Law & Courts

Tire-Slashing and Heckling over School Policy in Idaho

By Sean Cavanagh — February 15, 2011 1 min read
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Not content to attack the Idaho state schools chief’s policies, a vandal evidently decided to attack his truck.

State schools superintendent Tom Luna awoke at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning to find two tires on his vehicle slashed, and the word “Luna” spray-painted across the body.

While he isn’t pointing fingers, Luna said he’s pretty certain that whoever slashed his tires was riled up about his sweeping education proposal. As I explained recently, Luna is calling for saving state money by raising class sizes and cutting teaching positions, and pouring funding into performance pay, technology improvements, virtual education, and other efforts.

Luna has been the target of other displays of anger recently. A teacher went to his mother’s house last weekend, and he was heckled Tuesday morning after a live newscast in a coffee shop in Boise, the Associated Press reports.

The Idaho Education Association, which opposes Luna’s plan, said the schools chief had told them about the incidents. “We can assure you,” the union said in a statement to its members, “as we assured Mr. Luna—that no union boss sent anyone to his mother’s home.”

In that same message, the union urged its members to voice their displeasure over the schools plan on talk radio, and in e-mails to Luna, Gov. C.L. Otter, and lawmakers, but to “communicate civilly and professionally.”

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A version of this news article first appeared in the State EdWatch blog.