Idaho Education News reporter Kevin Richert has an interesting analysis here of state schools Superintendent Tom Luna’s address to lawmakers yesterday, in which he pitched collection of online sales taxes as a way to ensure the state can afford to make improvements to its schools recommendation by the governor’s education stakeholders task force. Richert notes that Luna has been promoting the idea for several years, including during his 2010 re-election campaign, but writes, “By talking about Internet taxes — and by renewing his call for an increase in teacher salaries — Luna is sounding like a candidate gearing up for a general election.”

Thus far, Luna, unlike Gov. Butch Otter, hasn’t drawn a challenger in the May GOP primary election; at this point, his only announced opposition is Democrat Jana Jones in the November general election.

Idaho EdNews also has a report here on how Luna has agreed to a compromise with school district superintendents over testing; he’s agreed to allow schools to opt out of a lengthy new test this spring for 9^th and 10^th graders. Originally, the new Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test was scheduled to be field-tested this spring with all 3^rd- through 11^th-graders.