The panelists at the Idaho core standards forum: State schools Superintendent Tom Luna; Madison School District director for curriculum and staff development Bruce Cook; Stephanie Rice, an English teacher for grades 7-12 in Council; Dorothy Moon, president of Moon & Associates engineering and surveying in Rupert and a retired educator; Steve LaBau, an elementary principal from Nampa; and Stephanie Zimmerman, founder of Idahoans for Local Education.

The first question was about money and where it comes from for the new core standards. Luna said, “The fact is, Idaho id did not receive any federal dollars when we adopted these standards. … We would not lose any federal funding if we were to walk away from these standards tomorrow.” He added, “Adopting new standards is nothing new for our schools. We change standards every five years.”