By Emily Miller
REXBURG, Idaho—East Idaho residents will have an opportunity to meet with Debbie Critchfield, 2022 candidate for Idaho State Superintendent of Public Instruction, at an event next week meant to help voters get to know the candidate.
Local campaign organizers will host a meet and greet with Critchfield Tuesday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m. at The Avenues Wedding and Event Center, 859 S. Yellowstone Hwy. Ste. 1002, Rexburg.
Critchfield, of Oakley, will face Branden Durst and incumbent Sherri Ybarra in the May 17 Idaho Republican Primary. The winner of that race will face former Idaho Education Association President Terry Gilbert, who is running unopposed as a Democrat in the November 8 general election.
All are invited to Critchfield’s meet and greet, and local campaign organizers hope people will take the opportunity to come out and learn about Critchfield and ask any questions they have for the candidate.
“It’s just a chance for them to put a face to a name, ask her any questions they might have, and hear a little about what her priorities might be in office,” said grassroots chair Ashley Aven.
Local campaign organizer Lindsay Smith, of Rexburg, had the following to say about Critchfield:
If I were to sum up what Debbie stands for, I would ask others to remember four things about her:
•With Debbie, Idaho students should always come first. She wants to help champion an individualized student experience that moves students toward their educational goals.
•Debbie wants parents engaged as partners in a child’s learning and supports their educational decisions as the primary stakeholders in their children’s lives.
•Debbie is against Critical Race Theory (CRT). She believes that it is a divisive and contentious theory for discussing race relations that seeks to undermine our country’s Constitutional values.
•Debbie will advocate for a personal finance class to be required in high school. She wants kids to be taught how retirement plans, taxes, health insurance, college tuition, interest, and loans work.
Debbie Critchfield comes from a fourth-generation farm family. She and her husband David have raised four children in Oakley, Idaho. The true joy in her life comes from her two grandchildren, Knox and Hudson. Debbie has been involved in Idaho education since 1994 when she began substitute teaching in Cassia County classrooms and her passion grew from there. She has long worked for a positive change in Idaho. Debbie is the former President of the Idaho State Board of Education and seven-year SBOE board member. She was Co-Chair to Governor Little’s Task Force and committee chair for Governor Otter’s Higher Education task force. She served as Chair of the Policy and Planning Committee. She was a member of the State’s Accountability and Oversight committee and chaired the Board’s Audit Committee.
Debbie served as a school board member in Cassia County for ten years, five as chair, and was on the executive committee for ISBA. She chaired “Re-Open Idaho Schools” and was a member of the Governor Little’s K-12 council.
Adding to her long service in education, she served on Idaho’s dual credit and technology task forces. Active in her community, she is a former Library Trustee, Arts Council president and Republican precinct chairman. She worked for the College of Southern Idaho as a GED instructor and currently she works as the Public Information Officer for Cassia School District and has for the last 9 years.
Debbie graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT with a degree in political science.
Learn more about her campaign at www.Debbie4Idaho.com
