Education's leaders have failed students

I hear every day that we citizens are not supporting our students as much as we should. I believe we have a responsibility to our students to provide them with the opportunity to reach their goals. Each student has a responsibility to reach for those goals, each parent has a responsibility give motivation to these students and teachers have a responsibility to provide the tools to reach their goals.

I looked into our education system in Idaho and our report card is filled with Cs and Ds. I try to be unbiased and look at the whole picture, not just a small part of it. What I see is not a failure of the students, nor a failure of teachers. What I see is a system that spends too much time focused on the latest greatest thing to use in the schools, or how to adjust the data to prove that latest greatest thing. What we need is our children to be provided with the tools they need to reach for success.

I believe that the problem lies with our education leaders. They are responsible to us for providing an education system that exceeds our students needs. They have failed in this trust that we have given them and we should find, in our schools, the real educators/teachers who will lead our children into their future. A future with hope.

STEVEN APPLE

Sandpoint