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Task force tweaks education reform
BOISE – After six months of study, a statewide task force Tuesday called for buying all Idaho high school students laptops rather than tablets, phasing them in school-by-school rather than grade-by-grade, and sharply upping the state’s investment in on-the-job teacher training to accompany the new technology push. “The work that has been done here is historic,” said state schools Superintendent Tom Luna, who chaired the task force charged with figuring out how to implement the technology boosts in his Students Come First school reform program, which lawmakers approved last year. “We all had the same goal, and that is to assure that we’re preparing our students for the 21st century world that they’ll live in.”
Eye on Boise: State revenues fall just shy of predictions
BOISE – Idaho’s general fund revenues for October are in, and they’re almost exactly on target, missing state economists’ forecast by just 0.7 percent. At $209.9 million, the month’s tax take is $1.6 million below the $211.4 million forecast. Sales taxes came in $4.1 million below the expected level, but all other categories came in ahead of the forecast. Individual income tax revenues for October were 5.9 percent above October of the previous year; the forecast was for 4.9 percent growth. Sales taxes were up 1.6 percent over the previous October; the forecast had called for 6.3 percent.