Favorable Reports Could Actually Hurt Colleges Lawmakers May Be Less Likely To Give Money To System Performing Well

A student body president, a recent graduate whose children are in college and a business leader gave the state’s higher education system solid marks on Monday.

Their report card potentially could undermine any campaign to divert more state support to the four schools.

“We’re doing a very good job of delivering a quality education in a most-efficient manner,” Boise Cascade Corp. Vice President Ted Crumley told legislative budget writers. “The cost to students is relatively inexpensive and is not prohibitive.”

University of Idaho student body president Jim Dalton of Jerome and Gwen Sullivan, a teacher at Clearwater Valley High School who graduated from Lewis-Clark State College five years ago, agreed with Crumley and Boise State University Professor Charles Davis that improvements could be made.

But there were no specific suggestions, leaving members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee wondering.

“I think they missed an opportunity to identify some critical needs and make a case for them,” said Republican Sen. John Hansen of Idaho Falls, a budget committee member and former chairman of the Education Committee who remains active in those issues.

The chairmen of the House and Senate budget panels renewed their commitment to “do the best for higher education.”

But Senate Finance Chairman Atwell Parry, R-Melba, pointed out that the panel presentation was intended as a chance for people involved in different aspects of higher education to offer criticism and they did not.

That leaves the impression the system is functioning adequately, he said, which could well work against higher education when the state’s limited tax receipts are disbursed.

“With it being in the back of our minds, if push comes to shove and money gets tight, it might make it easier for us to back away,” Parry said.

In the budget for the year that begins July 1, the Board of Education asked for $9million in general tax revenue to finance new programs and upgrade existing ones. Gov. Phil Batt scaled that back to $1.4 million.

Combined with cash for pay increases and inflationary adjustments, Batt’s recommendation is still the largest increase in years in state support for the University of Idaho, Idaho State University, Boise State University and Lewis-Clark State College.

Included in the board’s budget proposal for education is $1.5 million for special classes and programs targeted at the “unprepared and underprepared” for college.

Hansen and Democratic Sen. Bruce Sweeney of Lewiston, citing reports that 50 percent of the freshmen at the four state schools drop out by the second year, questioned whether students are being properly prepared by the public school system.