When Gov. Butch Otter’s 35-member Higher Education Task Force meets Friday at BSU’s Stueckle Sky Center, at least five of the eight member of Idaho’s state Board of Education – all eight are task force members – will be attending, which constitutes a quorum of the board. So under the Idaho Open Meeting Law, the board today sent out a formal meeting notice for the task force meeting, which starts at 9 a.m. MT.

The task force is co-chaired by state board member Linda Clark and tech entrepreneur Bob Lokken; among its members are the presidents of every major public college or university in the state, legislators from both parties, two students, business leaders, and a representative of Otter’s office. Friday’s session will be the task force’s first full meeting, after an organizational meeting in February and a “discovery and information gathering” session on March 17. The task force’s meeting will be streamed live; you can watch here.

 Otter is modeling the task force after his earlier task force on improving K-12 public schools, which led to a major five-year improvement plan that includes raising teacher pay and an array of reforms; Idaho’s now in the third year of the five-year plan, and it’s drawn widespread support from stakeholders and from both parties in the Legislature.