Tom Luna

Thomas "Tom" Luna (born 1958 in Santa Ana, California) is the former Superintendent of Public Instruction in Idaho. He was first elected to the position in 2006. Luna was re-elected in 2010 following a challenge from the former superintendent of the Boise School District.

Luna currently serves the Idaho Republican Party as the Financial Chair of the Executive Committee.

Luna moved to Idaho to attend college at Ricks College, in 1981, and later attended Boise State University.

He announced his candidacy for state superintendent in September 2001.

In March 2002, Luna graduated from Thomas Edison State College.

Business

Luna is the owner of Scales Unlimited, an industrial truck scale company which he started in 1982.  He was later appointed to be President of The International Society of Weights and Measurement (ISWM) and as a voting member of National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP).

Education

Local

Luna served on the Nampa School Board for seven years, three of those as chairman.

State

In 2006, Luna was elected as Idaho State Superintendent of Public Instruction.  He was re-elected to a second term in 2010. He was also appointed Commissioner of Idaho Achievement Standards Committee and Chairman of the Idaho Assessment and Accountability Committee.  

National

From 2003 to 2005 Luna worked for the U.S. Department of Education as an adviser to then-U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. He served as Executive DIrector for the White House Initiative of Tribal Colleges and Universities and as the Director of the US Rural Education Task Force.

While serving as Idaho State Superintendent, Luna was Named President-Elect of Chief State School Officers (2010) and was appointed to the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) to help set policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

In 2012, Presidential candidate Mitt Romney named Luna to Romney's 19-member education policy advisory group, the only state superintendent to be chosen for the panel.

Current Position

Currently Luna is the Senior Vice President and Chief Government Relations Officer of Project Lead The Way.

As a member of the Nampa School Board from 1994 to 2002, Luna supported school vouchers and tax credits for private schools as a means to increase competition in education.

Running for the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Idaho position in 2006, Luna focused on promoting charter schools. Columnist William McGurn stated that he found Luna's business experience and lack of education degree, "refreshing".

Students Come First

The centerpiece of education reforms spearheaded by Luna following his 2006 election as Superintendent is a package of legislation known as Students Come First. Among the reforms in the Students Come First package, passed by the Idaho Legislature in 2011, are:

• New limits to the collective bargaining rights of Idaho teachers
• Raised the annual minimum pay for new teachers by $345
• Established a performance-based merit pay system for teachers
• Increase classroom sizes in grades 4 through 12
• Phase out tenure, instead implementing one- and two-year rolling contracts for every new teacher and administrator, depending on experience
• Requiring online course credit for high school graduation
• Providing laptop computers for all high school teachers and high school students and classroom Wi-Fi

Luna's proposed reforms have been challenged though ballot initiatives. Among the opponents is the The Idaho Education Association, a state teachers union. Petitions challenging the Students Come First legislation collected enough signatures to place the matter on the state's November 6, 2012, general election ballot. There were three separate ballot propositions because the reforms were passed with three legislative bills. Voters rejected all three propositions on November 6, striking down the reforms.

Luna and his wife Cindy have six children and thirteen grandchildren.