[Vision2020] Task force tweaks education reform

[Donovan Arnold]

It is most unfortunate we cannot use the computers to replace these politicians instead of our teachers. 
 
Donovan Arnold
 

________________________________
 From: Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com>
To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> 
Cc: Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>; Penni Cyr <cpenni at gmail.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 4:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Task force tweaks education reform
 

I don’t think Dixie has a school.  Those kids go to Elk City....So 
what about Elk City?  Same concerns.  It will be very interesting to 
see which schools get the first wave of computers.   

Sue  

From: Tom Hansen  
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 9:30 AM 
To: Sue Hovey  
Cc: Moscow Vision 2020 ; Penni Cyr  
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Task force tweaks education 
reform 
 And how about those schools located in extremely rural venues . . . like 
Dixie whose city hall is listed not with a street address, but with a six-digit 
grid?  What happens when their laptops "crash" or their software becomes 
infected with a virus?


Seeya round town, Moscow. 

Tom Hansen 
Moscow, Idaho 

"If not us, who? 
If not now, when?" 

- Unknown 

On Dec 14, 2011, at 9:19 AM, "Sue Hovey" <suehovey at moscow.com> 
wrote:

  
Interesting.  Wonder if John Goedde has now invested in online  education stocks.  The Luna Bill gave him access to teachers on the first  day of school so he could push his insurance business. With the laptops he and  his cronies can place their ads on the desktop for students and their  parents.  That’s exactly what happened when for-profit education vendors  provided Channel 1 cable TV access for classrooms. The contract requires  teachers show the opening advertisements.  Of course, there’s nothing  forcing students to pay attention, but the ads were kid focused and catchy. I  suppose they still are.    
>
>Tripling professional development requirements for teachers—who’s paying  that bill? Teachers themselves?  Already tight district budgets? 
>
>Of course computers for kids and professional development for teachers  are not bad  ideas, just costly, and that money will come from already  reduced dollars which used to go to local budgets for salaries, school busses,  professional development, technology, special education. The Luna Laws mandate  a progressive drop in educational funding to local districts.  There is  no plan to infuse additional money into education to pay for all this.  
>
>A decade or more ago Indiana policy makers began giving all school  children computers, but they started in the early grades and planned to work  their way up.  I don’t know all the reasons they ended the plan, but cost  was a significant factor, and they had some pretty big grants for the initial  funding.     
>
>Sue H.  
>
> 
>From: Tom Hansen  
>Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 6:31 AM 
>To: Moscow Vision 2020  
>Cc: Penni  Cyr  
>Subject: [Vision2020] Task force tweaks education  reform 
>  
>Courtesy of today's (December 14, 2011) Spokesman-Review. 
>
>------------------------------ 
>Task  force tweaks education reform 
>Idaho’s Luna hails efforts; high schoolers to get  laptops 
>BOISE  – After six months of study, a statewide task force Tuesday called for buying  all Idaho high school students laptops rather than tablets, phasing them in  school-by-school rather than grade-by-grade, and sharply upping the state’s  investment in on-the-job teacher training to accompany the new technology  push. 
>“The  work that has been done here is historic,” said state schools Superintendent  Tom Luna, who chaired the task force charged with figuring out how to  implement the technology boosts in his Students Come First school reform  program, which lawmakers approved last year. “We all had the same goal, and  that is to assure that we’re preparing our students for the 21st century world  that they’ll live in.” 
>The  controversial reform program is up for a referendum vote in November, which  could repeal it. But Luna said the task force’s work has given him confidence  the reforms will survive the vote. 
>“Not  every student has had access to the same technology, the same types of  information and learning opportunities. We’ve accomplished that through  Students Come First,” he said. “Just as this committee came to that  realization, I think the more people see these laws being implemented and the  positive effect they have, that come November of 2012, I’m very confident the  voters of Idaho will say this is the path we need to stay on.” 
>The  2012 Idaho Legislature convenes on Jan. 9; Luna said he’ll present the task  force’s 47 recommendations, which range from requiring face-to-face parent  training before students would be allowed to take their new laptops home, to  more than tripling professional development hours for teachers within the  school calendar. 
>Over  the past six months, the task force heard numerous presentations, took trips  to visit schools in other states that have enacted programs supplying one  computer to each student, and met numerous times both as a full, 38-member  panel and in subcommittees. 
>With  the change in phasing in the laptop computers, Idaho will need to adjust its  new graduation requirement that students, starting with the class of 2016,  complete two online classes to graduate from high school, said Senate  Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene. 
>“I  don’t think, legally, you can make the requirement and only provide some of  the students with the devices, you’re denying them equal access,” said Goedde,  who sits on the technology task force. “My thought would be that we stagger  the graduation requirement to match the deployment of the computers.” 
>------------------------------ 
>
><image.jpeg>
>
>
>Seeya round town, Moscow. 
>
>Tom Hansen 
>Moscow, Idaho 
>
>"If not us, who? 
>If not now, when?" 
>
>- Unknown 
>
>________________________________
>
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