Harshman teaches, leads in Legislature
By JACKIE BORCHARDT - Star-Tribune staff writer
The room quieted as lawmakers took their seats.
A few still talked and pointed at a sheet of newsprint taped behind Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper.
The paper showed Harshman showered with a bucket of ice water, celebrating the championship win for the Natrona County High School football team he’s coached since 1991.
Harshman, chairman of the Legislature’s Select Committee on School Facilities, acknowledged the picture and called the room to order. Lots of work to be done, not much time.
Harshman joined the committee in 2009. It was charged with salvaging the troubled state School Facilities Commission. Colleagues said the committee is better directed under chairman Harshman than it’s ever been.
He’s impassioned and intense, said Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, who has served on several committees with Harshman.
“He’ll get so many things going on, he’ll run around the Capitol like a chicken with his head cut off,” Coe said.
Harshman isn’t the only practicing or former teacher in the Legislature, but he’s arguably the most active. He introduced six education bills and co-sponsored five others in the 2011 legislative session. Most would directly affect his daily life as a physical education teacher at Natrona County High School.
Although this legislative session has focused on school accountability more than any others in recent memory, Harshman said it’s always been about accountability with him.
From the classroom
Harshman grew up in the small oil town of Midwest, where his father worked in the natural gas industry. He fell into teaching in college when he realized he liked working with kids. A lifelong interest in government and politics led him to the Legislature.
“I thought I just got to do some good and use some common sense,” Harshman said. “Common sense — what would a regular Wyoming guy do?”
Most of Harshman’s 23-year teaching career has been in Wyoming. He used to think every kid started the day with pancakes and clean clothes like he did. He was wrong, and schools have changed, Harshman said.
Students come to school with more difficult personal problems, family situations and learning impairments. But schools are also doing more to help, said Harshman, who has taught social studies and history in the past.
“What we’re doing with direct instruction — it’s really taking off,” Harshman said. “We’re closing the achievement gap, and it’s huge.”
He’s impressed by his fellow teachers.
“There’s a real energy in Wyoming education — a lot of young, talented teachers, just superstars,” Harshman said.
Harshman’s zeal toward his work is evident. He rallies the troops — in school, on the football field and in the state Capitol.
Natural leadership makes Harshman successful in all three areas, said Dean Kelly, principal at NCHS. Despite several winning seasons with the Mustangs football team, Harshman isn’t afraid to try new things, Kelly said. For the 2010 season, Harshman created small groups, or families, of multi-age players.
“That’s something — he’s looking to improve,” Kelly said. “He’s not sitting on his hands and relying on past success — he’s looking at how can we make this better for our kids.”
All about the facts
Lawmakers don’t have to use correct facts during debate, and Harshman has stepped in several times to set the record straight.
“Be careful how we throw numbers out there,” Harshman warned lawmakers earlier this month. “Wyoming kids are doing very well.”
Accountability? Testing? Harshman doesn’t shy from issues. After all, he proposed one of two bills to put cameras in classrooms. Teachers have called Harshman, a member of the Wyoming Education Association, “the education bully.”
He said he supports being accountable — it’s not about what is taught but what is learned, he said. He didn’t necessarily support Senate File 52, the bill that would have done away with “teacher tenure,” but he supported the discussion behind it.
“That’s the way the Legislature is — the guy you’re arguing with one moment is the guy you’re standing next to on the next bill,” Harshman said.
Above all, he said he supports the facts.
“The worst thing is when teachers get blanketed with these false statements,” Harshman said.
Papers litter his desk in the House chamber: files for school facilities, reports about every standardized test taken in Wyoming schools, statistics scribbled on sticky notes.
He internalized them so they transpire naturally, in conversations that begin about anything but education.
Sure, Wyoming spends a lot of money on public education, but we’re not No. 1 on the planet, Harshman said. There’s a cheaper way to do it, he said, but the state chose to fund small schools, reimburse all costs for transportation and boost teacher salaries to attract top talent.
“It is a lot of money, but do we want to be at the top or bottom?” Harshman said.
Seven days a week
Harshman left the Capitol early on Thursday.
A few bills were pushed back and his son had a basketball game that night. He hadn’t seen his son play yet this year.
He drove back to Cheyenne on Friday morning and home again to Casper on Friday night. Like most teachers, he spends his weekends catching up on school work.
A handful of teachers at NCHS teach his class during their planning periods. Students see the same substitute teacher every day, and Harshman can trust the teachers with regular lesson plans. The arrangement has been in place from the beginning, and Kelly said it works well.
Harshman can be found in his school office most Sundays. Kelly said they’ve had many Sunday conversations, but most discuss future building renovations and football instead of the Legislature. Kelly knows Harshman works hard in Cheyenne.
“I don’t know that he wears a cape,” Kelly said. “He’s just a great guy with a lot of passion.”
That passion has earned him the respect of lawmakers from both parties in both houses and the nickname “Coach.” Lawmakers look to Harshman for insight on education issues because he’s “in the trenches,” but his research and articulation exceed what he offers as a teacher.
“He doesn’t stand up and scream, ‘I’m a teacher, listen to me,’” Coe said. “He’s a very effective legislator — and not a bad football coach.”