originally published in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News December 9-10, 2006
By Judith L. Brown
The dust has mostly settled from the elections. It’s time to start thinking about the new leadership that will take office Jan. 8. I am particularly intrigued, but also concerned and skeptical, about the direction incoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna will take Idaho’s public schools over the next four years.
During the campaign, Luna became known as the “innovation candidate.” He is a strong supporter of charter schools and education in other nontraditional settings, of more choice and of more local control and flexibility. He did serve formerly on the Nampa School Board and on the State Board of Education commission to develop the current achievement standards, and was an advisor to former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. By and large though, Luna comes from outside the “education establishment.” He received his bachelor’s degree from an online college and has pursued a career as a successful businessman.
Beyond buzz words like “choice,” however, the recent campaign for superintendent of public instruction did not leave me feeling like I had any real understanding of the innovations and improvements Luna will pursue. So I decided to do an online search of stories dealing with the race for superintendent and review the priorities and positions he espoused. In addition to a variety of news stories, this search also turned up the Gem State Voters Guide, subtitled “The Complete Idaho Voter Guide for Families.” It was jointly produced by the Idaho Values Alliance, Education Excellence Idaho, Idahoans for Tax Reform, Idaho Chooses Life and This House Is My Home. These are all very conservative groups, but Luna responded to the questionnaire and so it seems fair game to hold him accountable for his answers.
I decided to focus my review on three areas: overall school funding, curricular and other education reforms, and addressing facilities needs.
Regarding overall funding levels for public education in Idaho, Luna’s position is fuzzy. At this point, I think just abut every Idahoan knows Idaho has the eighth most crowded classrooms in the country and that we rank 45th-lowest in per pupil spending. Where does Luna come down on school funding? Sometimes he says public schools need better funding; sometimes he says he could produce better education with less funding. If he supported strengthening funding for public education, I suspect he’d be more forthright in saying so.
What does he support in terms of ways to improve the education achievements of our children? Nationwide, there is considerable interest in improving high school curriculums, particularly math and science content, and in improving early childhood education and school readiness. Luna, however, does not support the Idaho State Board of Education’s proposals to reform the high school curriculum, saying that should be left to local control. He also opposes both universal kindergarten and state-funded preschool programs.
Luna does support improving Idaho’s rural schools, and that intrigues me. But how? Presumably his ideas on how to do this will be revealed after he takes office.
Luna also supports removing the cap on charter school expansion and reducing regulations for charter schools. He opposes both registration and state testing of home-schooled students.
This begins to sound like a plan for very little innovation for traditional public schools, while shifting more and more education with less and less accountability to charter schools and home schooling. Charter schools are hardly innovative at this point. Furthermore, some longer-term studies are showing that the educational achievement of charter school students lags that of students in traditional public schools. Does expanding charter schools while relieving them of accountability make sense?
Lastly, how might Luna deal with Idaho’s crumbling school facilities? He supports maintaining the requirement for supermajority (67 percent) approval of school bond issues, believing that the recent property tax cut/sales tax hike will make it easier for school districts to pass bond levies. This is a “wait and see” approach, not an innovative approach.
As I said, I am a little intrigued and quite a bit concerned about the direction Luna will take Idaho’s public schools. Will he prove to be another Anne Fox, dragging us through four years of incompetent and misguided leadership? Or will he indeed prove to be an innovator, reshaping our public schools to meet the demands of the 21st century?
The clock starts ticking Jan. 8. I’ll be watching.
* Judith L. Brown is an economist and director of the Idaho Center on Budget and Tax Policy. She lives in Moscow with her family and can be reached at jlbrown@turbonet.com.