State schools Supt. Tom Luna has gotten lots of questions from members of the Senate Education Committee about his education reform plan. Among them: Lots of questions about his proposal to give every 9th grader a laptop; questions about whether his proposal to require school districts to use state purchasing contracts will cut out local merchants from providing products or services to schools; a question about whether his plan for university-sponsored charter schools would fall under current caps on new charter schools (it would); and questions about lost teaching jobs under Luna's plan.

Committee Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d'Alene, noted that statewide turnover in teaching positions may not occur equally in all districts, and raising class sizes might still require layoffs in some districts.  "We still may find ourselves in a situation where the loss of teachers in a particular district cannot be covered by attrition," Goedde said. Luna responded, "We know that that's ... the probability. Attrition is not going to deal with every one of the reduction in force issues. But with the numbers I've presented, I'm comfortable that it's going to compensate for most and a considerable majority of the positions that we would eliminate."