As students head back to classrooms across the state this week and next, Governor Butch Otter continues to push his five-year education plan.
In a guest opinion the governor shared this week, he says one of the most important parts of the state’s five-year education improvement plan is a focus on literacy. Lawmakers approved more than $9 million for districts to spend on early reading programs. He also touts a move to mastery-based education, in which students show skills of mastering topics before advancing to the next. Otter says so far, 19 "incubator" schools and districts have created teaching models that will be used as others make the same transition.
Otter says the state is making progress on raising teacher salaries but that continued support for the so-called pay "ladder" will be "critical" to address the state's teacher shortage.
The governor says Idaho has made tremendous improvements with its education system in recent years, but that more work and more investments will be needed.
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