Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the more and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

It was a big week for education at the State House, with leaders from K through 12 and higher education, talking to lawmakers about their concerns.

But will the legislature be on the same page?

I'm Melissa Davlin.

Idaho Reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week, we take a look at some of the heated debates around education funding and needs across the state, including challenges, recruiting and retaining employees.

Then Idaho State University President Kevin Satterlee College of Eastern Idaho President Rick Amon and College of Western Idaho President Gordon Jones join me to discuss challenges in higher education.

But first, on Wednesday, the legislature introduced a bill from Senator Doug Okuniewicz, which that would ask voters to amend the Idaho Constitution to make it more challenging to get a citizen's initiative on the ballot.

Current Idaho law requires signatures from 6% of registered voters in 18 legislative districts, but this change would require signatures from all 35 legislative districts.

The Idaho Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional a 2021 legislative attempt to make the same change, opponents say, requiring 6% from all 35 legislative districts would make it virtually impossible to get an initiative on the ballot.

If this resolution passes the legislature, the question would be on the November 2024 ballot.

Monday was EMS Day at the Capitol and Idaho Reports caught up with EMS bureau chief Wayne Denny to talk about his goals for the session.

Historically, we've got a very good relationship with the legislature on trying to deal with EMS issues, but we saw this as a real opportunity this year to get policymakers together with EMS professionals from around the state, to really tell the story, to get that foundational level of understanding of within the legislature on on what what the EMS system looks like, the the weak spots, the strong spots so that we can continue having a discussion about what we need to do in the future with EMS in Idaho.

This legislative session really is a continuation from last year.

Last year we had the Office of Performance Evaluation had released a report that looked at volunteer EMS in the state, and the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee looked at that report and we had some meetings and what have you.

So that really started our our our journey on trying to identify and solutions to the problems in the state.

So this year, like I said, with the turnover that we've had, getting that education in the knowledge base and then hopefully this session will meet again with JLOC and continue the conversation about the OPE report.

We've had some discussion about concurrent resolution between the Senate and the House that really formalizes the work that our task force is doing, the planning that we're doing to get us ready for a discussion that we hope to have next year.

The way that Idaho Code is written today, it hints at the fact that EMS is important, but what it doesn't say is that EMS is essential.

And then you look at the code structure in other states and where they'll say that EMS is essential.

What they don't say universally is that it must exist.

And that's really what we want to get to is not only the declaration that it's essential, but what does that mean in in my mind and the conversation that we've had with the task force is that EMS not only is essential, but it should be reasonably available.

Idaho Reports spent part of the summer talking to Rural Emergency Medical Services about funding challenges they face.

You can find that package online at IdahoPTV.org/IdahoReports Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield pitched her budget proposal to the legislature's Joint Budget Committee this week, seeking nearly $2.5 billion in funding for K through 12 schools.

One of the smaller pieces of the proposal was Governor Brad Little's recommendation for 5% raises for classified employees, such as bus drivers, school cafeteria workers, tech employees and paraprofessionals during the fall semester.

Idaho Reports talked to superintendents and teachers of the Moscow, Potlatch and Kootenai School Districts about their challenges recruiting and retaining these critical school district employees and the effect the shortages have on students.

I would say it's become even more difficult to recruit, to recruit our classified employees.

A lot of them tend to be people who have already lived around here, people who have grown up in the school district themselves.

For example, our our catering staff.

So our lunch ladies and whatnot have gone to the school and they've been in the district for 20, 30 plus years, or people who are married to teachers, people who already do part time as a bus driver or something like that.

That's where we get a lot of our classified our hourly staff to sort of help out.

But we always need more support.

We always need more paraprofessionals, we always need more special ED help, things like that.

Our two main areas where we're struggling with is our bussing with our bus drivers as well as our paraprofessionals.

The aides in the classroom, those those we're still missing quite a few, as well as knowing that like in our bus drivers scenario, our average age is 70 and a lot of them are ready to stop driving.

Currently, we normally run 6 to 7 bus routes because of the large area that we have to cover on county roads.

We have consolidated some of our routes, which means kids will be on busses longer, which is not a good scenario.

But we're we are we only have the personnel to do the four routes, so.

Our two in-town bus routes we've had to cancel because of not having a driver to to drive those routes.

We have some kids that get picked up at 6:45 and are dropped off at a school by about eight.

So over an hour that they're on the bus.

There were some that some families we worked with to have them come to a different stop or they would have had to be picked up at 6:30.

So.

So there are a couple families that we're going to try to pay in lieu of for some mileage to get them to a closer stop so that our busses don't have to be on the road quite as long.

We bus some of our students at the high school to other locations for P.E.

because we don't really have an area for P.E.

in that by that school.

So we are going to probably have to cancel one PE class, which starts causing problems in itself.

We have people like our transportation supervisor and our technology supervisor and our maintenance supervisor.

Those folks are very much an integral part of making sure our district runs and that we have safe buildings, that we have technology that runs so that students can learn and that our busses are ready to go every day as well.

And those folks, we are not able to pay them as much as they could get paid.

Just going out into the private industry, especially like our our tech folks, they could make probably double or triple what they're making here.

We've really tried hard in the past couple of years to increase their pay because their pay is is not where we would like it.

Obviously.

We're trying to compete with places even like McDonald's, Sonic, and so we tried to make sure that our classified employees get paid at least what they would make at an hourly job.

I'm glad that the governor is fulfilling his campaign promises on education.

That's huge.

I love that.

So continue the work because it's only getting started.

That would be, I think, my message.

You know, don't don't think that just a one time thing or I know the governor's proposal is longer than that, but but just injecting money here and there is not enough.

You know, you need a long term sustained goal.

And I think that they're on the right track for sure.

We sat down with Superintendent Debbie Critchfield after her budget presentation on Wednesday to ask about Governor Little's request for a 5% raise for classified employees and whether it would be enough to make up for the cost of living, rising housing costs and housing shortages.

It's number one, folks, that I talked to that want to stay in education or wish they could stay in education were it not for the economic challenges that come with that.

You bring up another interesting point of this with the housing.

Something else that I that I learned and have observed myself coming from a small rural community.

Many times it's not even that you can or can't afford a home, but the availability of a home, particularly as you get out outside of, you know, the Treasure Valley and more of our urban areas around the state.

Trying to connect a new young teacher or a young family or even someone who wants to move into the community because they like the culture that's there.

Many times those individuals will say to the principal, to the superintendent, I'd love to come here, but I don't know where I'm going to live.

You can catch our full interview with superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield, including her thoughts on potential school choice legislation on this week's Idaho Reports podcast.

You can find the Idaho Reports podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

Also this week, leaders from Idaho's public four year institutions and community colleges presented their budget requests to the Joint Budget Committee, focusing on their academic programs and facility needs.

Some higher education institutions, particularly Boise State University and University of Idaho, fielded tough questions from lawmakers this week over diversity and inclusion programs.

BSU President Marlene Tromp and UI President Scott Green defended their institutions and challenged some of the numbers.

Lawmakers used to draw their conclusions about the university's expenditures.

Unlike our sister institutions, our industry partners have explicitly told us that they expect our graduates to be able to work in the 21st century workforce diverse environments.

And we've heard this over and over again from businesses.

That is a part of our workforce development preparation.

You know, as you may recall, the last legislative session, the University of Idaho reported that we asked the law firm of Holly Troxel the gold standard really for firms in Idaho to reverse our review, our diversity and equity programing.

And this was in response to House Bill 377 and allegations made by conflict entrepreneurs regarding the U of I’s work in diversity inclusion.

That investigation found that after a thorough review, they were unable to substantiate any of the allegations made.

And importantly, there were no findings of indoctrination as was being claimed.

The director of Black and African-American Culture and Center and director of Diversity Inclusion Outreach for the College of Engineering are not funded with state appropriations.

On Friday, I sat down with the presidents of three other Higher Education Institutions President Kevin Satterlee of Idaho State University, President Gordon Jones of College of Western Idaho, and President Rick Aman of College of Eastern Idaho.

Thanks so much for joining us this week.

I wanted to start by asking about facility upgrades they’re.

A big concern for especially at the older campuses, President Satterlee.

What are the consequences if these updates don't get funded?

Well, on our campus, we have discovered that there's just aging infrastructure and it's a combination of both aging infrastructure and updates that are needed in order to keep up with modern educational strategies and technologies.

So the ultimate consequence, if we don't address these things, is it impacts the educational environment, which is the, you know, fancy way of saying it will impact the student experience and their ability to education that they need.

So these upgrades and deferred maintenance items that the Governor has recommended are actually pretty critical on our campus.

You both, of course, have newer campuses at College of Eastern Idaho and College of Western Idaho.

Do your schools benefit from these investments or are future upgrades on your radar?

Well, Melissa, they absolutely do.

And just for a little clarity, although we're five years old as a community college, ITech a technical school has been around for 35 years.

So essentially the same kinds of issues President Satterlee described.

And for people who aren't familiar, sorry, that's that's a facility that you use as a college.

Sure.

So so the technical college became a community college five years ago.

So the point would be that there is aging infrastructure, you know, roofs and just all the external part, but there is a lot of upgrade that needs to happen into those campuses as well.

tterlee the infrastructure, I.T., all of those things are very important to the experience.

And how about at CWI?

Yeah, I think it's the same thing.

I mean, we whether it's a university that's been around many years as Idaho State and kept President Satterly or CWI very young, similar CEI we’re 30,000 students it's a question of do you take care of the houses that you have if you're a homeowner analogy and in some cases you have to build the new homes and CWI in Nampa is 140 acres and one one academic building.

And so having place, having a place to learn with classmates is important.

So I think this facility investments are critical regardless of the age of your institution.

And the common theme for all of us is that education is constantly changing and that requires the environment to keep up with that.

So all of us, regardless of age of facilities, have to keep our facilities modern to the educational needs or that education ends up suffering.

I imagine, especially when we're talking about things like career technical education and getting people ready.

Well, if I if I could, you know, expand on that.

Things like simulations become very important.

And it's this interesting mix between a general classroom that could be used five years from now versus a specific classroom.

And then the information technology, obviously, online learning becomes important.

So being able to place that kind of equipment in a concrete building adds a share of complexity.

You also have to balance all of these concerns with affordability for the students.

That's a huge concern in higher education across the nation.

But property taxes are also a huge concern for Idahoans.

So especially on the community college level, where you benefit from property taxes pretty directly.

How do you balance the needs of the students with the concerns of the community?

Yeah, I mean, I would just say Colleges, College of Western Idaho.

Yes, property taxes is a part of our of our source of funding that allows us to put on education.

Both Rick and I have mill rates.

The percentage, you know, every hundred thousand dollars of home value we’re in the $7, $8, $9 range, which is exceptional value.

We say in Canyon County you're paying more for mosquito control than you are for CWI.

And so I know mosquitoes are actually very important too.

But I would just say that I think we as leaders have to monitor where these sources of funding come.

But it is a public, you know, it's your sons and daughters, it's your spouses, it's your parents who may be going to a community college.

You're paying $3,300 and change per year for a full time student.

It's great affordability.

What it means for us, though, is we turn to additional partners.

There's employers, there's individuals in the community, there's the state.

Together, it makes up that revenue, but affordability I’ve been saying from the beginning.

We're aware of it and we absolutely take it seriously.

And so taxpayers, we know we're in a relationship, but we have to be careful that we don't overburden, but we don't deny that we need to be in a relationship.

And that includes funding.

So Gordon makes an important point.

Again, five years old as a as a college, and we start with a mill rate of 15 per 100,000 of assessed value.

Values in Idaho Falls have increased, so the mill rate has gone down.

And as Gordon described, we're probably at $9.31.

So the taxpayers are seeing less of a burden now than they did initially.

And that's only one leg of a three legged stool for community colleges.

I, I know you have a slightly different funding structure at Idaho State University.

How has inflation affected your ability to keep student fees and tuition down?

I think inflation is one of the two largest driving factors currently in the four year system.

And by way of background, in the four year system, we really only have two funding sources.

Yes, we have grants and we have federal money.

We have donations, we have sales of services.

But at the end of the day, there's two drivers in Idaho's higher ed system.

It's the state taxpayer support from the general account, and it's tuition.

And as a as a philosophical point, the presidents in the last few years have tried to hold tuition flat because of affordability, because we're concerned about that.

But if the the amount from the legislature doesn't keep up with that, then it creates a gap.

And that's right where we are.

At Idaho State University in the last two years, our fixed cost utilities, because we have three campuses across the state, have gone up $1.2 million.

There has been no increase from the legislature to cover that and we haven't increased tuition.

So it just creates a pinch point.

So that's a real issue in our campuses is exactly how you try to meet those fixed cost increases while not increasing the cost to the students.

Idaho In our four year institutions, we have the sixth lowest net tuition in the country already and we want to keep it low.

That's also why the governor's proposal to create a new grant program for students to go to school will lower that net cost even further.

Idaho is going to become one of the most affordable states in the union to go to college for all of us.

And that's what makes that so exciting.

Let's talk a little bit about that, that phase of the Idaho launch program.

So so that would be $8,500 in dollars for graduating Idaho seniors to attend a public institution in Idaho.

You know, if we're looking at a place like CWI, you have phenomenal enrollment across the Treasure Valley.

How do you anticipate that affecting student enrollment and involvement?

You know, when I go out and I talk to K-12 superintendents, often those that are five more more miles from our campus, I'm thinking of Superintendent Gilbert in Mountain Home let's say.

One of the biggest challenges and viewers may or may not be aware that we have a go on rate the rate of high school students that go on to postsecondary education or the military or other options.

That's not where we want it to be.

37% at the most post-COVID numbers.

And it's and it's been low for a long time.

Correct.

And the reason that matters is because while I'm a big believer, there's a lot of ways to make a wonderful life and a living, it may or may not require post-secondary.

Many jobs are going unfilled in the state, and we're having to have employers that scramble that could use Idahoans that need that step for post-secondary.

.

so anything like it, a schol.. a grant funding that can allow for that to happen.

When I talk to a superintendent, it's often cost that they say, is one of the things.

One of the biggest drivers that says students say ehh not right now and sometimes not right now becomes never.

And let's be honest, there's a lot of skill sets that every one of us have, whether we go to school, college or not.

And if universities, if community colleges can help unlock that with some training, some learning, it's going to help this state.

And so I'm certainly a big supporter.

I think it could be a real game changer.

I think we all are supporting the governor's initiative, $8,500 for Gordon and I, if you think about this, our to our annual tuition is about $3,300.

So literally a student could go to a community college virtually at no cost.

And again, that's a big driver for this go on And then for Kevin or any of the university presidents in that realm receiving a junior that is prepared to go into a baccalaureate and baccalaureate program and having no debt is a significant advantage.

I think that's critical to understand, too, is we're operating as a system, right?

We're working together.

Idaho doesn't have a system in the structured way that other states do, but we do have one in cooperation that we all have together.

Our transfer numbers at Idaho State University are steadily increasing because of the relationships we are building, and that's exactly what we want.

I think it's fantastic if a student goes to one of our community colleges for those first two years, gets the lower price point, gets the education they need, and then moves on, that's a that's a that's a fantastic way to operate.

You know, you brought up something earlier about making sure that that your institutions are meeting the needs of Idaho employers and understanding what the economy needs.

So there's the issue of what the economy needs right now.

And we've heard especially that that's medical workers and certain jobs in the education realm.

But there's also what Idaho might need in the future.

How do you anticipate what Idaho's economy might need in those coming years versus what the economy needs right now?

So that's that's where the concept of how we invest in the capacity building and invest in the the research that we do on our campus is part of that part of what drives the technology of the future.

Employers need and drives the skill sets, drives the academic areas are the innovations that come out of higher education, that develop these concepts and these ways of doing things, and then they get spun off into the private sector and turned into jobs.

So when you fail to invest in that infrastructure now, then we will be behind ten years from now.

But if we can work on those things now, they lend themselves to keep driving in the economy.

It's why every one of us spend so much of our time staying in contact with business and industry and talking to the employers.

What do you need?

What do you need to see from our graduates?

That's that's the key is to keep that linkage open.

I think in particular, let's let's talk Eastern Idaho for a second.

And both Kevin and I are both of our institutions support Idaho National Lab.

And as you think about that, it is a world class lab in the area of cybersecurity, in the area of small modular reactor energy innovation, technology, all of those kind of things are very important.

We have to listen to our employers and build our program.

So sometimes we talk about the Wayne Gretzky model, right?

We should skate to where the puck is going to be and all of us attempt to look in the future and look at those those family wage jobs that are going to emerge.

I think the other thing I would just I think the other thing I'd add is, look, we all recognize there's a tension between the needs of today and tomorrow.

I think there are leaders, my collegues I certainly believe the same thing, which is that you can't bet on everything, right?

Not everything that we anticipate ten years from now is going to be there.

So being in touch with employers is really important.

I think we also realize as a state, we can't do everything.

We have to be choicefull.

So I think the question as leaders we have to make is what are those longer term ones, bets.

But we've de-risked it by these kind of relationships.

And the one thing about Idaho is everybody's in a relationship where we're still one degree of separation from each other.

And that really is a strength of the state.

But there's also today I got 300 public safety officers at our POST facility for police officers, firefighters, teachers.

Those don't require a lot of insight.

And so there's both we're doing and I think we have the beautiful thing about our state is we have leaders who are asked to lead their institutions.

And I think that's something we try to shepherd.

But it's a it's a real tension.

But we'll work it out.

And we only have a couple of minutes left.

But I did want to ask you, you're investing so much work into training of these students for workforce readiness, but you can't control what they do after they graduate.

What would you like to see from the Idaho legislature to make Idaho a more welcoming place so your graduating students don't go and contribute their skills in Washington or Utah?

I think it's less of an issue for a CWI and maybe community colleges but I'm not by a border.

Many of our students are looking at while the affordability and I've said this to the legislature.

Most of our, virtually everything we do if you're going to use CWI for a degree or a training is under $12,000 total.

And yet the jobs that I see in our community here are $50,000 to $100,000, 98% of our students at CWI are from Idaho, 88% are from Canyon and Ada County.

The likelihood that you'll move for a $50,000 job is much lower and we typically see students coming from the community and returning right to the community they're in.

So I'm going to defer to my colleagues on where they may challenge and face this challenge.

One of the things that I talked to a lot of prospective employers when they come into eastern Idaho and in in Treasure Valley because of our campus here, I talk to prospective employers that our Chamber of Commerce or others will connect me with because they're thinking of locating a business here or starting a business here.

Without exception.

Without exception, every one of those employers asks the question, What is our education system like in Idaho before they will move here, before they move their employees here and want their families to relocate here or start the business here?

They want to know we have a robust, well invested in educational system.

So if I had one ask to the legislature is make sure that our educational system from K through 12, through higher ed is one that our employers want to bring their employees to.

That's the ask.

And we're going to have to leave it there.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

That's a great discussion.

Thank you.

For updated legislative news throughout the week.

Follow Idaho Reports on social media for links to our online coverage.

Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you next week.

Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettiss family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the corporation for Public Broadcasting.