{"id":18672,"date":"2022-09-21T02:05:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T02:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=18672"},"modified":"2022-09-22T15:46:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T15:46:05","slug":"super-at-77","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2022\/09\/21\/super-at-77\/","title":{"rendered":"Super At 77?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Septuagenarian sets sight on Idaho\u2019s highest education post<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

Terry Gilbert has a novel idea. <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI think a public school educator should be the superintendent of public school education,\u201d says the 77-year-old Boise resident who is vying for the position of Idaho\u2019s Superintendent of Public Education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gilbert has two novel ideas, actually.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe position of superintendent of public education really should not be a partisan office; education is not partisan,\u201d said the longtime Democrat who understands clearly that for many red state\u00a0 <\/span>voters the capital \u2018\/D\u2019 after a candidate\u2019s name stands for \u2018Disqualified.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n

Gilbert\u2019s opponent in November will be Debbie Critchfield, who for the past seven years has served as a member of the Idaho Board of Education, the most recent two years as president.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I know about her, she is a fine woman,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cBut let\u2019s look at some of our differences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are at least several policy differences between the two, but the foremost disconnect is their stance on vouchers. It\u2019s no shocker that Critchfield, an established Republican, is in favor of vouchers\u2014using public education funds to send high-performing students typically from low-performing schools into the private school system. However, when running for a public education position, it\u2019s not typical for a conservative candidate to lead with that. Critchfield\u2014on parts of her website, at least\u2014does. <\/span><\/p>\n

And for Gilbert, who at least comes across as a moderate Democrat, couldn\u2019t be more opposed to the voucher system. <\/span><\/p>\n

Gilbert says, \u201cDon\u2019t be fooled this election year when you hear candidates talk about \u2018school choice.\u2019 It sounds good, but it\u2019s really an all-out attack on our public schools by those who would destroy them for profit, at our children\u2019s expense and at the expense of the schools that are the heart and soul of our communities.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On matters of experience in education, Gilbert notes his opponent\u2019s degree is in political science, not education, and how she is a political appointee on the state board, not exactly a seasoned policy wonk or a lifelong, in-the-trenches advocate for teachers. In fairness, Critchfield is no novice to education and she makes clear in her campaign literature her role in policy making at the highest state levels.<\/span><\/p>\n

But on working for traditional public education in general and advocating for teachers specifically, while educating students day in, day out in the classroom as K-12 homeroom teacher and department head, Gilbert\u2019s 45-year record is unmatched. Here are the highlights:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 President of the Idaho Education Association (the teachers union)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Leader of the Nampa Education Association<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 IEA\u2019s Regional Director in Twin Falls and Meridian<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 IEA\u2019s Director of Organizational Development<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Full-time employee at the Idaho State School and Hospital during undergraduate work<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Member of Rotary International and served as Governor of Rotary District 5400<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Mentor at Taft Elementary (Boise)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 K-12 classroom teacher, department head and substitute teacher for nearly 20 years<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Developed a course on ethical standards for teachers<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Bachelor\u2019s degree in English and history<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Master\u2019s degree in curriculum and brain development\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the age difference between his opponent and him, Gilbert takes solace in the fact that America\u2019s last two presidents\u2014one Republican and one Democrat\u2014are both older than him.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Septuagenarian sets sight on Idaho\u2019s highest education post By Eric Valentine Terry Gilbert has a novel idea. \u201cI think a public school educator should be the superintendent of public school education,\u201d says the 77-year-old Boise resident who is vying for the position of Idaho\u2019s Superintendent of Public Education. Gilbert has two novel ideas, actually. \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,72,74,75,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blaine-county","8":"category-community","9":"category-education","10":"category-elections","11":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18674,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18672\/revisions\/18674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}