BOISE - A list of proposed changes to Idaho's new education reforms has triggered a frequent question: What happens if the laws are repealed in November?

Opponents gathered enough signatures last year to put a referendum on this year's Nov. 6 ballot that, if approved, would overturn some of the biggest changes to Idaho's public education system in decades. The repeal would take effect immediately, with schools roughly three months into the next academic year.

While some details are certain, when it comes to how Idaho's public schools would handle the reversal, the answer depends on who's being asked.

The statewide teachers union, chief among critics of the reforms authored by public schools chief Tom Luna, contends a repeal would allow the state to ditch provisions that make Idaho less attractive to educators.

But Luna's department highlights the potential loss of funding for new technology and teacher bonuses, if his reforms are undone.

Idaho is phasing in laptops for every high school teacher and student while making online courses a requirement to graduate and introducing a merit pay system, under the changes. The laptops will be rolled out this fall, starting with teachers, while students will be added beginning in 2013, with one-third of high schools per year.

The state also narrowed collective bargaining talks to pay and benefits, nixed tenure and last year shifted funding away from salaries to help pay for the reforms.

Nearly a year after the education changes were signed into law, the battle lines remain deeply drawn as lawmakers make revisions in 2012.

Teachers have decried the plan as an attack on their profession, while Luna insists Idaho needed to return more power to locally elected school boards and restructure its education funding to provide students a "21st century" classroom.

"If lawmakers had listened to the public last year we wouldn't be having this conversation. They very clearly said not to pass these bills," said Idaho Education Association President Penni Cyr, who pointed to widespread public testimony against the plan in 2011.

But with a repeal of the laws, Luna's department says Idaho would no longer pay for students to take college credits while they're still in high school. The money for merit bonuses would also evaporate, along with new funding for professional development.

Teachers could reclaim their tenure, but they might have to let go of those new laptops.

"As far as the technology goes, we would probably have to take the laptops back, because we would no longer have the appropriation to complete the contract," said department spokeswoman Melissa McGrath.

Idaho would restore any money taken from teacher pay for the reforms - though a public schools budget approved by legislative budget writers for next year does not rely on salaries to help fund the changes. Some money would also flow back into early retirement bonuses that were eliminated under the reforms.

The funding slated for new technology and the merit pay bonuses in 2013 would likely be redirected into a rainy day account for public education, officials said.

The money to fund the pay-for-performance bonuses won't go out to school districts until mid-November, which allows time for the state to halt the program if the laws are repealed. But the same is not true for the laptop program, said Luna's deputy chief of staff Jason Hancock.

"That's one of the areas that would be really awkward if these laws are repealed," he said. "If we signed a contract and sent laptops out to teachers and then our legal authority for having that contract is removed, then what do you do with the laptops? Do we have to send them back? Are we obligated under the contract?"

The department will have to spend some "quality time" with the attorney general's office on those questions before signing a contract, Hancock said.

There's nothing to prevent lawmakers from taking up the education laws again in 2013. But if a majority of Idaho voters opt to overturn the reforms, lawmakers may think twice before thinking about putting them back in place, said Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst.

"If the Legislature just re-enacts it again, they may suffer at the next election," he said.