Idaho Parents and Teachers Together, the group that organized a rally on the Statehouse steps last week against state schools Supt. Tom Luna's school reform plan, has issued a statement in response to yesterday's events, including Luna blaming reform opponents for the vandalism of his truck and other incidents in recent days. "We were frankly shocked and disappointed by the statements from Superintendent Luna and other state political leaders linking opponents to Mr. Luna’s plan to vandals," the statement says; you can read it below.

Feb. 15, 2011
Press release from Idaho Parents and Teachers Together
Subject: Comments from Superintendent Luna and others equating education-plan opponents with vandals
Contact: Mike Lanza, mlanza@cableone.net

    Some of our state’s political leaders made public statements today implying that opponents of state School Superintendent Tom Luna’s proposed education plan were responsible for a recent act of vandalism to Mr. Luna’s vehicle and alleged incidents of harassment of him. As a spokesman for the group leading the burgeoning opposition to Mr. Luna’s education plan, Idaho Parents and Teachers Together, I felt it appropriate to respond to those unfounded and irresponsible accusations.
    We were frankly shocked and disappointed by the statements from Superintendent Luna and other state political leaders linking opponents to Mr. Luna’s plan to vandals. We expect our political leaders to be more respectful of dissenting opinions than that. Sadly, their comments appear to be a very transparent attempt to distract media attention away from the real story, which is that citizens across Idaho have come out overwhelmingly opposed to Mr. Luna’s education plan.
    Anyone looking at the moms and dads and grandparents supporting our group—people busy with jobs, homes, kids—would quickly see the absurdity in Mr. Luna claiming that any of us are issuing threats. We’re a little too busy with jobs, making dinner, doing laundry, and driving our kids to sports practices. In fact, we’d have expected our political leaders to be too busy themselves to have time to hold press conferences equating caring parents with vandals.
Idaho Parents and Teachers Together formed just two weeks ago out of a groundswell of opposition to Superintendent Luna’s education plan. I became involved because my wife and I have a fourth-grader and a second-grader in Boise public schools. In just two weeks, I and other members of our group have heard from hundreds of people from Boise, Meridian, Kuna, Kimberly, Mountain Home, Moscow, Rexburg, Pocatello, and many other communities large and small about this issue. Our e-mail list at http://idahoparentsandteachers.com has seen explosive growth.
We are parents, PTO members, businesspeople, teachers, current and former school board members, retirees, Republicans, Democrats, independents—people from many different backgrounds. We have one thing in common: a shared belief that Mr. Luna’s proposals would be disastrous for public schools.
Our group has responded by doing what voters in a democracy should do: urging our supporters to contact their legislators. And we have been successful. Senate Education Committee Chair John Goedde said recently that legislators are each receiving hundreds of e-mails every day. We expect our legislators to welcome any cordial, respectful communication from constituents.
People are speaking out against Mr. Luna’s proposals to increase class sizes, cut nearly 800 teachers statewide, require high-school students to take some courses on-line, and hand out laptops to high-school freshmen. School boards and administrators around the state have detailed their concerns about how the plan would devastate schools financially; the word “disastrous” has come up repeatedly.
Perhaps the two biggest objections among parents is that Mr. Luna sought no input from school administrators, and that he would have state bureaucrats—people far removed from the classroom—make decisions that have always been left to local school boards and administrators. Mr. Luna recently made some cosmetic changes to his plan that essentially ignored these concerns.
Boise School District and others have asked the Legislature to reject Mr. Luna’s plan and instead give the districts a budget to live within, allowing the districts and school boards to decide how to spend their money. Our parents’ group agrees that is the best solution for this year. But for the longer term, the Legislature should set up a panel to address the question of how to fund public schools—and this time, include administrators, teachers, and parents in the process.
Idaho has a proud tradition of supporting education. Our politicians have always united behind this important ideal, regardless of party affiliation. That’s a tradition worth remembering now. The Legislature should reject this plan and instruct Mr. Luna to go back and do his homework. He owes it to Idaho’s children to do better than this.

Mike Lanza
Idaho Parents and Teachers Together