Only good Idaho news from last night
HThe Luna Laws were all repealed!
Better known as Propositions 1, 2 & 3, the Luna Laws were Idaho's version of school deform.
Prop 1 busted the union: got rid of collective bargaining over anything but salaries, required negotiations be conducted in public...lots of antiteacher steps. The best was allowing parental input on teacher retain/terminate decisions. In 2010 we ran a photo of a large-busted teacher (this is germane to the discussion) on the front page. The local Puritans didn't like her sweatet and accused her of flashing her tits at the students. There were several Mary Kay Letourneau comments...it got so bad she finally left town. If those people were able to influence her employment file, she'd have had to register as a sex offender before it was all over.
Prop 2 gave teachers the opportunity to earn performance bonuses based on student results on the Idaho Scholastic Aptitude Test. The unions were against this for two reasons. One was the whole school had to show improvement for teachers to get bonuses, which would be paid to.all the teachers at a school. Also, the bonuses were dependent on performance gains - taking a class from 50 to 60 was worth more money than going from 95 to 98, even though incremental change is more difficult the higher you go. The theory is, it's archaic to pay all teachers with the same degree and time in service the same...which makes me wonder if they know how The Almighty Troops are paid. The second reason is this was paid for by cutting teacher salaries. One of the big proponents of the Lunacy was Melaleuca, the Mormon Amway. They said in one of their ads, "teachers deserve to get paid." They don't deserve to have their pay cut.
Prop 3 is the Repay Luna's Markers Act. Luna's campaign money comes from e-learning companies. Prop 3 requires school districts provide every high school student a laptop, forces each kid to take 2 online courses to graduate, and gets the money out of teacher pay accounts.
All three got stomped, Prop 3 worst of all.
