School board: Luna's plan 'a disaster'

I'm a parent of four and I'm very happy with Mr. Luna's proposal. We need innovation to meet the financial challenges that are facing all of us. It is hard to get behemoth institutions to embrace new models, hence the resistance from the unions. But it is time for the teacher's unions to admit that schools exist for the students' educational needs not for the teachers' employment needs.

I say this as a former teacher, having taught in both public and private schools.

American families have learned how to adapt to the economy and less money coming in. I think it is about time for all administrative personel to do the same. Starting at the top!!!

To MH resident and graciallan...were do you get your information??? Why is it everytime their is a crisis in education the blame is put on teachers and school boards and school administrators...blah, blah, blah...enough already...the problem with education is not that simple...first the state has to invest in the youth of that state, and folks, Idaho ranks almost dead last in that category...Mr. Luna has one agenda only in his proposal....POLICTICS!!!!

No doubt there are bad teacher out there, but the good ones vastly outnumber the bad ones, especially when teachers in this district took a cross the board seven percent pay cut...how is that rewarding outstanding teaching???

If it were not for unions in this country, there would be NO middle class....read your history...plus Mr. Otter and the rest of his cronnies have been trying to bust teacher unions for sometime...by the way, who would represent teachers if not for the union???

Why is it a bad thing to increase the pay of teachers??? Here is a profession that requires a four year college degree sometime more and continuious certifications after certifications, plus dealing with larger classroom sizes, shrinking budgets, pay cuts, parents who don't care about their children's education, hostile school boards, unfriendly elected state officials who want to strip teachers of every protective measure...I for one feel that they are true professionals, who are passionate about educating our children, plus dealing with all the crap stated above and trying to feed, cloth and raise a family of their own on a teachers salary!

Teachers were once reveard and respected in our society, but lately they have been thrown under the bus by everyone....I can't imagine why anyone would want to be a teacher today in America, especially after seeing your mis-guided comments.

My god, if all of this state or country feel the same way you clowns do, we are in serious trouble in our great country...

I support public education, I support our school boards and school administators, I support our children who are our future, and I fully support our teachers who are the key element in ensuring we have a future in our country...

Shame on you all...especially shame on Mr. Luna who himself needs to go back to school, because his math doesn't add up! Sometimes caring and committment to the future of our children and loyalty to our educators outweigh the cost!

Kiddos to the Mtn Home board of trustees for making a stand against Mr. Luna's looney proposal...I for one am very proud of them...keep up the good fight....remember we must fight for our children!!!!

dumbfounded,

I have a Master's in education and I have taught in both private and public schools. I don't have anything against teachers. But giant unions, like giant corporations, are inclined to operate from self interest. Tenure has been an albatross to the public school for some time. Not only can you not get rid of ineffective teachers, taxpayers often continue to support abusive ones. For one quick example, check out this story:

For seven years, math teacher Francisco Olivares raked in his $94,154 salary while his district tried to decide what to do about his impregnating a former student (who was 16 years old). Still in the classroom, he was criminally charged a decade later with showing one 12-year-old girl porn. Now retired, Olivares collects a cushy pension of $62,000 a year. (Thank you teacher's union.)

So, yes, I think we need to revisit the issue of tenure. And yes, I think the schools need to find new and better ways to use resources. (When I taught in private schools, we were able to educate a student for about $5000 a year - compared to the public school's (I lived in WA then) $8500. AND our students outscored the public system by 25 percentile points.

The system is broken in numerous places. I'm glad someone has the courage to step in and try to fix it. Let's come to the table with ideas to help, instead of being manipulated by unions with ulterior motives.

More "nuclear situations" for the MHSD and sky is falling bull.

Just raise taxes yet again for more MHSD out of control spending, hire a few more people for the MHSD office and call it good.

Less students=less teachers at least in the real world.

There is an election in the future for 3 MHSD Board seats. We need people with common sense to replace those without.

Do your own research on these issues. The MHSD is not factual in what they present as "fact." Be aware and get educated on the real facts (as opposed to what the MHSD would like us to believe). Attend the meetings and ask questions. DEMAND answers. Higher taxes were not the answer last year and are NOT the answer now.

I love it when the Union thugs come out of the woodwork and claim to be interested "only in the children". Nothing could be further from the truth. last year they cumulatively turned down $10M for new textbooks statewide. Why? To get it back into the teacher's pockets. they made a choice and the kids got the shaft. No problem though because, you know what? The Unions ONLY represent the teachers.

I for one will be so grateful that we, the taxpayers no longer have to fund the salaries of teachers who are working as union reps. full-time while drawing taxpayer funded salaries at the District level. Let's see how popular the unions are when the dues have to go through the roof to cover the salaries of those folks. Better yet, lets see how many of those folks want to be paid whiners for a living instead of teachers if they have to sacrifice the decent and ofttimes high salaries that teachers enjoy (along with the accompanying benefits) to work for what the Union is willing to think they're worth.

Education is no different than the Federal Govt. They cannot even for a moment fathom having to live on a budget. It's always MORE, MORE...give me more. And they do so little with it as to be the brunt of jokes. Drop the number and ratio of administrators by half and we'll talk. Until then, enjoy the trough while it lasts. I'll continue to take care of my kids ultimate need for an education by myself.