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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Idaho educators react with concern to Luna’s plans for state schools

Superintendent proposed reforms on pay, hiring, more

Kerri Sandaine Lewiston Morning Tribune

Several educators in the region expressed concerns with the proposal outlined by Idaho’s state schools superintendent, Tom Luna.

“I think it is as far out in right field as anyone possibly could get,” said Bruce Schulz, president of Lewiston Education Association and Region 2.

“It’s frustrating when (Luna) uses statistics and takes them out of context to support his arguments. For example, he downplayed the importance of student-teacher ratios.”

The entire restructuring proposal raises a lot of questions, said Penni Cyr, treasurer of Moscow Education Association and Idaho’s director of the National Education Association.

“How is his proposal good for kids if he’s going to require students to take online courses? Where is the highly qualified teacher in that equation?”

And the thought teachers have forever contracts is a real misconception, Cyr said.

“We have continuing contracts that allow due process. To imply we can never be fired is really leading the public down the wrong path.”

Under the proposal, the master agreement would be negotiated annually, but negotiations would be restricted to salaries and benefits. Other issues such as class size, working environment and curriculum would be handled by school boards.

“As professional educators, these are things we know to be good for kids. The public elects school boards and they are hard-working volunteers, but they don’t have the educational background to make those decisions without input from educational professionals.”

When it comes to teacher pay, “we’ve always thought educators should be paid a professional wage and it needs to be done fairly,” Cyr said.

Another part of the proposal generating some negative reaction is Luna’s recommendation that a noneducator can be hired as a school superintendent. “That is a bad idea,” Cyr said. “The superintendent of a school is the educational leader of the school.”

The bottom line, Cyr said, is students are successful in the state of Idaho because of the hard-working educators in the classroom, day in and day out, working with the students and caring for them.

“The kids are why we’re here,” she said. “I hope the Legislature is very thoughtful in their deliberations and that they really listen to the public and professional educators, because this is important stuff.”

Bruce Bradberry, superintendent of the Troy School District, also has misgivings about the plans, including the controversial pay-for-performance proposal.

“My concerns are that No. 1, while it can be argued when things are at their lowest it’s a good time to introduce new ideas, at this time, we need all of our attention and all of our money put into basic operations,” Bradberry said.

“Some of the ideas are good and some are questionable. I am opposed to the concept of performance pay. It has never been shown how teacher effectiveness can be measured fairly.”