Teachers Talk About Repealing Education Reform
The fight against State Superintendent Tom Luna’s education reform is far from over.
Educators across the state gathered Monday to discuss the impact of the new laws and begin preparations to defeat the new law on November’s ballot.
There are three propositions on the ballot that will aim to overturn the three reform laws.
Teachers say education needs reform, but they want to be involved in the process.
Last year on President’s Day, thousands of Idaho teachers, parents and students took to the streets to protest the reform.
Now, a year later, those reforms are law, but educators are still fighting, this time on the ballot.
The implementation of technology dominated Monday’s discussion in Idaho Falls.
Educators said they worry more technology will cost more money than the legislators plan for.
“Technology is not less expensive,? District 91 Superintendent George Boland said. ?It will be at least as expensive if not more than the current resources we have.”
“It takes money out of the classroom, money away from the students in order to fund these laws,? said IEA Region 6 President Lane Owens.
Teachers said it will require more time they don’t have.
“It takes a lot of time and I don’t see anytime in the day,” District 91 teacher Lynn Macausland said.
But most importantly, teachers said they just want a voice in the reform.
“These laws were really shoved through without a lot of input from teachers or parents and our legislators didn’t consider the science or data,? District 321 teacher Dawn Anderson said. ?We need to be sure before we implement these laws.”
“I think there are some good components of the education reform but I don’t think there was enough though process put into them. I think they need to be repealed so they can be rethought out and get educator inputs,? District 251 teacher Marilynn Smith said. ?Educators will be the first to say we need to make changes to the system. I’m just not sure the changes the legislature has put in there for us are the appropriate changes to be made.”
The IEA said they doesn’t have any specifics right now as to how it will campaign before November’s election but said it will begin by the end of the summer.
