BOISE, Idaho — According to a survey published by Politico, Idaho is among one of the best states in the country for pandemic response -- in some areas.
The survey found the Gem State ranked fourth overall based on an average of scores in four categories: economy, education, social and health.
Idaho ranked third for education and fourth for the economy. However, Idaho ranked 27th for public health response to COVID-19 and 39th for social well-being.
In the social well-being category was an indicator that also could be considered economic: difficulty meeting household expenses. Idaho's score was among the lowest in that category.
The study compared metrics to pre-pandemic data and found that for education in Idaho, there was no learning loss in math or reading and a 0.9% change in enrollment.
“My initial reaction is that it's nice to be on the top or close to the top of the education list usually when we see education rankings whether it’s about funding per student or those types of things we are towards the bottom of the list,” said Kurt Liebich, president of the Idaho State Board of Education.
Liebich said he credits the high education ranking to prioritizing the importance of in-person learning throughout the pandemic.
“In-person learning was really important. We knew that learning loss would be greater if stuck in a remote setting,” he said. “So, from the beginning, we did everything we could to try to emphasize that we should have students in the classroom with competent, caring teachers.”
According to Liebich, Politico's findings are preemptive, as the board is still waiting for student achievement data. He added there will likely be many students who were educationally impacted by the pandemic.
“In some sense, I feel like the survey came out too soon, I feel like I am getting a grade at the end of the third quarter for a four-quarter game, right? I mean, there's still a lot we don't know,” he said. “At our last board meeting, we looked at some of the early student achievement data; there's clearly been unfinished and interrupted learning.”
In a statement sent to KTVB, Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Sherri Ybarra said, "While data is limited at this point, we have some early data that show Idaho students with disabilities and our English language learners were significantly impacted."
Indicators for the education aspect of Politico's study are partial. The article states, "Again, we can expect more and better data to become available in the future. While imperfect, this preliminary data already reveals emerging patterns that we felt important to include.”
The states ranked ahead of Idaho on education are South Dakota and Oklahoma. The states of Nebraska, South Dakota and Utah ranked ahead of Idaho on economy. Rural states tended to fare better in educational and economic outcomes, while states heavily dependent on tourism, such as Hawaii and Nevada, were hit hardest economically by the pandemic, Politico concluded.
However, Politico also found states that imposed more restrictions such as stay-at-home orders and mask requirements experienced lower rates of death and hospitalizations.
The full scorecard is available here.
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