[Vision2020] Lawmaker, Protesters Take Aim at Idaho School Reform Plan

Tue Feb 22 05:40:46 PST 2011

Courtesy of today's (February 22, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

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Lawmaker, protesters take aim at Idaho school reform plan

Betsy Z. Russell The Spokesman-Review

BOISE - A controversial school reform plan that calls for larger classes,
fewer teachers and more technology may be pulled back for changes at the
urging of a Coeur d'Alene senator, after it narrowly cleared the Senate
Education Committee last week.

State Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, who chairs the committee, met with
representatives of three key education groups Monday - teachers, school
administrators and school board members - for more than six hours and came
out with a long list of possible changes to the bill.

Goedde said he wasn't trying to reach a consensus but wants to "make
whatever moves forward a better bill."

The move came as parents, students, teachers and others rallied across the
state Monday against the plan; more than 1,000 people turned out for a rally
in a Boise park across from the state Capitol, and in Coeur d'Alene, more
than 200 marched down Sherman Avenue through downtown amid occasional snow
flurries. Well-attended rallies also were held in eight other cities across
the state.

Goedde, the lead legislative sponsor of the three-bill package, said he
still thinks the bills have to move forward this year, "because we're
talking about a systemic change in the delivery of education."

State schools Superintendent Tom Luna, in proposing the plan, said Idaho
can't afford to restore big funding cuts schools suffered this year, and the
alternative is to improve education by spending existing funds differently.

Among the questions discussed at length at Goedde's Monday meeting: Why
school districts are being ordered to pay for online courses, at a pre-set
rate, but will have no say over which providers will deliver the courses to
their students. 

Two major news articles over the weekend, one from the Associated Press and
another from the Idaho Statesman, highlighted ties between Luna and
for-profit education companies that could profit from the reform plan by
providing online courses to Idaho students at state expense. In both
articles, Luna and his spokeswoman, Melissa McGrath, said decisions about
providers will be left to local school districts.

However, the legislation says specifically that school districts "may not
prescribe the provider of such courses." Instead, individual parents and
students can go to any provider that meets state standards, and districts
will have to pay.

State Sen. Nicole LeFavour, D-Boise, an opponent of the plan, said, "That
sounds like chaos." She predicted that Idaho parents would be bombarded in
marketing campaigns by for-profit education companies and might get stuck
with the bills if the classes cost more than the legislation specifies
districts must pay.

McGrath said in an e-mail Monday, "We believe it is critical to give parents
and families more choice within public education to ensure every student can
reach his or her full potential." 

The legislation also specifies that a multimillion-dollar contract for
laptop computers that will be purchased for every Idaho high school student
under the plan, along with a maintenance contract for those computers, will
be issued by the state superintendent's office, not by individual school
districts.

Phil Homer, lobbyist for the Idaho Association of School Administrators,
said the bills are causing school districts "some angst." He said school
districts are held accountable for student progress. But, he said, "When a
student can take any course that they choose, how can we be held accountable
for that?"

The legislation also sets up potential budget headaches for school
districts, Homer said, by telling students they can take as many online
courses as they want - up to the six-period maximum that constitutes a full
load - and the districts must pay. But school districts set their budgets in
June for the following school year.

"You don't know what kids are going to go where," Homer said. "I don't know
how they're going to do it."

The legislation creates a complex funding mechanism in which school
districts would be required to "remit" to online course providers a set
amount based on the number of courses taken, with the money coming out of
their regular per-student funding from the state. Though school districts
could decide which classes they want to require to be taken online - the
reform plan calls for four mandatory online classes for every high-school
student - they couldn't stop students from taking more than that at district
expense.

Overall, the plan calls for increasing class sizes in grades 4-12 and
eliminating 770 teaching jobs in the next two years to save millions that
would be funneled into technology upgrades, including a laptop computer for
every student, a teacher performance-pay plan and boosting now-frozen
teacher salaries. The package also includes measures eliminating many
existing collective bargaining rights for teachers, limiting negotiated
contracts to just salaries and benefits, and making them expire each fiscal
year.

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"She's supposed to go to kindergarten in the fall," said Olivia Rhodes'
stepfather, Darren Thiesen, of Rathdrum, as Rhodes held her sign at the
education rally in Coeur d'Alene on Monday. Hundreds gathered at Coeur
d'Alene City Hall and marched to the Human Rights Education Institute to
protest the school reform bill.

cop_ided22_t620.jpg

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2011/02/22/cop_ided22_t620.jpg

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

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