Teachers, parents need input into sweeping changes
By SHERRI WOOD
Special to The Press
On Wednesday, State Superintendent Tom Luna unveiled a radical, unproven set of proposals to drastically alter schools and instruction in our state. Throughout its long history, the Idaho Education Association, representing the majority of Idaho teachers, has proudly championed collaborative innovation to improve learning in schools. We’re deeply concerned about many aspects of the plan. For starters:
n Mr. Luna presents the Legislature and Idaho families with a false choice: support students or support teachers.
n He proposes elimination of the most basic job security for new teachers, and thereby reduces the ability of administrators, teachers and parents to plan for the future.
n Though Idaho educators readily embrace technology, Mr. Luna proposes to substitute online instruction for face-to-face, hands-on classroom learning.
n Under the Luna plan, class sizes — already among the highest in the nation — would grow even more. Idaho students need and deserve individual attention and instruction to compete in the world economy.
n Mr. Luna’s proposal to improve starting teacher pay (by $345, to $30,000) falls far short of what is needed to attract and retain the best teachers for Idaho. Already, starting teachers can make far more in Wyoming than they can here.
n Most concerning of all, the plan was formulated with virtually no input from the dedicated teachers of our state: the real experts on what works in the classroom. And by insisting that only wages and benefits can be bargained, Mr. Luna leaves educators out of the loop in shaping real school reform that will truly put students first.
“Education is a team sport,” state Sen. Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, said at the joint meeting of the Senate and House Education Committees. He suggested that teacher and parent input is central to education reform. IEA members agree wholeheartedly.
Although Mr. Luna said the plan was developed by all stakeholders, the blueprint set forth by the Education Alliance of Idaho wasn’t yet in a form to be embraced as policy. For that matter, why introduce such a radical restructuring of education policy during an ongoing budget crisis that has placed unprecedented demands on Idaho’s children and their teachers?
Mr. Luna frames his proposals as a response to the choice between cannibalizing the current system with more furlough days and fewer textbooks — the conditions we’re seeing this school year — or raising taxes to pay for the system we have now: a system that he and Gov. Butch Otter said repeatedly last fall is among the best in the nation.
Idahoans are already stepping up to pay for quality schools in every corner of the state. Since FY 2007, school districts have increased their supplemental levies by $34.8 million, or 44 percent. What Mr. Luna, Gov. Otter and Legislative leadership won’t own up to is the massive tax shift that’s been going on in Idaho over the past few years.
Teamwork and collaboration, not conflict, will improve Idaho’s schools. The interests of teachers and children are inseparable, no matter how hard bureaucrats try to separate them.
We invite concerned Idaho parents, grandparents and business owners to voice their concerns over the larger class sizes and other radical reforms that Mr. Luna has proposed. Call or e-mail your lawmakers; share your stories of great teachers on the Idaho Parents and Teachers Together page on Facebook; or organize a carpool and speak out at the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee public hearing set for 8-11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 21, at the Statehouse in Boise.
Sherri Wood is president of the Idaho Education Association.