[Vision2020] Putting Teachers Last in Idaho

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (May 20, 2011) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with thanks t
Sue Hovey.

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Putting teachers last in Idaho

Let's say you are in eighth grade and I am your teacher. You ask, "Is it
true 700 teachers will lose their jobs so I get a computer next year?" And
I reply, "Yes, according to the law." Then you, an inquisitive kid,
continue, "Will you be one of those 700?" And I reply, truthfully, "I
don't know, possibly." "Well," responds the student, "sounds like a dumb
idea to me!" I reply, "To me, too."

Tom Luna's latest press release says I have just politicized the class,
proselytized students and violated the Teachers' Code of Ethics. I could
be fired for this, he threatens.

Ethics was irrelevant when Luna, with the help of the governor, software
contractors and legislative leaders, drafted those dreadful bills.

A case in point: Ethical leaders should hesitate to write into education
law a new section providing insurance salespeople access to teachers when
school starts, mandating teachers' signatures regarding the insurance,
requiring the district to maintain a file of those signatures and
potentially profitingthe two Idaho legislative leaders whose support was
critical. Rep. Bob Nonini and Sen. John Goedde, chairs of the House and
Senate Education Committees, both insurance salesmen.

Superintendent Luna never taught a class, got an online bachelor's degree
to run for the office and sought no public input as he crafted those
bills.

When we as Idaho voters repeal his laws and recall him, will he have
learned the lesson: You can't put Idaho students first when you put their
teachers last?

Sue Hovey, Moscow

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Later, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Astoria, Oregon


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

 - Unknown