<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of today's (November 2, 2012) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><h1 style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Otter appears in pro-reform ad</span></font></h1><h5 class="subhead" style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; clear: both; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Governor in upbeat TV commercial</span></font></h5></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – The latest campaign ad in Idaho’s school reform fight features Gov. Butch Otter endorsing Propositions 1, 2 and 3 in a positive, feel-good message.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Education in Idaho is at a crossroads,” the casually dressed governor says in the commercial, which is running statewide, including in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene market. “This election year we’re being asked whether we will keep meaningful education reforms on the books or go back to the old way of doing things.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The “old way of doing things” refers to Idaho’s laws prior to 2011, when lawmakers enacted the reforms that restricted teachers’ collective bargaining rights, imposed a new merit-pay bonus system, and required big technology boosts including laptop computers for high school students and a new focus on online learning.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It paints the opposition as being reactionaries, going back to the old ways, which is kind of funny,” said Jim Weatherby, emeritus professor of public policy at Boise State University. “It’s a pretty positive message.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The ad is sponsored by Yes for Idaho Education, the official group backing the three measures.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Opponents of the laws collected thousands of signatures to force a voter referendum on the laws. A yes vote would keep them, while a no vote would repeal them.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ken Burgess, spokesman for the Yes campaign, said the idea behind the ad was partly to defuse ire aimed against state schools Superintendent Tom Luna, the author of the laws. “All this issue about these things being called the ‘Luna laws’ – we just want to remind everybody from a leadership, statesman standpoint that the governor was as much responsible for this stuff certainly as Tom Luna,” Burgess said.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Otter stood by Luna in strong support of the bills throughout the 2011 legislative session and helped lobby for their passage amid much dissent in the Legislature.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the ad, Otter says, “Our reforms give more control to parents and local school boards, provide bonuses to good teachers and put much-needed technology in the classroom.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Otter’s claim about the laws giving more control to parents and local school boards is accurate, at least with respect to two areas: Enrollment of students in online classes by parents and collective bargaining with teachers by local school boards.</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Weatherby said the “much-needed technology” claim is arguable. “We really don’t know,” he said. “We have a lot of anecdotal information about what classroom teachers and students already have available in terms of that kind of technology.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">---------------</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><h5 style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px 0px 3px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What the ad says</span></font></h5><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gov. Butch Otter is shown, saying, “Education in Idaho is at a crossroads. This election you’re being asked whether we will keep meaningful education reforms on the books or go back to the old way of doing things. Our reforms give more control to parents and local school boards, provide bonuses to good teachers and put much-needed technology in the classroom. We can’t afford to go backwards. If we use yesterday’s education system for today’s children, we deny them the promise of tomorrow. Please join me in voting yes on Propositions 1, 2 and 3.”</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</span></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><img src="cid:2CDB0D2B-BF9E-4E38-9D5D-0C2FD1591CED" alt="image.jpeg" id="2CDB0D2B-BF9E-4E38-9D5D-0C2FD1591CED" width="330" height="222"></p><p style="overflow: visible !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .</span></p></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."</div><div><br></div><div>- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></body></html>