A look at the future of education

COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna said Idaho standards now are as high as those in other parts of the world where students have been performing better.

Luna was in Coeur d'Alene Monday night talking with the public about Idaho's Students Come First laws, and 18 people showed up at the Coeur d'Alene School District's Midtown Center to hear from him and ask questions.

"We had policies in place and programs that did not put students first," Luna said.

The new laws have changed that, he said.

For example, in math, increases in standards have been more than a year per grade, he said.

The standards have been raised to those higher standards because students must be ready to compete with students from places like Finland, Korea, or states like Massachusetts or Minnesota.

He said 92 percent of Idaho students graduate from high school, but of those only 46 percent go on to postsecondary education. More surprising, 40 percent of high school graduates need remediation in their postsecondary education.

Financially, he said, the state is facing a new normal in the economy.

The average funding per classroom has slipped to $80,000, compared with $93,600 in 2009. Schools can no longer rely on tens of millions of new dollars each year to maintain the status quo.

Money is being spent differently to pay for the changes, he said. The days of retirement bonuses for teachers, which alone cost the state $6 million a year, and the so-called "double-funding" of students are gone.

"We had an education system that made it almost impossible to financially reward great teachers, and very difficult to deal with ineffective teaching," Luna said. "And if we want an education system that truly put students first we had to remove the barriers to both."

Tenure for teachers will be eliminated and seniority will no longer be considered as the education workforce is managed, he said.

Teachers also have been given an opportunity to earn up to $8,000 in bonuses. Teachers can earn bonuses by working in a hard-to-fill position or by taking on a leadership role.

Student improvement is another way.

"It's how much academic growth did they have the year they were in school," Luna said.

Average teacher pay is going to go up more than $2,000, he said.

Idaho is about 47th in the nation in average teacher pay. Idaho has fewer taxpayers per child compared with a state like Massachusetts.

"I do believe it's how you spend the dollars that you have," Luna said. "This is an attempt to adjust how we spend the dollars."

Some were concerned that there would be an increase in the number of required online classes to graduate. Currently, the requirement is two credits.

Luna said the number won't go up.

Parents are concerned that students would not get the same level of education in an online, or distance learning, class as they would in a traditional class.

Luna said the school district will decide what classes will be taken online and who the provider will be.

Students, he said, need to learn how to succeed in a distance learning environment to succeed in the world.

"We're not replacing teachers with technology," Luna said. "I believe that teachers that teach with technology will replace teachers that don't."

Even if there is a "one-to-one" ratio of student to laptop commuter, as envisioned in Students Come First, those students will still be in a classroom with a teacher.

He said there are thousands of schools in the nation that already have the one-to-one ratio.

Textbooks, calculators, videos, everything would be in the one device.

It will take Idaho four years to get grades 9-12 to that point. The state won't buy the laptops, but will pay for the service and use of the laptops.

Some of the parents said the technology would be a great addition, but they would like to see the school facilities improved to create a better, more healthy, learning environment.

Luna said the state can't do much for local school facilities.