Idaho getting closer to implementing Luna's ed reform plan

COEUR d’ALENE — There are still a few things that have to happen before many of Idaho’s newly minted education reforms can be fully executed in the state’s kindergarten- through 12th-grade public schools.

Some of the responsibility for the success or failure of Idaho public schools chief Tom Luna’s “Students Come First” education reform plan now rests with members of the Idaho State Board of Education.

Other reform package measures require that school boards throughout the state create their own local policies and procedures to put the reforms, now Idaho law, into action.

“Implementation will determine how effective the reforms are and if the promised efficiencies will be realized,” state education board spokesman Mark Browning said.

The sweeping changes to K-12 education were announced by Luna, with support from Gov. Butch Otter, in Janurary at the start of the legislative session.

Broken down into three bills, the reforms were passed by lawmakers during weeks of contentious House and Senate committee hearings, and protests by students and teachers throughout the state. The final bill was signed into law Friday by the governor, a day after the session adjourned. 

One of the measures limits the bargaining powers of district-level local teachers unions, and also eliminates indefinite continuing contracts for all new teachers, and any who have not yet been given tenure.

A second bill provides merit pay bonuses for high-performing schools and individual teachers.

The final piece of legislation, Senate Bill 1184, increases the minimum salary for Idaho educators from $29,655 to $30,000. It also increases classroom technology, paying for it by taking money from the pot that holds funds for educators’ salaries. The merit pay measure will also be financed this way.

The Idaho State Department of Education’s next immediate step, according to department spokeswoman Melissa McGrath, will be to set up a 27-member technology task force, a requirement written into SB1184. The task force will be charged with reporting to the 2012 Legislature, after studying the issues surrounding online education and technology.

Superintendent Luna will appoint about half of the task force members, McGrath said. The rest will be nominated by stakeholder groups including the Idaho Education Association and the Idaho School Boards Association, who will each get to appoint a representative member. Lawmakers will also serve on the task force, with bipartisan representation.

Later this month, State Department of Education representatives will go on their annual statewide post-legislative tour. This year, the reform measures will be at the forefront. McGrath said education department representatives will explain what decisions need to be made at the district level, and suggest how the new reforms might be executed locally. Districts will be asked to each invite a union representative and their business officers to attend the informational meetings.

SB1184 is a revised version of initial legislation Luna presented to lawmakers. Earlier drafts included a requirement that all Idaho students take a certain number of online courses while in high school. Legislators rejected a draft that called for four online courses.

The legislation now requires the State Board of Education to create “digital citizenship standards,” and to consider adding online courses as a graduation requirement for the class of 2016.

McGrath said the number of online course requirements, if approved by the State Board of Education, could be less than four, or it could be more than four.

Administrative procedures require Superintendent Luna, who sits on the state board, to present a proposed rule to the board asking them to consider an online course requirement. McGrath said the board usually gives these types of proposals initial approval, which opens a 21-day public comment period.

At the end of the public comment period, the rule will go back to the board. If they approve the rule, it must then be approved by the Legislature who will receive it in January during the 2012 session. It goes to the House Education Committee and the Senate Education Committee, and just one of those bodies needs to approve it.

Browning said the board takes its oversight of K-12 education “quite seriously, and in no way should be considered a rubber stamp.”

The Idaho Constitution charges the Idaho State Board of Education with providing supervision, governance and control of all public education in Idaho.

“That’s K-20,” Browning said.

 The SBOE holds rule-making authority for all its agencies and institutions, including the State Department of Education, which it oversees.

“Any rules such as those that will need to be drafted and adopted to implement the reforms as passed this year will have to have board approval before they move forward,” Browning said.

Luna, as the state’s superintendent of instruction, has voting privileges on the eight-member board, and is the only elected member. The other board members are appointed by the governor.

“The board has been supportive of Supt. Luna’s ‘Students Come First’ reform plan,” Browning said. 

Board members were first presented with the plan’s initial elements during their bi-weekly legislative update meeting in mid-January, and then again on Jan. 28.

State board members voted to support the concepts in the “Students Come First” plan on Feb. 11, Browning said. The board did not vote or express any opinion on any of the revisions that were made later in the session.

The reforms are now the target of a referendum campaign led by parents and representatives from the statewide teachers union who want to overturn the changes.

If a referendum goes before voters, that will happen during the November 2012 election. Before this year’s legislative session closed, lawmakers passed a series of trailer bills that included a requirement that the previously approved reform bills go into effect immediately. A successful referendum campaign could have stalled any implementation of the measures until after a vote.

“We think a referendum is fair. That’s how our system works, but we don’t want education to be in limbo for 18 months,” McGrath said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.