Idaho's State Board of Education has voted 5-1 to waive its 10 percent cap on tuition and fee increases for state colleges and universities for one year. The lone dissenter was board member Ken Edmunds. We know this thanks to the very efficient Twitter posts of board spokesman Mark Browning, who has been sending up-to-the-minute tweets all day on the action at the State Board meeting in Twin Falls. The move is designed to allow flexibility for colleges and universities as they plan for next year in the face of state budget cuts and swelling college enrollments.

Earlier, the board voted unanimously to approve a deal with J.R. Simplot Co. to save the Parma university extension research center; extension centers at Sandpoint and Tetonia are now guaranteed funding through June 30, the end of the current fiscal year. All three were threatened by budget cuts.