NIC doing fine with local control

Idaho: The Bangladesh of community colleges?

The slogan doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue for a state known more for “famous potatoes,” mountain ranges, high desert and vast northern lakes. Yet, there’s solid evidence that Director Bruce Schultz of the Treasure Valley Community College Caldwell campus was correct when he compared the Gem State’s community college “system” to the impoverished Asian country.

Consider. Idaho ranks among the bottom six states in the country in terms of high school graduates entering higher education, at 44.8 percent in 2000. The “system” consists of two community colleges, at Coeur d’Alene and Twin Falls, and two, two-year colleges tied to Boise State and Idaho State. Seven hundred Idahoans receive community college credit from a school located in Oregon. And Boise is the nation’s largest metropolitan area without a community college.

To combat the problem, state Rep. Ann Rydalch, R-Idaho Falls, is drafting legislation that would address the “death of two-year schools,” as Schultz describes Idaho’s situation, creating a state-funded system of four community colleges. And Gov. Dirk Kempthorne is interested. However, North Idaho lawmakers should watch closely to ensure that emergency measures to add community colleges in southern Idaho don’t harm the ability of North Idaho College in Coeur d’Alene to carry out its local mission – to provide affordable education, to reach nontraditional students and to help job recruiters attract new business.

Rydalch’s plan to have the state fully fund community colleges has appeal for property taxpayers in Kootenai, Twin Falls and Jerome counties who help support North Idaho College and College of Southern Idaho, respectively. The proposed funding shift would have meant an approximate $9.2 million in combined property tax relief if it had been in effect during the 2004-05 school year. Of note, Rydalch hasn’t said where the state would find the money to make up the difference in lost property tax dollars or to construct a Boise area campus or to bring Eastern Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls into the system.

In North Idaho, the biggest concern about a statewide community college system is the loss of local control.

Currently, locally elected trustees govern the two community colleges rather than the state Board of Education, which has only one North Idaho member and regularly meets in Boise and other southern Idaho locations. Not only do NIC trustees come from the community, but they understand the needs for specialized programs and training. North Idaho College and College of Southern Idaho have been active partners in the economic development. Any move to absorb the two functioning community colleges into a state-funded system should provide a high degree of local control before North Idaho lawmakers sign off on it.

A statewide system relying solely on state funds also would make the two community colleges more vulnerable to economic downturns.

Idaho’s need for more community colleges should be met, but not at the expense of the two fine schools it has now.