In this episode of Swimming Upstream, host Tom Luna sits down with Debbie Critchfield, Idaho’s elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, live from the Education and Excellence Conference in New Orleans.

The conversation focuses on what Critchfield has prioritized during her first term: expanding opportunity for rural students, strengthening career technical education (CTE), improving teacher preparation and support, and scaling a statewide literacy strategy built around the science of reading.

On literacy, she describes Idaho’s SMART coaching model and statewide alignment of curriculum, teacher training, and administrator readiness. She shares early outcomes from Idaho’s K–3 reading assessment efforts, including statewide gains and standout schools seeing dramatic growth.

The episode also touches on Idaho’s broad landscape of school choice, and Critchfield offers a measured perspective on the new tax credit program supporting parental choice while also pointing to transparency and accountability questions that will become clearer as implementation begins.

Key Moments

05:07 Unique Playground Ice Rink

07:38 "Immediate Graduation Requirement Implementation"

09:51 Career Tech Investment Initiative

14:36 Accelerating Student-Centered Funding Reform

17:35 Idaho's Literacy and Local Leadership

19:36 "Teacher Preparation Over Curriculum"

23:30 "Children: 100% of Our Future"

Connect with Debbie Critchfield

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-critchfield-b926446b/

Website: https://boardofed.idaho.gov