A Look at the Transformation of Public Education

COEUR d’ALENE — Fundamental changes in public education are not being made by schools, school districts or the federal government.

It all depends on the state.

“If we want to fix our schools, we have to change state laws, state codes, to get a new type of public education system,” Don Nielsen said Thursday during the Mountain States Policy Center’s fall policy luncheon on education transformation at The Coeur d’Alene Resort.

Public education is one of the largest institutions in the country; the school calendar is an integral part of American culture, said Nielsen, a senior fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute think tank and author of “Every School: One Citizen’s Guide to Transforming Education.”

He asked the question, “What would every child benefit from receiving an effective education?”

“Fewer prisons,” one person said.

“Let’s fix the national debt,” suggested another.

“Everyone would be qualified to do the job or could be easily trained to do the job,” Nielsen said.

He added that the situation would be significantly reduced, the crime rate would be reduced, the need for medical care would be reduced and civic engagement would be improved.

“The quality of people running for office would go up,” he said. “We have great people running for office, just like we have great teachers. We just don’t have enough of them.”

He asked another question: “Is there any place where public education is conducted properly?”

He showed slides of a place of natural beauty known for its outdoor recreation, a growing mid-sized capital city and an economy based on natural resources with a growing technology sector.

No, not in northern Idaho.

Estonia.

“Estonia is the size of Idaho, and Estonia has one of the best school systems in the world,” Nielsen said. “You could do that in Idaho.”

He showed a slide with information about the rankings of education systems. The top six countries are Asian, with Singapore in first place. Estonia came in 7th.

“Estonia has the best school system in the Western world,” Nielsen said, noting Canada is in eighth place.

“The United States is ranked 18th, so we are not doing very well as a country,” he said.

Another slide of WalletHub rating data from its July 22 report, “States with the Best and Worst School Systems,” showed Idaho ranked 39th nationally.

“We have a lot of work to do,” he said. “I hope you agree with me that this is unacceptable. It’s time to change it, it’s time to get angry. It’s time to say we’re done with the lack of education.”

He said that while it is unacceptable, it is not impossible to fix. Nielsen, who served on the Seattle School Board for eight years, said Singapore’s success stems from its diligence in teacher quality.

“We can’t legislate to ensure good parents, but we can legislate to ensure good teachers, but we don’t do that,” he said.

In Estonia, teacher candidates must have a master’s degree in their preferred subjects.

“You need to be qualified to teach the subject you want to teach,” he said.

In Singapore, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree in their preferred subject and graduate in the top third of their class, then go through rounds of rigorous interviews. Even then, many are rejected, Nielsen said.

Those who make it will be mentored by experienced teachers, and Nielsen says 40% of those who get this far are rejected.

“One in 12 people who are called in for an interview becomes a teacher,” he said, adding that those who make it through the internship go back to college for another 18 months to learn “how to be a really good teacher,” earn a master’s degree and are then sent back to the schools where they interned.

In the U.S., students must have money and a high school diploma or equivalent to pursue a teaching career and become certified.

“If you get into teacher training school, you’ll graduate—nobody’s going to fail,” Nielsen said. “And if you graduate, you’ll get hired because we have a teacher shortage.

“So we are accidentally achieving perfection,” he said. “We can no longer accept that. If we are serious about fixing our schools, we have to fix the way we select and train our teachers.”

Another concept Nielsen discussed was empowering principals to serve as school presidents and give them control over what happens in their schools.

Preschool education is another area that could do well if reformed. Nielsen said he would be willing to give parents vouchers to send their children to pre-school.

“I guarantee you we would have developed some excellent preschool programs right away,” he said.

Among those attending the luncheon were Reps. Tony Wisniewski, R-Post Falls, and Joe Alfieri, R-Coeur d’Alene, as well as Sen. Carl Bjerke, R-Coeur d’Alene, and his wife Lesli Bjerke, vice chairwoman of the Coeur d’Alene School Board. North Idaho College Trustee Tarie Zimmerman also attended.

Lesli Bjerke, who taught elementary school for 25 years in Southern California before retiring in 2016, wrote in an emailed response to a press inquiry that she believes it is important to work with other teachers and districts to find areas of success and emulate best practices.

She said the concept of CEOs was worth considering.

“I anticipate that the state of Idaho will continue to look for ways to improve our public school system,” she said. “I know there have been discussions about expanding school choice for families, as well as changing funding formulas.”

In a phone interview Monday morning, Zimmerman said she was shocked by Nielsen’s comparisons of Idaho and Estonia.

“He did a really good job of letting his mind go to, ‘What if? This looks like us. Look what they did,'” Zimmerman said.

She said she believes it is necessary to change the public education system for the better.

“If we don’t do something, the situation won’t improve, and it won’t happen by accident,” she said.

She said she believes in the philosophy of free market competition and this also applies to the education system.

“It’s kind of a shift in control. People who have control or power don’t want to give it up, and that’s a major obstacle,” she said.