Luna

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — State officials say they have awarded an eight-year, $180 million contract to Hewlett-Packard to supply Idaho high school students and teachers with laptop computers as part of the Students Come First education overhaul...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho teachers likely won't have laptops for months. The Spokesman-Review reports the state won't have the computers in instructors' hands on schedule. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna is already fighting at the ballot box on Nov...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Secretary of State Ben Ysursa says he's likely to demand that a group helping finance the campaign to save Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna's education reforms reveal its contributors. Education Voters of Idaho collected at least $200,000 to promote Luna's reforms ahead of the Nov...

(KLIX)- The campaign for the "Vote No on Proposition 1,2,3" got underway this week. The group aimed at pushing back State Superintendent Tom Luna’s Students Come First reform laws. The group says the laws approved last year are bad for students, teacher, and public education...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A mix of large and small school districts will be first in line when Idaho starts phasing in  laptops for every 9th through 12th grader. The list obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press includes big districts like Meridian and Boise in southwest Idaho, though they'll be limited on how many high schools get the computer devices.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho's public schools chief has been named to a 19-member group charged with advising Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on education issues.

(AP) - A group working to overturn Idaho's new education reforms has hired an out-of-state consultant who last November helped repeal a hotly debated Ohio law limiting collective bargaining.  David Williams is working on the Idaho campaign aimed at repealing laws that restrict teacher bargaining and require students to take online courses.

(AP) - Public schools chief Tom Luna is expected to testify later this week before a U.S. House committee on efforts to overhaul the nation's governing education law. Meanwhile, state lawmakers are urging Congress to repeal No Child Left Behind, which expects every child to be at grade level in math and reading by 2014.

Public schools chief Tom Luna says money the governor hoped to funnel toward an education reserve fund should instead be used to offset a $19 million reduction in salaries in 2013.  The state is moving the money from salaries to help pay for classroom technology and teacher pay-for-performance as part of Luna's "Students Come First" education changes...

State spending on public schools is in line for a $30 million increase under Gov. Otter's proposed budget for next year. Public schools chief Tom Luna wanted at least $60 million of a projected state surplus to go toward public education in the fiscal year that starts July 1.

Parents across Idaho will now play a role in whether or not their child's teacher gets a raise. Teacher bonuses in more than two dozen school districts will depend to some degree on how well they can  engage parents, as part of new education changes that were signed into law this year.

(AP) Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna says the state is close to receiving a waiver under the No Child Left Behind Act. But Luna says the bottom 15 percent of schools will still be held accountable under the law. Luna made his comments Thursday at the end of a two-day meeting of the State Board of Education at Lewis-Clark State College...

Public schools chief Tom Luna says education would get about a third of the projected $180 million budget surplus Idaho is expected to carry into the next fiscal year, under a spending plan he's submitting to the governor.  Luna told says he wants at least $61 million of the surplus to go toward public education in the 2012-2013 school year...

Idaho school progress stagnated last year, with only 62 percent of schools again meeting targets.     Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna said he was pleased that overall school performance mirrored the previous year's figure, given that tight budgets could have led to even poorer math and reading test results.

Word on the street is that Idaho School Superintendent Tom Luna could be the next governor.  Luna's success in passing his "Students Come First" education reforms have made him the subject of speculation over a 2014 run - should Gov. "Butch" Otter exit the scene.

Top Story Podcast 7/15/11: First hour - A letter from Judge Napolatano to John Boehner, Luna Recall, Steve Crump.  Second hour - Shelly Dugan of Jerome recently was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis.  She was unable to get the help she needed in the U ...

It's official: Voters will weigh in on Idaho's new education laws next year. On Monday the Idaho Secretary of State's office issued official certificates placing the three referendums on the November 2012 ballot. Last week, a group of parents and teachers who want to overturn the new laws championed by public schools chief Tom Luna handed in more than 74,000 signatures on each of their three peti

State schools Superintendent Tom Luna opened the first meeting of his “Students Come First” Technology Task Force yesterday with a speech calling on Idaho to become a “global leader” in education.

The Idaho GOP is asking its constituents for "emergency" gifts to help Idaho schools superintendent Tom Luna defeat a recall effort. The Idaho statesman reports that Chairman Norm Semanko sent a recent letter to party faithful  asking members to make a donation to the Recall Protection Fund...

From referendums to recalls, the debate over Idaho's public education system continues to be a hot topic. The Idaho department of education has begun to implement the new laws that made up State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna's reform package. Luna introduced the package during this past session of the Idaho legislature.