On Nov. 11, Winton Elementary School first-grade teacher Erin Lenz reacts as she is announced as the 2012 Idaho Teacher of the Year while fellowteacher Ann Porter-Brown looks on. (SR file photo: Kathy Plonka)

Erin Lenz told about 400 Idaho Education Association colleagues in a speech Friday in Boise that hard work, persistence, collegiality and union solidarity are key to the struggles faced by Idaho teachers and their students. "As educators, we are faced with a daunting task," Lenz said in prepared remarks made available on the IEA website. "How do we continue to teach children with all the energy and passion needed and fight those who attack our profession? "How can we be innovative in meeting the challenges of 21st Century classrooms when some of education’s stakeholders refuse to acknowledge our voices? What will we do to combat the corrosive discouragement amongst teachers that has eaten away at morale and has driven some to leave the profession? I wish these problems were easy to solve but there isn’t a simple solution. It will take hard work and perseverance to overcome them"/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Will the IEA prevail in its support of referendums that seek to overturn Luna/Otter education "reforms"?