[Vision2020] The First Round of Results from the Luna Laws

[Sue Hovey]

I just received an email from a wonderful teacher in an Idaho district where the pay for performance data have been released.  Pleas note this teacher WILL BE RECEIVING a bonus.  I am going to paraphrase because I really don’t think he wants to be identified.  He’s probably looking for another position even today.  Here is the gist of what he wrote me: He calls it “blood money.”  “It is a fraction of the money they had already cut from our salaries”  He says one of the schools in the district received full shares, $4,200 (remember though this $4200 is LESS than the salary freezes which will continue to impact teachers even into retirement)  and another school received .5 share, however, he writes,  “what really irritates me is that teachers in (an elementary school)  received nothing.  Those teachers work their butts off and will receive nothing.”  He goes on to describe some of the teachers and what they are doing to help the students in their poor neighborhood school.  He adds that teachers in the school have to do their own janitorial work because there is only 1 janitor for the whole building. 

When Tom Luna spoke to the Legislative hearing two years ago he emphasized that he was attempting to cut the teaching force.  He even agreed with another speaker that his computer reform bill would reduce the teaching ranks by 1,000.  I think that’s close to 10% of the state teaching force.  A goodly number of those folks are already gone.  

And on a related note:  all the new material; mailers, yesterday’s letter to the editor from Mary Steed, the Vandersloot propaganda pages,  argue that we should support the Luna law which makes negotiations public because teachers are bargaining for public money so those sessions should be open to everyone.  Know what....I haven’t talked with even one Idaho teacher for whom that is the issue.  Their issue is this:  when bargaining begins and the school board and teachers meet, the board may simply stall if they wish.  The law allows it by setting a statutory deadline for negotiations.  So if the two sides don’t agree before the deadline, the board may simply adopt their “last, best, offer,”  which can be anything they say it is.  Making those sessions public..who cares!! That isn’t the point.  One Board member told me she opposes the law, and would be writing a letter to confirm her opposition, but I haven’t seen the letter.   

Some figures for you to think about.  Luna says schools haven’t lost money because of his reforms:  Here’s a  bit of a rundown on what schools lost to merit pay plans and computer funding holdbacks ($68 million for the computer holdback alone) ..remember the story about the janitor.  

Cuts to Idaho School District Funding—just a sampling

Boise:  $5,406,424
Pocatello:  $2,515,431
Idaho Falls: $2,045,126
Butte County: $121,598
Mackay: $68,781
Jerome: $696,287
MOSCOW: $464,606
LEWISTON: 1,044,930
CDA:  $2,035,396 

And who supports these cuts?   EVERY REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE IN LATAH AND BENEWAH COUNTIES.   EVERY ONE.  JUST ASK THEM.  And if you vote to uphold the Luna Laws, your vote supports the cuts, as well. 

Sue Hovey
 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20121101/23f1a6c1/attachment.html>