Asked if, as a member the Democratic minority, she can work with the GOP-dominated Legislature, state schools superintendent candidate Jana Jones said, “We’ve had eight years of leadership under the same party and look where we are today. It’s important that we have someone who can stand up and advocate for leadership … for our kids and our schools.” She said, “I can do it by staying focused on our kids.”

Republican candidate Sherri Ybarra said, “I will be an advocate for students for adequate funding, and what is not adequate funding is large classroom size, not having the supplies at the classroom level, and some of those districts that are on four-day work weeks.”

Asked why Idaho’s schools are falling short, Jones said educators in Idaho “are telling me that we do not have adequate resources to do the things we need  to do in our school districts. … It’s really absolutely critical that we come to agreement on what these schools need.”

Ybarra said, “I think it’s a fallacy that we are last in the nation for achievement. We are last in the nation for funding, I’ll give you that. … We are stagnant in achievement. We as Idahoans stood up and decided that we needed new standards to address that.”