A group seeking to overturn Idaho's new education reform laws has more than half the signatures needed to put the issue on the November 2012 ballot. That's according to Mike Lanza, who heads Idahoans for Responsible Education Reform and says nearly 30,000 signatures have been collected on each of the three petitions as part of the referendum campaign. The group needs almost 48,000 signatures from registered voters by June 6th. Lanza says organizers are nearly halfway to their 60,000 goal. The reforms were authored by public schools chief Tom Luna and surrounded by contentious debate during the 2011 session. The changes phase out tenure for new teachers and restrict collective bargaining while also shifting money from salaries to fund technology upgrades in the classroom and a new merit pay plan.

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