Labrador visits Wallace, tackles education

WALLACE — Idaho Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Raul Labrador made a brief stop in Wallace last week, where he held a town hall meeting at the Brooks Hotel.

To kick the event off, Labrador opened with a personal story regarding a particular supporter of his.

“About a year ago, I had a dear friend who had supported me in the eight years that I was in Congress and he told me that he couldn’t support me publicly in this race,” Labrador said. “He’s a pastor here in North Idaho and he said, ‘I don’t really want to come out and support you publicly because I have members of my congregation who are supporting Tommy Ahlquist, members of my congregation are supporting Brad Little, and members of my congregation are supporting you and I don’t want to divide my congregation.’ About two months ago, he came to me and said, ‘Raul, I want to support you publicly.’ I just thought, what happened? It’s not like I had said anything different over the last year that would have changed his mind. What had happened according to the pastor, is that ‘eight years ago a group of us pastors had met with you and we sat down with you and asked you a ton of questions. We asked you tough questions on social issues, fiscal issues, tax policy, everything and I went back and I looked at my notes. I had written down the questions and I had written down the answers. I realized that everything you told us you were going to do and fight for that day, you have done, that was the first time I could say that about a politician. That you kept every single promise you made to the people of Idaho. If that’s the kind of congressman you are, I want to vote for you as governor, but now I want everyone to know that you should be the next governor of Idaho.”

Following the story, he opened the floor up to questions from the small crowd that had amassed inside the Brooks meeting room.

Questions ranged from forest management to state refugees, both the state’s right to accept foreign refugees, as well as “refugees” from other states that are moving into Idaho.

Arguably one of the biggest issues in the state, Congressman Labrador also spoke at great lengths about his stances on education (which is important considering that Idaho currently ranks 48 out of 50 states in education).

“I want to get rid of Common Core,” Labrador said. “I’m the only the candidate in this race that wants to get rid of Common Core. Now don’t misunderstand that, that means we need high standards for Idaho, that doesn’t mean we get rid of Common Core so that we have lower standards. We can have higher standards than Common Core. In math, there are higher standards than Common Core that are easier to teach than the current Common Core.”

The Common Core State Standards he referred to are a clear set of expectations for the knowledge and skills students need in English and mathematics at each grade level, although they are widely panned as developmentally appropriate.

“I want every kid to have a meaningful opportunity, I want every kid to achieve the American dream and I think every kid can, but that doesn’t always mean college,” he said. “I want every kid to have a meaningful opportunity after high school. I want them to graduate with either enough credits towards an associate’s degree or a technical certificate when they graduate high school. I want them to have something when they finish high school that they can actually have a career. And then I want to work with the schools to identify the third group, the one that I worry about the most. The group that is not learning what is necessary to be successful in life. We’re remediating those kids in life right now. The problem is that we are paying millions of dollars to remediate them at the community college level or in prison. We shouldn't have to be spending that money at all. We should be doing it in middle school and high school, so we can identify those kids who may need a little extra help. If we can identify those three groups, I think every child can graduate high school with the knowledge that they can be successful.”

In next week’s primary election on May 15, Labrador will be one of seven options in the crowded republican gubernatorial primary, joining Tommy Ahlquist, Harley Brown, Dalton Cannady, Brad Little, Lisa Marie and Steve Pankey.