Business
Tom Luna: Was He Duper or Dupee?
February 19, 2011 
The GUARDIAN listened to Idaho School Super Tom Luna’s speech Friday at the City Club of Boise and came away somewhat sympathetic to his education reform plan. That was before we read a damning piece by John Miller of the AP
This pro is one of the best journalists in the state and he certainly did his homework. His story links the Albertson Foundation with Luna’s plan for on-line education requirements, claiming the foundation, through its grants, creates customers for a commercial firm owned by Albertson heir Joseph B. Scott–using the same address and phone number as the foundation. Luna went to great lengths in his City Club speech to praise the Albertson Foundation and its largess.
Luna’s only political hope as we see it is to claim ignorance and toss the Albertson folks under the school bus.
He either was schilling for the Albertson heir’s business interest with full knowledge of the connection or they snookered him. Either way, the School Super has got a lot of explaining to do. Disgruntled teachers and opponents of the Luna plan will certainly have plenty of fodder for their protest on the Statehouse steps Monday.
It is a bit long, but that’s because Miller cites his sources and quotes public records throughout the story. Check out the ASSOCIATED PRESS story.
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Comments & Discussion
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Feb 19, 2011, 11:42 am
Luna was part of the dept of education under bush’s no child left behind. Why isn’t he asked by the great journalists of our age about the costs, benefits and federal mandates that came from that top down boondoggle? Just dig up some of his quotes about that plan along with some of the complete failures and see what a charlatan he is. Also when he said he came out of his house the other day and found his car vandalized, he mentioned he was “on his way to the gym”. He can’t be believed about anything.
Feb 19, 2011, 4:03 pm
Luna is a Republican. Their goal is to privatize schools and all other government functions and contract out the work to their cronies, enriching corporate fat cats and enslaving the rest of us in minimum wage jobs.
Haily Barbour (and I may be mis-spelling his name – I apologize), Republican Governor of Mississippi, recently refused to denounce a plan to introduce license plates honoring one of the founders of the KKK. That is all you need to know about Republicans.
Feb 19, 2011, 7:45 pm
This smells of Otter and Gwartney’s doing and has echos of the Quest deal on the Idaho Education Network. These guys just see the largest part of the State budget and want to get their share. No transparency in Otters administration leads to these kind of deals. Can’t wait for Popkey’s article on this.
Feb 20, 2011, 12:03 am
I hope they find the purp vandalizing Luna’s car is Luna himself. What a pathetic man.
Feb 20, 2011, 9:50 am
Too bad Republicans won’t have a problem with Popkeys article. All fine and dandy to eliminate teaching jobs and replace with computers made in Asia.
They don’t care about the outcome because their kids go to private school. Besides, another great opportunity to get rich from taxpayers.
Why isn’t anyone talking about the outcome of Bush’s No Child Left Behind? Wasn’t that supposed to be a success? Wonder how much money that shoveled into the test taking/voting machine business?
Feb 20, 2011, 10:55 am
After reading the AP article and Popkey’s article this morning, my initial response is “what’s your point”?? I see no wrong doing from Luna’s standpoint. He has obviously developed this philosophy over quite a few years. Did he get input from the leaders in the movement? Naturally! It would appear that some here would expect him to walk into the desert, sit under a sagebrush plant and “ponder” his plan to change the education system here in Idaho. This appears to be an effort to discredit him, therefore his plan to reform the educational system in Idaho. By the way, how is that current system working for us so far? We enjoy an extremely high drop out rate in our secondary schools, while “processing” students through the 12th. grade that upon graduation, not only are, in significant numbers, not equipped to perform at a college, or university level, They can’t make change in a burger joint!
More and more companies are doing their pre-employment testing on line. How should they respond to a 18 year old prospective employee that says, “I don’t know how to use that thing. Can I take the test on my phone? I am really good at that!”
As far as the financial portion of this article, what good does publishing Luna’s income over three YEARS, other than to inflate the amount? Shame on you Mr. Popkey. You should conduct yourself at a higher level. Although I completely understand your M.O because the biggest accomplishment in your career to date, is successfully chasing a gay politician from one bathroom to another. With regard to the teacher’s union. Don’t insult us by saying this is all about the kids. When you make those types of claims, you just cement the fact that you are in this for your own gain, PERIOD! And while we are at it, let’s visit the vandalism and harassment that Luna has had put upon him. It is all well and good to sit back and sanctimoniously condemn someone for slashing tires and spray painting a truck.But the bottom line here is that it was done by someone on YOUR side of the issue! If you can’t keep your people on the reservation, you sacrifice ANY credibility (which ain’t much)that you have left. The bottom line here is that the education system here in Idaho is in DESPERATE need of reform!! Yet the “status quo” teachers union would rather crucify the messenger than to address the problem that we spend OVER HALF of this state’s total revenue on education and we have a system that simply isn’t working. The curent sytem is a failure and the teachers union needs to come to grips with the fact that WE HAVE NO MORE MONEY TO INVEST IN A FAILED SYSTEM!
Feb 20, 2011, 2:38 pm
“The curent sytem is a failure and the teachers union needs to come to grips with the fact that WE HAVE NO MORE MONEY TO INVEST IN A FAILED SYSTEM!”
You must be referring to the system in which Luna has been the superintendant of for the last four years. Prior to that he was in D.C. instigating federal mandates and leaving the states to fund them. Luna sucks. And the system sucks. But last time I checked the state education budget skyrocketed from 2000 to the present with both a “conservative” republican legislature and a republican governor. The best plan the state should promote is to unwind the budget back to 2000, and work forward based on population. Undo the mandates that the federal gov has required that cost state dollars and provide the barest of minimum standards to the districts and let the local boards implement.
Feb 20, 2011, 6:30 pm
Cyclops, I disagree with you in many ways but lets go over your rant point by point.
1.You said “I see no wrong doing from Luna’s standpoint. He has obviously developed this philosophy over quite a few years “ It’s true he’s been developing this plan over many years. When he first ran for election it was exactly on reform of this type and he was resoundingly rejected. He ran again on a more moderate platform and got elected, but when up for re-election he ran on the achievements of the existing system and gave us no clues as to the radical plans he had in mind. There was absolutely no transparency in the process, it was as if one blogger put it he “just thought it up over the Christmas break “
2.You said “More and more companies are doing their pre-employment testing on line. How should they respond to a 18 year old prospective employee that says, “I don’t know how to use that thing.” I guess you haven’t been near a school for years. My kids were all introduced to computers from grade one. They don’t take typing in high school any more, they take key boarding starting as young as third grade. Most eighteen year old’s will run circles around you with their skills on the computer and as an IT professional I’m impressed with their technological background coming out of high school.
3.You said “what good does publishing Luna’s income over three YEARS, other than to inflate the amount? “ Luna is an elected official and his income should be available to the public. The Idaho Freedom Foundation has been pushing for years to get all teachers and educators income posted online, and I have no problem with that.
4.You said that “The bottom line here is that the education system here in Idaho is in DESPERATE need of reform!! “ While the truth is that Idaho is doing quite well with it’s limited funding. Our state is in the top 50 percentile while being second from the bottom in per student spending (49th in spending). Not a bad return on a meager investment. If there is any “DESPERATE need of reform!! “ it would be to return funding to adequate levels.
Feb 20, 2011, 10:50 pm
To both ola and ericn1300.
I suppose you wanted to have Luna disclose his intent during the last campaign. (Sorta like President Obama was going to close Guantanamo?) If the man says this plan was needed when he found the projected shortfall in revenues to the state, I have no reason to not believe him.
With regard to his salary, Maybe you misunderstood. My point is that when you are trying to crucify someone it is best to “inflate” the income. Thus, it is more effective to say “he earned over $500,000.00 during those three years, than to say he earned$188,000.00 annually. I have no problem with disclosure, I am deeply troubled by Popkey’s sophomoric attempts to demonize Luna. To say we are in the top 50 percentile while being second from the bottom says nothing more than those spending more are wasting dollars even more than we are.
I am glad your children are receiving keyboard skills in school. If they are literate in their skills why are so many teachers against on line classes? The answer seems simple. They want to protect their butts financially! You folks need to finally realize WE HAVE NO MONEY!!!
Feb 22, 2011, 1:53 am
I need some hair care products for my kids. Does Tom have any idea where I can get a good deal?
Feb 23, 2011, 1:44 pm
The same dynamics were involved with the GARVEE and transportation funding push, which started under Kempthorne.
Legalities aside, my great disappointment with the leaders who championed these causes is how clumsy they look doing it. It really is an amatuer hour production. Republicans are strong in Idaho, but many of them are becomming very sloppy in how they handle their business.
Mar 3, 2011, 2:55 pm
Regardless of the educational changes, I fail to see how sending all the “savings” out of state in payments for computers and classes can poossibly help Idaho’s deficit. A dollar spent locally will circulate up to 7 times before it leaves the area. A dollar sent out of state is just gone.