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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""><img width="624" height="147" style="width:6.5in;height:1.5312in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D73774.A47787F0" alt="Graphical user interface, application
Description automatically generated"></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">April 22, 2021</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b><u><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans"">After a challenging year, Idaho education needs our support</span></u></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><i><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">By Governor Brad Little</span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">The past 13 months have presented enormous challenges for students, parents, teachers, and school administrators. The sudden changes in work life, home life, and social life,
along with new ways of learning and instructing, have firmly placed the COVID-19 pandemic as one of our most difficult life experiences.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We don’t want the pandemic to set us back in preparing students to succeed.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We want to emerge from the experience stronger and more committed than ever to public education in Idaho.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">Idaho’s public education system is locally driven. If parents or teachers spot something that concerns them, they should bring it to the attention of the teacher, principal,
superintendent, or school board trustees and root out the problem at the local level, which is the closest and most responsive to our students and parents. Curriculum in Idaho is always the responsibility of your local school board.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">A skilled workforce demands investing in education at every level.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We should be demonstrating to parents that their children’s education is our priority.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We should be signaling to teachers that we value them, and we want to keep them in the profession.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We should be laser focused on equipping teachers, parents, and schools with the tools they need to help students overcome learning challenges.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We should be focusing our efforts on improving literacy, especially among the most challenged segments of our population so they have a strong bedrock for future learning.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We should be getting our kids college- and career-ready by pairing students with job prospects and teaching them nuts-and-bolts skills they can use in jobs every day.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We should be preparing our students to join our workforce and become lifelong learners.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">Idaho is on an incredible trajectory. We have the strongest economy in the nation. There is absolutely no reason not to continue that momentum by returning to our real priorities
– students, families, teachers, and businesses.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">We should all be working collectively toward the same thing – to prepare today’s young people to be fulfilled and productive into the future.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">There is a lot of work ahead coming out of this pandemic, addressing the challenges associated with learning loss across elementary and secondary education and preparing
our students to be college- and career-ready.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-indent:.5in"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">It’s time to get back on track. That is what parents and employers expect and deserve.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:"Open Sans""># # #</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family:"Open Sans"">385 words</span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
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