Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna wrote a tweet Friday morning encouraging people to visit releasethefunds.com, an online petition website aimed at getting the Land Board to approve a $58 million transfer from the Public Schools Earnings Reserve Fund to the schools budget for next year. Luna and other Land Board members will meet to vote on the issue on Feb. 10.
The first sentence of the petition site says, "Current projections from the Idaho legislature are that our local schools will be cut $135-$150 MILLION DOLLARS this year, that’s almost 12 percent!!!!!." A later sentence says "We see no justification for keeping this money in a reserve (rainy day) account when our schools need the money now!!!" In addition to the petition, the website tells visitors to email all the Land Board members, including Luna.
It is unclear when or how the petition will be presented to Land Board members.  The website says it is a citizen's petition sponsored by private Idaho citizens. According to a domain name search, the site was created on Jan. 31 and registered to a Meridian address that does not appear on Google Maps and an incorrect phone number.  IdahoReporter's attempts to contact the email address listed on the domain name search have been unreturned.