Sen. Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, told state schools Supt. Tom Luna, "Any major reform like the one we're looking at today requires a lot of time. ... You have a task force, you might have a commission, you have all the stakeholders in. ... You've got to get it right the first time, the first time. Because if it isn't right the first time, then we're really experimenting." Malepeai said, "I don't think there was a lot of collaboration" in developing Luna's reform plan. "You need the stakeholders to buy in or it is not a success. ... Are the teachers not a part of this, or any educators for that matter, did they not have a role in this? Do we just say, 'Do as I tell you and just do it?' Is that how we're doing this?"

Luna said his criticisms are of Idaho's teachers union leaders, not of the teachers who are the members of that union. "I never referred to teachers themselves," he said. "It is my opinion, and it is only my opinion, that the teachers union leaders do not represent most teachers in Idaho. ... I think they're completely out of touch with the electorate and with parents."

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