[Vision2020] Teachers Union Finds Luna Losing Support

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (May 8, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

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Eye on Boise: Teachers union finds Luna losing support

BOISE – The Idaho Education Association has released partial results of a
statewide poll it commissioned both last year and this year, showing that
likely voters in Idaho continue to have strongly favorable views of
teachers, but give state schools Superintendent Tom Luna considerably
higher unfavorable ratings now than a year ago.

“Superintendent Luna is currently on a taxpayer-funded tour to try and
sell the bad laws that he pushed through the Idaho Legislature this year,”
said association President Sherri Wood. “But Idahoans rightly remain
skeptical of these laws that impose costly new mandates on our school
districts and will lead to larger class sizes and lost Idaho jobs.”

The poll, conducted by Grove Insight of Portland from March 13 to March 15
this year, queried 600 registered Idaho voters likely to vote in November
2012; it had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

When asked about their impression of teachers, 75 percent of respondents
had favorable views, compared with 77 percent a year ago. Just 6 percent
had unfavorable views, down from 7 percent in March 2010.

Asked about Luna, respondents were 25 percent favorable and 41 percent
unfavorable; last year, 30 percent had a favorable view of him and 18
percent viewed him unfavorably. Respondents who were neutral on Luna fell
from 51 percent to 30 percent.

Melissa McGrath, Luna’s spokeswoman, said, “It appears that the IEA is
trying to use this poll to pit Idahoans against Idahoans, rather than
studying the important issues facing education today. As always,
Superintendent Luna is focusing on what’s best for Idaho students, which
includes strategic investments in the classrooms to ensure we have highly
effective teachers every year children are in school, instructional
technology to improve student learning across the state, and more
transparent accountability at all levels in our education system.”
Task force expanding

The task force that will oversee implementation of Luna’s “Students Come
First” technology plan, including a phased-in goal of creating a
“one-to-one ratio” of laptop computers to high school students in Idaho,
is expanding.

Luna announced that he’s decided to add seven more members – two parents,
three local school board members, and two “at-large” members – to the 28
members already called for in SB 1184, the school reform bill that
included the task force.

Under the bill, Luna is charged with appointing 17 of the 28. The bill
designates particular types of appointments the superintendent will make
to the task force “at a minimum,” including four school district
superintendents, one head of a virtual public charter school, and two
secondary school classroom teachers.

The others who get to appoint task force members – the House and Senate,
which get two appointments each; the governor’s office, which gets one;
and the Idaho Education Association, Northwest Professional Educators,
Idaho School Boards Association, Idaho Association of School
Administrators, Idaho Business Coalition for Education Excellence, and
Idaho Digital Learning Academy, each of which get one appointee – don’t
have that “at a minimum” language, so they can’t expand the number of
their appointees.

“Because of overwhelming interest from across Idaho, I have added
positions for parents, school board trustees and at-large members to
ensure we have broad-based and balanced representation on this task force,
which will play a critical role in the implementation of Students Come
First,” Luna said.

The move swells the task force to 35 members, of which Luna will appoint
24. His office is now accepting applications and nominations.

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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