Luke was born on August 17, 1961, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He attended school in the Tulsa Public School system and in 1979 graduated from Booker T. Washington High School, a magnet school with a specialized curriculum. After high school Luke served as a pastor of two Southern Baptist churches from 1981 to 1994. Luke attended Texas Tech University, graduating magna cum laude with a BS in Education in 1990. In 1995 he received a master's degree in education administration from that same institution. In 2007 Luke received his doctorate in education administration from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.
In 2001, Luke was a candidate for the governor’s appointment to the state’s Teacher Retirement System in 2001.[1] In 2002, while serving as a Texas public school superintendent, Luke launched a primary campaign against incumbent Jim Keffer in a bid for the Texas House of Representatives in District 60, representing Hood, Eastland, Brown, Stephens, Shackleford, and Palo Pinto counties. He lost the election with just over 26% of the vote in a three-person race.[2]
In 2007 Luke published his dissertation entitled "Equity in Texas Public Education Facilities Funding,"[3] which explored levels of equity in Texas state funding for public school facilities by analyzing capital expenditure outlays among the state's 1,039 school districts.