Real answers lacking regarding our schools

We are five weeks away from the start of a new school year and with it, the implementation of Common Core standards in our schools. It was interesting to listen to LPOSD school board chairman Steve Youngdahl and Rep. George Eskridge on the radio July 29, explaining these new standards.

What became apparent quite rapidly were Youngdahl’s vagueness, vacillations and evasiveness in response to simple, straightforward questions by the host. “I don’t know,” “My understanding is,” “I think,” and “I wish Superintendent Shawn Woodward was here to answer this,” were some of them, with “I don’t know” featured repeatedly and most prominently.

Compounding this were statements that raised a number of alarm bells, among them: the standards were a “radical” change, which he quickly tried to walk back; that he had no knowledge of a reporting requirement of student data to the federal government, then said that reports are made but do not identify student names; then, oddly, asserted that there was nothing the school district submitted to Washington that they didn’t already know.

For his part, Rep. Eskridge chose to answer the host’s questions by repeatedly reading from the official Idaho CCS document, offering nothing of substance except the standard talking points which anyone can look up at the Idaho Department of Education site.

Anyone with children or grandchildren attending our public schools should be concerned about what’s coming down the pike in their education, and the seeming inability of our elected officials to provide straightforward answers.

SANDRA RUTHERFORD

Sandpoint