Empowering Parents in Education with Debbie Critchfield
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Idaho's commitment to empowering parents is not just a promise, but a reality. Leading the charge is State Superintendent of Public Education, Debbie Critchfield.
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to our kids, and that’s why Superintendent Critchfield is coming to the table with wise solutions to empower parents, strengthen local control and prepare our students for the workforce needs of a growing state.
Idaho stands at the forefront of a groundbreaking shift toward a parent-centric curriculum, acknowledging that parents are the architects of their children's success.
• Idaho Career Ready Students Grant
A program to better prepare students for the workforce by providing funding for career technical education programs. The grant aims to support districts in developing skills and workforce abilities in students, allowing them to take advantage of opportunities in their local communities.
• Financial Literacy Graduation Requirement
Equips students with the tools they need to navigate the world of personal finance, including budgeting, saving, investing, and understanding credit. By making financial literacy a graduation requirement, the goal is to empower students to make sound financial choices and improve their overall financial well-being.
• Parental Bill of Rights
Reaffirms rights which are founded upon the principle that parents are their child's first and most important teacher and are the primary stakeholders for the upbringing of their children. Parents are responsible for the moral, emotional, and, if desired, religious development of their children and instill the qualities of good citizenship.
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Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to Main Street, Idaho. We're here on the podcast with a very, very special guest today. State Superintendent of public Instruction. Ms. Debbie Critchfield. How are you, Debbie?
Debbie Critchfield:
I'm doing fantastic.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Merry Christmas. Is your house all decorated?
Debbie Critchfield:
It is. That was part of the Thanksgiving week was to get that done, so I joined the Early Bird Club.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Hey, good job. How's the Christmas shopping coming along?
Debbie Critchfield:
I'm not in the early bird club now. We'll get there. Thank heavens for online shopping.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Do you know what Dale wants this year and has he been good enough to get it?
Debbie Critchfield:
Yeah, to jump into this world that we're in now? Absolutely.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
I love it. So I've interviewed, we've had a congressman on here. We've had a lot of state senators, state representatives. This is the first time we've ever had somebody on here that has their own podcast. So I'm a little intimidated because it's host to host right now and out of the two of us, I clearly have no idea what I'm doing, but let's do a plug for the Super Intent Podcast. Talk us through that.
Debbie Critchfield:
Well, let me say that I had some experience when I was the communications director in Cashier County school district. I started a podcast, oh gosh, I don't know, four or five years ago, just as an experiment for myself because I enjoyed them, and that is one of the things I wanted to bring with me. It is an opportunity in 10 minutes snippets to learn something to explore, something to highlight, to showcase anything about education. And it's really designed for anyone that has an interest in education. It could be parents, it could be educators, policymakers, my neighbor. And so there's some things that are real informational, like we want you to know and understand something, and then other things are just to talk about exciting things happening.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Yeah, I love it. I've listened to all of them. You can find 'em on, I watched 'em all on YouTube, but they're on Spotify anywhere you get your podcasts, so I'll do a big plug for those. Now, your official title is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I think that may feel self-explanatory times, but there's probably a lot of people out there that have no clue what that entails. So as you're out, what is it? So when you're out visiting the schools, how would you explain your job to an eighth grader?
Debbie Critchfield:
Well, I talk about the constitutional role of the state superintendent that it is in the constitution. It dates back from the very beginning of when I Idaho gained statehood. And so it is an important and critical job in a number of ways. One of the things that I do is I am the advocate for the public school's budget. That's one of the roles that I have. And so monies that are appropriated by the legislature start in a process where you go and propose a budget. And so that is one of the assignments that I have. Another very specific assignment that I have is to be a member of the state landlord. And many people overlook that and forget about that, and then wonder why is the superintendent on the landlord? Well, all of the state land lands have an endowment, and those endowment dollars come into education.
It's double digits in the millions. And so the people who put that together a long time ago said, let's have the state superintendent sit on that. I also sit as a member of the State Board of Education, which is the governing policy board for all of education, kindergarten through post medical graduation or graduate programs. And so I've got my fingers in a number of things, and I'm also the administrator for the Department of Education. And then we serve to support schools. We work through all of the federal requirements. We make sure that districts have what they need, and if they don't, we help them find it.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Let's talk a little bit about the State Board of education. So you sat on it for seven years now there's eight members of that board. Seven of them are appointed by the governor, and then one of them defacto is the state superintendent who is elected. That's just me showing off how much I know. Look at that. I did my homework, Debbie. Good
Debbie Critchfield:
For you. Good for you.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
But you sat there on that board for seven years. Help us understand how that happened since it wasn't something that you ran for.
Debbie Critchfield:
Right. In 2013, I think it was 2014, actually, I was first appointed to the board by Governor Otter. The individual that had served from my region at the time had taken another position. And I had a friend who knew I had a deep interest and passion for good education policy, and Idaho suggested that I put my name into the hat, so to speak. And I went through a process and ultimately was able to be appointed by Governor Otter. And then I was later reappointed by Governor Little in his first term. And I did sit as a member of that board and that experience, and I was able to serve as president of the board. And my president tenure happened during covid. And so I had this unique experience of managing schools in a way that we really needed some leadership. There were a number of other needs that were happening that I don't think I need to get into, but it sparked in me this interest to have a different role on that same board. The things that I really cared about, the K 12 space, things that I wanted to lead out on, I wasn't able to do as an appointed volunteer. And I thought I need that elected position. And so in talking with my family, I said, I want to change hats. I want to change seats at that same table and get to work.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
So it's kind of a tall task to say, I'm going to not just run for elected office, but I'm going to run for a statewide office and I'm going to travel from up near the Canadian border all the way down to the Utah border and talk to Idahoans about some controversial issues and throw my hat in the ring. Maybe briefly explain what that experience was like going from an educator, going from somebody who was known in the community, serving the state in the education, but not somebody who was campaigning statewide.
Debbie Critchfield:
I have toyed kind of jokingly, but at times I thought I need to write a book about that experience because it was incredible in every sense of that word. I put 55,000 miles on my car. I drove everywhere twice. I jokingly said, Hey, if I don't get elected, I'm going to hire out as a tour guide of this incredible state that we live in. I knew where every small town was. I knew all of the things, and that's how I wanted to approach this. I wanted people to hear from me in this day and age of social media where people can put out literally anything that they want and say things and create these narratives around candidates. I wanted to speak for myself. And at one point, one of my kids said, do you think you have to speak to every single person? And I said, no, but it sure felt like it. And so it was incredible in the fact that the personal connections that I made listening to people understanding what their concerns were, and even in cases where politically I may not have on paper aligned with people, I was able to create conversations and find those similarities where again, on paper, I had people support and vote for me that shouldn't have as you looked at things. But when you connect with people and share that you're coming from the same place, it's amazing how you can find common ground.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Yeah, and I think the first time I met you was at a campaign event, and I was surprised to hear where I would typically at a campaign event, hear a lot of political platitudes and just kind of talking points quickly turn into, you had policy solutions for what you want to do if elected. And I was kind of taken back like, well, this isn't normal. We talk in generalized terms, not in specifically how are we going to solve this. So I want to go into a few of the policy solutions that you suggested you were going to take on in your campaign. We're only in year one of cracking away at this, but let's talk about how it's going. So first you talk a lot about outcomes. A lot of your lens that you view success by is outcomes. How is this actually going to affect what we're trying to get it to affect A big outcome or a big key indicator on outcomes for student success is parental involvement. Why is that?
Debbie Critchfield:
Well, hopefully people, as you ask that question, your listeners are already filling in the answers themselves. This is how I thought about, it's a three-legged stool, and you have the student who has to be engaged. I mean, learning isn't something that just happens through osmosis or just drops in. You've got to have an engaged student that wants to participate in their own learning. There is that student responsibility piece. And then you have the teacher, they're the expert in the classroom. They're the ones that have gone through the training. They have a professional license. It is their job to take the information and communicate that in a way that there's understanding that there's knowledge. And then you have the parent who's the expert on the child. And when you combine those three things, that's the perfect recipe or the formula for success. I personally had four children that went through the public school system, and I know that when I sat down with the teacher and I approached it in a respectful way, that they have the professional skills and tools to get the things done in the classroom that I would expect when I layer in the things that I know about my child.
And you combine those two very important pieces of information. You've created an environment where the teacher understands what your child needs or the learning style that your child has, and then you want to work with the teacher so that then they can take the skills that they have and help your child be successful.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
So you promised that you were going to better foster parental involvement where possible, and you introduced a parental bill of rights of sorts. What was the thought process behind that?
Debbie Critchfield:
It was to codify really what parents are already doing should be doing. One of the things that I've heard a lot about, I've been involved in education through being a substitute teacher to be on a local board, state board and now this for more than 20 years. And it was surprising to me when I would talk to parents who were frustrated that they didn't recognize or feel empowered. I know that word gets overused, but it really is a good word. They didn't feel empowered about their own child. And in having conversations with the teacher, they felt like it was a system happening to them where I want to create the feeling that no, you are an active participant in what's happening. And so we took my team, and really before I was even elected, I put out what I call a parent bill of rights. And it was not a copy paste. It was things that I had heard from parents, my own experiences, here are the things that you have a right to know to do to talk about. And it made parents feel like, oh, okay, even though they could already do those things, I'm not giving parents their rights. They have those. But it was a reminder to do that, and we were successful in getting that through the legislature.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
And so speaking of empowerment, you spent quite a few years serving on a school board in Kshe County. And how did that experience as a school board member kind of translate into Debbie candidate for state superintendent who was campaigning on a encouraging and strengthening local control?
Debbie Critchfield:
So I had this unique experience in Caja. It's a consolidated district that makes up really five unique major communities. And so countywide, you have a school board that comes together that's represented in different zones by different board members. But as someone coming from Oakley, I then had a perspective of how we had to work together to satisfy the needs and interests of all of the communities as a countywide school board. That experience served me very well going up to the state level because that was the same job and role that I had as president of the Board of Education are now as superintendent. We have unique characteristics that are specific to special needs in different communities, but we also need to look at it as a whole, how does one thing help or hurt individual districts? And so that was a great training ground for me in a small contained way to be able to get to the state level to understand the interests at a large scale. And really individually,
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Debbie, doesn't it seem counterintuitive for an elected leader to disseminate power away from their office? Doesn't that seem opposite of what a typical politician would do, is you're trying to push power more towards the school board to make those decisions rather than consolidating? It
Debbie Critchfield:
Might, but that's my approach on this, that my role and job is to advocate for the resources and then support informed decision-making at the local level, believe it or not, at the capital city, they don't have a clue of what it's like to be in Ledor on that school board and to know what those unique challenges are. And if you get into the north part of our state, Boise might as well be a million miles away. And so to me that the success that we have happens at that local level. And so we don't want the state to get in the way of that. There are standards and things that we expect. So parental rights as an example, you shouldn't have to feel like, well, I guess I'm lucky enough to be in this district to be supported as a parent. There are things that we want to have consistently around the state beyond some of those standards. We need the flexibility. Our local boards need that flexibility to use those resources and reflect the interests and the priorities of their local community. And I believe, and I'll get, I don't know how to do everything perfectly. I'll get better at this, but because of the experiences that I have, I feel that I am in a unique position to be able to do those things.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Yeah, no, you definitely come with an interesting resume that allows you to touch so many different facets of education. One thing that I think the legislature kind of through your direction and the governor's direction has really taken up is this idea of better preparing our students for the workforce. That was something that was important to you as you were running for this. Talk us through what your office is doing to kind of better meet the demands of this state's economy.
Debbie Critchfield:
Well, we need to have measures. It's not just a test that a student takes in the spring, but to me, we want measures and evidence that we've been successful in the schooling process, that our high school diplomas need to mean something. And to me, that meaning is I can take care of myself. I can financially take care of myself. I'm prepared in ways that I can take advantage of the options that are in my own backyard. And so one of the three things that I harped on consistently during the campaign, but really even before that, was more attention to developing skills to workforce abilities and how we prepare our students. They want a jumpstart in high school. And so we were able to be successful again in the legislature in getting a $45 million one-time appropriation for what we're calling the Idaho Career Ready Students grant.
And we've been able to award dollars to districts. The whole point of it was to find something in your own backyard that fed a program, an employer, an industry that the state wasn't giving you money for. And of the $45 million, we have awarded 36 million already. The money just became available. July one, we've had $111 million worth of requests. So you want to talk about highlighting and showcasing. We knew there was a need. I've been talking about this for years. We have this need in the career technical education arena, $111 million in requests. We still have money to award. We're going to get more. My hope is that I'll be able to go back to the legislature in a year or two and say, look what we did with the investment that you gave us, we're now creating more pathways and more opportunities for our students in St. Mary's or our students in Amon, and this is how we're doing it, and this is where we want our dollars to go.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Oh, that's fantastic. I'm going to be excited to see what those programs look like and how each district tailors 'em to their own needs. So I think that's fantastic.
Debbie Critchfield:
This will sound really greedy, but that could be another podcast. We could really talk about what we've awarded and the programs that are being created from forestry to fish hatchery to meat cutting, and how we're preparing our students. It's been so exciting and just so satisfying for me.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Well, I'm going to get you on the record here saying you're going to come back to talk about that with us.
Debbie Critchfield:
I would love it.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Okay. Two important things we definitely have to cover, and you knew they were coming. You talk about students graduating with skills. We hear over and over again, and we see the memes on Facebook that show I know what osmosis means, or I know that the mitochondria is a powerhouse of the sale, but I have no idea what a credit score is, or I don't even know if a 401k is a marathon or what. That means you campaigned and delivered on making financial literacy a graduation requirement in Idaho. Talk to us about that.
Debbie Critchfield:
I'm so proud of the effort and you were a part of the support. Listen, when a candidate or just anyone who wants to serve, and that's really how I see myself. I've got an opportunity to serve. When you can find that one issue that no one disagrees with and everyone supports, you run with it like crazy. And financial literacy, personal management skills was that thing. There wasn't anybody of any political flavor or color that disagreed that our students need to have that ability. And what was so cool to me was parents saying to me, not only does my kid need it, I wish I could go back and take that class. And as I got into this and learned that Idaho is now among one of the first states in the country to require this as a graduation requirement, it gives me just that. It gives me power in thinking Idaho can be a leader in so many other things.
And I had a mom at the beginning of the school year, right around registration. So August time, she had gone to register her senior, and we made it so, and we were so happy to have this be successful in the legislature in both of our houses, it had 105 yes votes, and of course signed by the governor. You don't find legislation like that ever. And so I had this mom who had been tracking that she was excited that her child would have to take the class, and she called me on the phone and she said, Hey, I took my son to register, and I did not see that on the schedule. What is happening in the school district? I thought this was a requirement. And it turned out that it was there. It wasn't called out in a way that she recognized it. I loved that parents were paying attention to that. And so as we see students become just more knowledgeable about not only future decisions, but we have so many students that are already making important financial decisions in high school. We have students that support themselves, that help support their families. The financial wellbeing of an individual or of a state starts with an individual, and we want them to feel good about that.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Not to mention the moment they graduate, the first mail that will come to their mailbox will be credit card applications. And we live in a country where you can destroy your credit long before you even know what it means. But another thing we have, go ahead.
Debbie Critchfield:
Oh, I was just going to say one of the things that I learned from you and from others that are in the financial industry, that there are dozens upon dozens of people in departments that all they do is manage debt for people and manage poor financial decisions. And I have a son that's in the financial world. And when I hear some of the crazy things that people do, and it does come back to this training and preparation and really our emotional relationship with money, and I, I'm so excited that we're at the place where we are with it.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Yeah, I love it. Briefly, we're also seeing you and the governor rolled out the Story of America curriculum. Quickly tell us what that looks like.
Debbie Critchfield:
This is a supplementary curriculum. And again, supplement districts have got their curriculum, but it's something that without any money expended, teachers that teach social studies in eighth grade and 11th grade can go to as a vetted quality addition to subjects that they're teaching in US History. We hear a lot of talk, sometimes it's controversial, but I think this is another area that we all agree that we want our students to have more exposure to factual, accurate, historical content. And we had an opportunity with expiring COVID dollars at the state level to invest in something that would be a benefit for all of our students. And so as the governor and I visited on what could we do, we believed that this was one of the most important ways that we can support good learning. It takes pressure off of teachers who are already supplementing their curriculum, but it puts in a teacher's hand a very modern, interactive, free online resources that I believe match where we are in Idaho on how we want to talk about history.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Well, superintendent Kold, we love the optimism that's coming out of your office. You've surrounded yourself with some brilliant people. We didn't talk about funding formulas. We didn't talk about facilities, we didn't talk about. There's so many things we didn't get to cover. But I think it's a testament how busy you are that all of these different facets of education touch your job. As we wrap up today, why don't you tell us what you look forward to when it comes to Idaho? Being an educational leader,
Debbie Critchfield:
Educational leader, I want other states in our country to see the success that we have, the achievement, the growth, the way that we are aligning what our needs are in our state and what our needs are in our communities and with our students in a way that we're satisfying. We're checking all those boxes. And then they look at Idaho and they say, wait, what are they doing over there that's working? We want to do that here. How have they made their students so successful? We want to do that here. And it's not really about showing off in that way, but when you're a leader and you're out front, you are thinking differently. You're taking some thought out risks. And then the other part I think of being a leader is when you try something and it's not successful, you say, you know what? We thought that that would work.
It didn't work. We're going to pull back on that. And one of the things I think has happened over time is there's been a lot of great new ideas, and some of them are hamstringing us now because they don't match up with the context that we're living in. But it's maybe a line item and a budget from 10 years ago, and districts can't utilize that money the way they need to because it worked then, but it doesn't work now. And so the hope and the excitement that I have about education in Idaho, I hope that that will spread to other people and that they'll see that this is an exciting time to be a part of education. Yeah, there's a lot of things that we can fix, but gosh, the future is bright and I'm happy to be in the front lines.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
The Future is Bright State Superintendent Debbie Cri, thank you so much for joining us. We're going to have you back and cover a few of the things we didn't, I hope.
Debbie Critchfield:
I hope so. You'll get sick of me probably.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
And maybe just one day you'll invite me on your podcast.
Debbie Critchfield:
Consider that done,
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID:
Debbie, Merry Christmas. Thanks so much for joining us.
Debbie Critchfield:
Thank you so much.
