Point: Luna's plan riddled with holes

And so the Lunacy continues.

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction has been pushing his personal agenda to "reform" our schools since the day he was elected into office. So why then didn't he invite anyone to join his planning group who disagreed with him? Any good leader knows that if you are going to make sweeping changes in a system you had better look at all sides of the situation. But Mr. Luna wasn't interested in that. Instead he and his buddy Butch have gathered with their like-minded, yet uninformed, cronies who will now force this new way of doing business down the collective throats of anyone who is affected by the educational system. By the way, that's all of us. There are so many aspects of his plan that I disagree with it would be hard to know just where to start, so I will focus my comments on the technology aspect of the proposed plan.

I agree that there can be a tremendous benefit from distance learning but primarily when it is done in conjunction with classroom instruction, but giving students a laptop computer and requiring them to take an online course is not the answer. The cost of the computers alone would be prohibitive. Assuming the schools can purchase them for $300 apiece, it would cost about a million dollars for the Cd'A School District alone. Where will the money come from when those computers break, are lost, stolen, or otherwise mishandled? Who will be providing the technical support for all those computers? Then there is the constant influx of upgrades and fixes that are pushed by the software providers. Will that be left up to the student? Will downloads be blocked, or will there be personnel dedicated to upgrade and repair the students' computers? Let's not even talk about the plethora of websites that many students will inevitably visit which have nothing to do with education and carry a tremendous risk of infections from viruses. Adding filters to restrict students from accessing certain types of websites will also restrict them from finding information from appropriate sources. For online learning to work well it must be facilitated by someone. Otherwise the final grade for a course will be based upon how well students can cut and paste, or simply select the correct answer, from a Google search.

It's no wonder Mr. Luna likes online education. That's the avenue he took to complete the bachelor's degree in weights and measures which he began almost 20 years earlier. This is what he needed to do to become qualified for his position. That and convince the voters that somehow from spending a few years on a local school board he was qualified to run the whole state education system. Just because you can earn a piece of paper, be it a college degree or a high school diploma, that doesn't mean that you have learned the same amount of information as from classroom instruction, or that you will be able to use that knowledge in the workplace. The armed forces have recognized this and in most cases do not accept individuals who have a diploma from a high school which uses computer based learning as their primary source of instruction.

I have to wonder if the governor and the superintendent are receiving some incentive from those who are already providing computer based learning in our state. The major sources of online instruction currently used are based outside Idaho and are receiving large amounts of our tax dollars each year. Most of the money currently spent for computer based instruction is going to corporations based in New Jersey, Utah, Arizona and Iowa. So our increased requirement will help boost those institutions with Idaho tax dollars. This new graduation requirement will be a tremendous financial victory for them.

I don't disagree that a change in our educational system is needed to keep up with changing technology and limited resources, but the plan that is being ushered through the halls of our state capitol is not the answer.

Rick Jones is a counselor in the Coeur d'Alene School District.