The House has voted 37-32 in favor of SB 1279, the Opportunity Scholarship bill, which will allow up to 20 percent of the state scholarship fund – which is due to be boosted next year from $10 million to $13.5 million a year – to go to “adult completers” going back to finish their degrees. There was heavy debate for more than an hour on the bill, which is being strongly backed by both Gov. Butch Otter and the state Board of Education, in an effort to boost the number of Idahoans who have completed some type of post-secondary degree or certificate. You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

Among those arguing against the bill was Rep. Bryan Zollinger, R-Idaho Falls, who told the House, “We are stealing money from taxpayers to give to scholarships. … We should be encouraging people to be self-sufficient.”

Others said they thought the move would rob from Opportunity Scholarships for graduating high school seniors; the state currently has more applications for those scholarships than it’s able to give out.

Rep. Paul Amador, R-Coeur d’Alene, said, “To me, this is a bill about economic vitality for the state of Idaho.” He said he works with colleges students as a college adviser, and many are adults who are returning to school, rather than students straight out of high school. “If we’re honest about the opportunities that we’re creating for Idahoans in helping them get better lives, get better careers, we can’t just focus on 17-21 year olds,” Amador said. “We’ll never be able to fill our skills gap, our labor needs, by just focusing on 17-21 year olds.”

Rep. Gayann DeMordaunt, R-Eagle, said she couldn’t support the bill because it didn’t target the adult completer scholarships only to those in STEM fields or health care, which she said she believes are the areas of greatest need. She called the approach “very shortsighted,” saying an art history major would qualify. “While they may have, you know, 40 credits under their belt in terms of degree and coming back, is perhaps not as immediately employable in our state as a STEM or health care related degree,” she said.

Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, countered, “We have a shortage of teachers, we have a shortage of doctors. Limiting it to STEM, while it may seem like a good idea, it is probably too limiting, especially as we think about how short we’re going to be of teachers in future years.” He noted that many of those – even art history majors – who want to return to college to finish their degrees could potentially become Idaho teachers. “This may be the incentive that they need to move forward in that,” he said. “While I agree that there are shortages in science and health care, I believe that there are shortages across our workforce.”

“It’s a workforce issue,” said Rep. Patrick McDonald, R-Boise, the bill’s House sponsor. “It’s in Idaho’s best interest. These people are in college because they want to be,” not because it’s expected or just the thing to do after high school. “They’re a good investment, they’re going to finish, and … they’re going to get better jobs.”

After various processing steps are completed, the Senate-passed bill now goes to Otter. 

Here’s how the vote broke down:

Voting yes: Reps. Amador, Anderson, Armstrong, Bedke, Bell, Burtenshaw, Chew, Clow, Erpelding, Gannon(17), Gannon(5), Gibbs, Hartgen, Kauffman, Kerby, King, Kingsley, Kloc(Tway), Loertscher, Malek, Manwaring, McCrostie, McDonald, Miller, Packer, Raybould, Redman, Rubel, Smith, Syme, Toone, Troy, VanOrden, Wagoner, Wintrow, Wood and Youngblood.

Voting no: Reps. Anderst, Barbieri, Blanksma, Boyle, Chaney, Cheatham, Collins, Crane, Dayley, DeMordaunt, Dixon, Ehardt, Gestrin, Giddings, Hanks, Harris, Holtzclaw, Luker, Mendive, Monks, Moon, Moyle, Nate, Palmer, Perry, Scott, Shepherd, Stevenson, Thompson, VanderWoude, Zito and Zollinger.

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