Okay all five of you who read my blog (hey, that's up from 3) the elections are coming up and I encourage you to go vote. I have never felt so negatively about a political candidate in my entire life (thus far). I would like to share with you just a few of my reasons, but if you are interested in more... I have plenty and I have more specific details.
1. He has never been a teacher in public schools in his life. Imagine if you are a fireman, or a policeman, or a surgeon, or an engineer and they hire someone to be over everyone in your occupation, but the person they hire to TELL YOU HOW TO DO YOUR JOB has never done your job. How would you feel? Maybe our children just aren't that valuable in Idaho that we simply don't care about hiring someone who is not only a practicioner, but who is also respected by those he is in charge of.
2. I CAN HONESTLY SAY I DO NOT KNOW ONE SINGLE TEACHER who respects or supports Tom Luna. That is the truth. I am flabbergasted that he can get up there in these debates and continue to say that he has our support. THat is SUCH a flagrant, outrageous lie!
3. Our state testing (and I am actually in favor of valid forms of standardized national assessments) has been changed, manipulated, invalidated, and flopped around so many times, that it is a joke. The one TRUE form of assessment (kind of like asking a fireman to actually put out a fire and not just take a test about "how to put out a fire") was the Direct Writing Assessment. The students actually had to write and not just circle multiple choice. Luna not only helped bring in the biggest cut to education in Idaho's history... he did away with this form of assessment "to save money". Really? Why? Because he's clueless. Subgroups for testing are being manipulated and target scores adjusted and yet all this flawed, inconsistent testing is being used to prove what?
4. I have had the opportunity to participate in speaking forums about education and have both confronted and witnessed Mr. Luna in full action. For example, when the teachers (including myself) met last year at Boise High to testify to a large panel of legislators (and Mr. Luna), while educators talked about losing jobs, losing faith in education, losing funding for basic supplies, and offered alternatives to cutting education funding.... Mr. Luna was texting on his cell phone. He was texting things like "why am I here?" "This is a waste of my time." He is so unprofessional, so underqualified, and so out of touch with the very group he is supposed to lead.
4. He had a chance to give up millions in discretionary funds to save jobs and instead kept it for "neat-o initiatives" with strong ties to political lobbyist and with limited saturation and effect on the districts in this state. Yet he has the audacity to say Olsen accepted a pay raise! I guarantee you that Olsen's pay raise would not have saved millions like the selfish decision he made to transfer money to his own department fund.
5. Time after time co-workers in various districts I have been in have recounted horror stories to me about the lack of knowledge that exists within the state department.
6. I have sat in on legislative hearings and listened to Mr. Luna (and members of the house education committee) bash public education like an ugly poster child.
Enough is Enough!
It is an insult to our profession that we do not have someone with experience and respect in the position of leadership that affects the education of our entire state.
I have so much more, but please understand that education can't take many more hits. New teachers are already leaving the profession at rate of 50%. Idaho teachers are taking jobs in other states. It's not just about jobs being cut, salaries like mine being cut, class sizes continually going up, and supplies being sparse..... it's about how ALL OF IT affects the type of education our children are getting. I teach IN SPITE of the pay BECAUSE I care about kids and about QUALITY education. Mr. Luna doesn't even know what that looks like.
Oh, and If you think "they" didn't have a choice about cutting education...... you do not have all the facts and I would be glad to share them with you.
It's simple-- we can keep dumping money into prisons and roads and losing quality teachers who are fed up with the lack of support that education and educators receive in this state-- or we can be part of the change this state needs. WE CAN speak up.
EVERY VOTE IS A VOICE.
Please.... do not vote for Tom Luna.
No comments:
Post a Comment