State Superintendent Ybarra visits Idaho Falls

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra was in east Idaho Wednesday, visiting both Bonneville and Hillcrest High Schools.

Ybarra says there were a few reasons for the visits.

It was basically a roadshow-type event, where she visited a couple of classes and saw two members of her student advisory council.

Ybarra also wanted to attend a few government classes, to see if there was any sort of bias.

"I know there's been some concern around that, and I visited a few government classes, not just this one today, and I have not seen that yet," Ybarra said. "Matter of fact, I'd like to quote what the teacher said, and that is, 'Challenge anything I say to you, make sure you do your own homework, and make sure that you are asking lots of questions and are thinking for yourself.'"

Ybarra also talked about masks in school, which have been a hot topic across the state.

"I think what we need to do is respect the wishes of other people and you know, what I've told everybody is, is follow the science," Ybarra said. "You know, the science behind the mask is that it protects you and it protects others. But again, we have to be respectful of other people's choices. I'm seeing students masked. I'm seeing some students not mask. And what I'm seeing out of the students is they are being respectful of other people's choices. I saw a teacher masked while I've seen other teachers not masked."

But there are other issues the mask debate has been overshadowing, like school funding and teacher shortages.

"The budget increase that I requested has two parts to it," Ybarra said. "The first one is to attract and retain and reward our best educators. I tell everybody, the most important person in a child's educational career is that educator in the classroom. And so a large part of the budget goes towards teacher salaries and also those classified salaries."

That includes positions like custodians and teacher aides.

The second part is optional all-day kindergarten.

"We have approximately 66% of our incoming kindergartners not prepared for a lifelong education," Ybarra said. "So we want to make sure we're closing those gaps early. And so one of the largest asks in the budget this time is around optional all-day kindergarten for those at-risk learners that are coming in, not prepared for the next 12 years of their education.

Ybarra also gave kudos to all the school districts in the state who are dealing with staffing shortages, saying they are working to attract more teachers.