Idaho’s Superintendent of Education is in the halls of Congress Tuesday. Tom Luna testifies before a Senate committee on No Child Left Behind. Congress is working on an overhaul of the law that governs the nation’s schools.
Tom Luna “What I’m going to tell them is this reauthorization is the right step because it’s a step towards returning the governing of our schools back to states and local school districts. ”
Luna got the invite to testify because he shares credit for starting the momentum to update No Child Left Behind. He wrote a letter last spring to the Secretary of Education saying Idaho would not follow No Child Left Behind rules unless the law were overhauled. Other states followed. Luna favors the current Senate bill in large part because it’s similar to the Students Come First laws he pushed in Idaho.
Tom Luna “It requires at least a portion of a teacher’s performance evaluation be tied to student achievement. It requires that states use extensive data in order to drive professional development for teachers, and also individualized learning plans for students primarily through the use of technology.”
Luna appears before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee at 8:00 Mountain Time.