the objective of Sec. 1, which is the stability of a republican form of government.

Public schools, however, are not the only means that they considered acceptable to educate the citizenry and to meet the objective of Sec. 1.

On page 29 of the high school textbook, “Civil Government of Idaho,” authored by Boise Schools Superintendent C.E. Rose, fifth edition, revised in 1919 and published in 1921 by the Macmillan Co., the author discusses the school district and compulsory education.

He cites Section 160: “In all school districts of this State, all parents, guardians, and other persons having care of children shall instruct them or cause them to be instructed in reading, writing spelling, English grammar, geography, and arithmetic. In such districts, every parent, guardian, or other person having charge of any child between the ages of eight (8) and sixteen (16) years, shall send each child to a public, private or parochial school for the entire school year during which the public schools are in session in such districts. ... ”

In 1963, Section 160 became Idaho Code 33-202, which was amended in 1992 and 2009. Currently it reads: “School Attendance Compulsory. The parent or guardian of any child resident in this state who has attained the age of seven (7) years at the time of the commencement of school in his district, but not the age of sixteen (16) years, shall cause the child to be instructed in subjects commonly and usually taught in the public schools of the state of Idaho. To accomplish this, a parent or guardian shall either cause the child to be privately instructed by, or at the direction of, his parent or guardian; or enrolled in a public school or public charter school, including an online or virtual charter school or private or parochial school during a period in each year equal to that in which the public schools are in session; there to conform to the attendance policies and regulations established by the board of trustees, or other governing body, operating the school attended.”

That wording is in effect at this time.

The relevant point here is that for well longer than 100 years, Idaho law has recognized that the education of our children is what is important to preserving our republic and that parents have legal and acceptable options on who provides that education.

Public schools are important and can provide a minimum standard that all other educational systems in the state have to meet. Admittedly, I think that civics and geography education has taken a back seat in our public schools and that the Legislature should be paying more attention to those subjects rather than wasting time on idiotic library bills. But public school advocates who keep insisting that only public schools should receive public tax dollars are missing the point.

It is the education of our children that is important and an obstinate belief that it can only be delivered through the public schools flies in the face of reality. What we need to be fighting for at the local and state levels is that our children receive an education that will serve them well as they go out into the world. Until we recognize that end we’re simply fighting over which nail we want to buy.

Hassoldt is a field forester who lives in Kendrick.