[Vision2020] School Reform Gets Forum Crowd Talking . . . and Caravaning

[Tom Hansen]

Show our kids you care, V-peeps.;

"Carpool vans will travel to Boise Wednesday so people from this area can
testify"

"Those interested in taking a van to Boise can contact Roberts at the
Region 2 Idaho Education Office at (208) 743-5555. "

Courtesy of today's (February 8, 2011) Lewiston Tribune.

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School reform gets forum crowd talking
By Kerri Sandaine of the Tribune

Carpool vans will travel to Boise Wednesday so people from this area can
testify

Close to 300 people crowded into a community forum Monday night to discuss
proposed changes to Idaho's public education system.

Many of the people who spoke are upset about the possibility of increased
class sizes, the potential loss of 770 teaching jobs in Idaho, union
busting and students being required to take online courses. The concerns
stem from controversial legislation recently introduced by State School
Superintendent Tom Luna.

"We would like to stop it cold this week," said Ingrid Spence of Moscow,
an Idaho Education Association board member.

Luna is presenting his school reform bills to the Senate Education
Committee in Boise. Vans are leaving Lewiston at 6 a.m. Wednesday, bound
for the state capital, so people from this area can testify before the
committee, said Patti Roberts, a Region 2 IEA director. Those who can't
testify in person were encouraged to send e-mails to state lawmakers, and
petitions opposing components of Luna's plan were circulated.

At the forum, parents called upon other parents to join them in the fight
against the changes. Students lamented the loss of inspiring teachers who
are choosing to leave Idaho schools, and a superintendent spoke about the
importance of hiring educators with classroom experience to lead school
districts.

"We require teachers to be highly qualified in order to teach in Idaho,"
said David Aiken, Lapwai superintendant. "Why wouldn't we require the same
from school leaders?"

Caitlin Hites, an editor of the Bengal Purr, and Hayden Lohman, Associated
Student Body president at Lewiston High School, spoke about the recent
resignation of math teacher Agatha Trickey, saying the district was losing
an amazing woman. Contributing factors to her decision were the proposed
merit pay plan and cuts in education funding, the students said. They are
worried more highly qualified teachers will quit or be forced to leave the
profession if Luna's plans are approved.

Bruce Schulz, president of the Lewiston Education Associaton, said
teachers were not given an opportunity to provide input into the education
overhaul, and every parent needs to become informed about what the
proposed changes would mean for their children.

One of the bills will gut the teachers' collective bargaining law in
effect since the 1970s, Schulz said.

"Mr. Luna wants to take a system that has served the teachers and school
boards well for over 40 years and dismantle it," Schulz said. "Teachers
across the state accepted substantial salary and benefit cuts last year in
order to help preserve what they could for Idaho's kids. In exchange, they
are being rewarded with wholesale destruction of the fair employment
practices they have worked under for the past four decades."

A group of area labor organizations sponsored the forum in the Williams
Conference Center at Lewis-Clark State College, including the Lewiston
Education Association, the Central Labor Council, Lapwai Education
Association, Lewiston Fraternal Order of Police, Culdesac Teachers
Organization and International Association of Firefighters Local 1773.

The other bill would increase class sizes and eliminate teaching jobs to
save enough money to provide every ninth-grader with a "mobile computing
device," Schulz said. Students would then be required to take six online
courses.

"As a former teacher who used technology daily as an instructional tool, I
do support increased technology in schools, but how can the state justify
spending millions of dollars for new technology without funding the needed
support to maintain that new technology?" Aiken asked.

A parent stood up and implored people to go to Boise this week and tell
lawmakers what they think of Luna's proposal. "We need to take a stand as
parents," she told the gathering. "This legislation is not going to listen
to teachers like they'll listen to parents."

Those interested in taking a van to Boise can contact Roberts at the
Region 2 Idaho Education Office at (208) 743-5555.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown