Becky Sundin Mitchell is banking on two things in her underdog campaign for state superintendent: Idahoans aren’t happy with Republican leadership of public schools, and teachers will turn out to vote.
The Democrat and former teacher from Nampa officially kicked off her general election campaign last week with events in Ada and Canyon counties. Her goal is to visit all 44 Idaho counties before November. This week, she’s heading north to Bonners Ferry, Moscow and Lewiston before going east to Idaho Falls, Rexburg and Bear Lake.
“I’m just trying to make sure that every community feels heard,” Sundin Mitchell told Idaho Education News Friday, during a campaign kickoff at a downtown Boise art gallery. “Of course, what’s going on in rural schools is vastly different than what’s going on in the Treasure Valley. But it’s all essential to understanding what needs to happen in public education.”
Sundin Mitchell ran unopposed in last month’s primary election, securing the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge incumbent state superintendent Debbie Critchfield, a Republican. Constitution Party candidate Teresa Roundy is also running for Idaho’s top education job.
Both challengers have an uphill climb. Critchfield, a former school board trustee and longtime State Board of Education member, won the 2022 general election with nearly 70% of the vote. She defeated Democrat Terry Gilbert after winning the GOP primary over incumbent Sherri Ybarra and Branden Durst.
But state superintendent can be a vulnerable office for Republicans, who hold all statewide elected positions along with a supermajority of the Legislature. In 2014, Ybarra won the general election by a slim margin. She received 50.6% of votes compared to Democrat Jana Jones’ 49.4%. Ybarra’s reelection campaign in 2018 was also close. She secured 51.5% of votes, compared to 48.5% for Democrat Cindy Wilson.
Then again, Wilson and Jones had name recognition. Jones was deputy state superintendent while Wilson was a longtime teacher who served on a high-profile state education task force, convened after voters repealed the controversial “Luna laws.”
Sundin Mitchell, on the other hand, is a newcomer in state education politics who’s leaning on her teaching experience. She taught English at a Caldwell public charter school for 14 years, earning the state’s Teacher of the Year award in 2018. In December, she became chairwoman of the Canyon County Democratic Party.
“She’s been inside the classroom,” said Aimee Michels Lichtenhan, a supporter who met Sundin Mitchell through the local Democratic Party. “She knows what the kids are struggling with, and she knows where the needs are, and she’s got a solid plan for how to make things a little bit better than they already are.”
Sundin Mitchell said that she has heard “devastating stories” in recent weeks about staffing cuts, school closures and teacher burnout in public schools — all while Idaho directs taxpayer dollars to private and home schooling. Last year, the GOP-dominated Legislature enacted a $50 million private school choice program, which offers non-public school students refundable tax credits worth up to $5,000, or $7,500 for students with special needs.
Sundin Mitchell acknowledged that repealing the controversial program is unlikely. Instead, she would push lawmakers to hold accountable the private schools that ultimately benefit from taxpayer dollars.
“The thing that I hear everywhere I go is, ‘How on earth are we giving $50 million to private schools?’” Sundin Mitchell said. “These are private schools, of course, that don’t have to have accredited teachers, don’t have to have approved curriculum, don’t have to have students take the same assessments that our public students have (to take).”
Critchfield, meanwhile, has kept the private school choice debate at arm’s length. She backed Gov. Brad Little when he announced last year that he would support a program that was “fair, accountable, responsible and transparent.” But Critchfield hasn’t publicly spoken in favor of the tax credit since it passed and Little signed it into law. The Idaho State Tax Commission — not Critchfield’s Department of Education — is responsible for administering the program.
Critchfield hasn’t condemned the tax credit program, either, noted Rep. Steve Berch, who attended Friday’s campaign kickoff for Sundin Mitchell. “We can do a better job of adequately supporting public education with a superintendent who will make sure that taxpayer dollars go to public schools and not private and religious schools,” said Berch, D-Boise.
In addition to campaigning for greater accountability around private school choice, Sundin Mitchell is promising to tackle teacher burnout. Teachers often wear several hats, she said. On top of being teachers, they’re forced to be counselors, social workers and nurses. Sundin Mitchell said she would advocate for more state funding to support these positions and lessen the burden on teachers.
And she’s hoping teachers will turn out to vote. A focus of Sundin Mitchell’s campaign in the coming months will be urging everyone — but particularly public school teachers — to join the “voting class of 2026.” Sundin Mitchell said Friday that 40% of public school teachers don’t vote, a figure she learned from a teachers’ union member. EdNews could not independently verify the number.
“They’re not voting for the things that affect them all the time,” she said. “I decided that what I can do between now and November is convince as many people as possible that their voice and their vote counts.”
