At today’s AP Legislative Preview, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has announced he’s forming a higher education task force similar to his K-12 education improvement task force that launched the state’s current five-year plan to improve Idaho’s schools. “The task force initiative will be to do very much the same thing as we did k-12, where are we anemic, where do we need to have more purpose, how can we do a better job,” he said. He named Linda Clark and Bob Lokken to chair the new 28-member task force; it also will include all the university and community college presidents, business representatives, students and more.

“They said, ‘You worked the magic for K-12. Now let’s work the magic for K through career,’” Otter said.

Lokken lauded Otter, saying, “He’s shown the ability over the last few years to recognize when the status quo needs some outside perspective ... to help all the stakeholders step back, look at the bigger picture.” Lokken and Clark both served on Otter’s K-12 task force. Clark said, “It’s about a system, it’s about building that system. We have great confidence now in our K-12 system.”

Lokken said Idaho’s economy is changing, and higher education is needed for the state’s graduates to be ready for the jobs of the future. “That shift of our economy is not going to slow down and wait for our institutions to adapt and to change,” he said.