Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna sent out an email Friday reminding superintendents, school board trustees and charter school administrators about the Idaho Land Board’s meeting this Wednesday for a decision about whether to tap into the endowment fund for the immediate education needs.
He also encourages them to contact the land board members and voice their support, according to the e-mail, which was obtained by Capitol Confidential.
A voting member of the land board, Luna wants to tap $52.8 million from the endowment fund, but he’ll still need two more votes for it to pass. The other members are: the governor, attorney general, state controller and secretary of state.
If the recipients of Luna’s email all write the letters he requested, that means each land board member will get more than 100 letters. Idaho has 115 school districts and more than 30 charter schools. Luna’s approach, though, doesn’t follow that of a boilerplate form letter.
He asks all the schools to be specific about their own situation. The full text of the email is below.
From: TRLuna@SDE.IDAHO.GOV
To: TRLuna@SDE.IDAHO.GOV
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2010 15:25:24 -0700
Subject: Idaho Land Board Vote
Dear Superintendents, Charter School Administrators and School Board Trustees,
I am writing to remind you that the Idaho Land Board is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, February 10 on the one-time distribution of $52.8 million from the Public School Earnings Reserve Fund. This additional revenue will help in significantly reducing the cuts to public schools in the upcoming fiscal year 2011. As State Superintendent, I urge you to voice your support to the members of the Idaho Land Board for the approval of this one-time distribution. They need to hear your support.
Several school districts have sent letters of support signed by the district superintendent, school board chair and teachers’ association president. I strongly encourage every district to take this step and send a similar letter to demonstrate the widespread support for this one-time distribution. In this letter, please be sure to describe how your district and most importantly, your students, will be affected if Idaho’s public schools do not receive this additional funding.
Thank you for your time and your continued support during this tough economic situation.
Tom Luna
