Idaho schools superintendent Tom Luna has a new role in Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Luna has been named an education policy advisor to Romney. Luna has been one of Romney’s biggest Idaho supporters throughout the primary process and says he’s advised the former governor informally. Romney laid out his education priorities in a speech in Washington Wednesday. Nearly everything he talked about is part of Luna’s Students Come First public education laws that passed the Idaho Legislature last year.
“There’s a lot of similarities," Luna says. "A lot of what governor Romney’s talked about, expanding choice in education, holding the system and the adults that work in accountable. Those are very much in line with what we’ve accomplished here in Idaho.”
But Luna is not the only person who has Romney’s ear when it comes to education. 18 people make up the candidate’s new education advisory committee. They include some of the Republican Party’s top school policy makers. George Bush’s Secretary of Education, Rod Paige who was Luna’s boss when he worked for the U.S. Department of Education, is also part of the group.