A humbled Idaho schools Superintendent Tom Luna told state lawmakers today that regardless of how it’s done, he wants Idaho to keep investing in teacher pay and classroom technology. Luna, whose ambitious “Students Come First” school reform laws were roundly rejected by voters in November, including plans to supply every Idaho high school student with a  laptop computer, said he’s OK with the money being spent differently – but he wants it spent on schools; you can read my full story here at spokesman.com. 

“We made tremendous progress on getting monies for technology and for teacher compensation thorough the legislation that was passed in 2011,” Luna said. “Now, I understand that for any number of reasons, those laws were overturned. But I don’t think anybody voted against those laws because they wanted us to spend less money on education this year or any year going forward.”

 Luna called for a 3 percent increase in state funding for schools in Idaho next year, exceeding the 2 percent increase already backed by Gov. Butch Otter. And he staked out a strong position against a raid on the school budget to take away the reform funds, including the money for the laptops, and shift it to other uses like a tax cut for Idaho businesses.