I have written several articles locally on school choice in North Idaho; The CDA Press had another column by the esteemed Jim Jones who, in his own mind, is an expert on everything. He is the same person four years ago said that Ivermectin was just “horse paste” in a column. Of course we know that the drug that won the Nobel Prize in 2018 has performed miraculous cures for river blindness and other diseases in tropical areas. The medical establishment admitted that it was helpful in many Covid cases. This is the type of propaganda we are going against.
They trot out these statistics from a study that shows Idaho and Utah at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to school funding per student. We can debate the study but it is easy to debunk this when they show that Wyoming spends double what Idaho does and Montana is 50% greater. Fair enough for a comparison since we are similar in many ways. Now let us trot out test scores of the four states- we equal or beat Wyoming and Montana on virtually every score. More money will solve the problem. I think not.
The CDA district not only didn’t listen to their parents in 2020 but canceled meetings and closed the doors to “outsiders”. The parents voted with their feet and the district lost 10% of their students that fall!
Not only that they have lost students every year since. Strangely there is no acknowledgement of this fact. Or apology.
The news and results were clear, even from Idaho’s dashboard. 80% of deaths were over 60 and half of those were residents of nursing homes where the average stay is 90 days. Anyone under the age of 30 had more chance of death riding the school bus.
We have three grandchildren attending school in the Phoenix area attending a Christian school. Their father is a retired Navy pilot and without the ESA grant they would not be attending.
The scores in public education are in the toilet and the charter schools here out shine everyone. STEM in Rathdrum, Classical Charter and CDA Charter Academy all have waiting lists and the private Christian schools are packed.
Please ignore the attacks and false information from experts like Jim Jones and the media and the teacher’s union. Did you know that the CDA district gives over 30 days paid leave to the union president each year? They are hand in hand in this fight.
People need to read the union contract. Put teachers on a 401k type retirement with a 6% match from the district. Give them the freedom to change jobs!
