For the week of Sept 25 - Oct 1, 2002

Candidate for education superintendent speaks 

at Republican Women’s luncheon

---

"This race is going to be a referendum on education in Idaho. I want to change the system."

— TOM LUNA, GOP candidate for Idaho’s superintendent of public instruction

---

By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Tom Luna, the Republican candidate for Idaho’s superintendent of public instruction, was in the Wood River Valley last Wednesday to speak at a Republican Women’s Luncheon at The Valley Club in Hailey.

Ten tables of 10 were sold to members of the Republican Women’s group, who in turn invited interested friends to hear Luna present his campaign views.

Republican candidate for Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna makes a quick stop at the Donnelly School in Hailey. Teacher, Valerie Donnelly showed him around the pre-school after a Republican luncheon at the Valley Club. Express photo by David N. Seelig

Three Blaine County School Board members—Claudia Fiaschetti, Kim Nilson and Kate Parnes—also attended, as did four students from the Wood River High School’s government class.

Luna is running against the Democratic incumbent, Marilyn Howard.

Luna is traveling the state as his campaign gears up. Last week, he had 10 different events scheduled. While on the road, he is also meeting with school district superintendents and visiting some schools.

Luna, a 43-year-old Nampa businessman who owns a weights and measures manufacturing company, was a member of the Nampa School Board for six years. Three of those years he was the chairperson of the board.

From a working class background, he said he learned from his father, "All work is honorable and all work is acceptable."

Luna attended Rick’s College in Rexburg, but dropped out to work for a local business with three employees. Eventually, he bought Scales Unlimited, which now has 25 employees and specializes in scales for such items as cattle and railroad cars.

He and his wife Cindy have six children, ranging in are from 11to 21.

Luna became involved in education first through the local Parents Teachers Organization. Then, when the school one of his children attended was condemned by the city of Nampa as unsafe but continued holding classes on the premises, he was elected to the school board.

Urged last year by members of the Republican Party to consider running against Howard, he discovered an obstacle. He needed to finish college. In March, Luna earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J., in time to file campaign papers on March 25. Working with a tutor, Luna took classes online in evenings and on weekends.

"My ideas for superintendent are different from anyone else we've ever had," he said. "Marilyn Howard and Anne Fox (a Republican who was defeated as superintendent by Howard) have more in common than Fox and I do. They both have education backgrounds. Anne’s approach was to take the existing system and tweak it here and tweak it there. My vision is new."

Instead, he said, "We’ve never had a super who had worked at the local level."

Luna claims his experience as a successful businessman makes him more qualified to deal with the financial issues of the job. He is also a member of the Idaho Assessment and Accountability Commission, and a former member of the Idaho Achievement Standards Commission.

"I’m running for superintendent against the system, and against Marilyn Howard. The system has been put together by educators, from the top down. When it comes to the financial side, they don’t have the experience and the background. A few of them would readily admit it.

"The system is you start from what you spent last year and you add to that. That doesn’t take a whole lot of financial skills to design a budget or a financial plan based on that," Luna said.

He added that Howard’s accomplishments with standards testing, which began last week in grades two through 10, have been exaggerated. The new standards-led assessments are closely linked to curriculum.

"She was not involved day one with the standards. What we have today was done outside the Department of Education, in my opinion, with their heels dug in. They said, ‘Slow down, you’re moving too fast.’ I would have wanted a lot more cooperation from the Department of Education. I think we should be a lot further down the road. We’re finally to the point where we’re doing the first pilot test. We should have been doing this years ago. I give credit not to Howard, but to the commission and hundreds of Idahoans outside the Department of Education that developed the standards, developed the assessment and went and got the money for them because the department has never provided any money for them."

The Idaho Legislature appropriated funds in 1997 for the State Board of Education and the Idaho Department of Education to develop exiting standards for all Idaho public school students.

Luna said, "We must begin to examine how we are spending the funds we currently have."

Among Luna’s concerns are the numbers of students compared to the dollars spent per year. For instance, in 1996 there were 245,252 students in the state’s public school system. The total funds spent that year were $1.3 million.

Over the next five years, enrollment increased by only 125 students, while total funds spent on education increased to $275.9 million, according to the SBOE Web site.

What these numbers don’t take into account, at first glance, is the increase in special education students, who require full time aides, additional special ed. teachers, and specialized remedial education. The increase in students in special ed, from 1996 to 2001, is 3,982 students.

There are other areas Luna is concerned about.

For instance, "We spend $15 million for substitutes. I think we can look at that number and scrutinize it. Maybe it only has to be $10 million."

Currently, school districts receive money for administration costs, but there is a "use it or loose it policy," he said.

With this existing system, "There is no incentive to be more efficient."

Likewise he believes in accountability from teachers. He said if his son is absent from school he receives a call, but if the child gets a D on a test, he’s not told about it.

"My philosophy is we let teachers teach, as long as we get the expected results. We’ve perfected attendance in the state because our funding is based on average daily attendance. We have a system where attendance is mandatory but learning is optional."

He said he’d like to see more bilingual teachers in the school system, and restrictions to who is allowed in the classroom should be removed. For instance, there are people who have things to offer young people--such as those from the military, scientists and other retirees--that could be tapped for their expertise.

Luna also said teachers should be paid according to skill, and that administrators should "step outside the salary schedule," when awarding salaries.

He added, "We need a more results oriented system."

Luna is passionate about education, he said. He feels that Idaho’s school system can be No. 1 in the country.

"This race is going to be a referendum on education in Idaho. I want to change the system."

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.