Editor’s note: This commentary from the Lewiston Tribune is presented in place of the customary Spokesman-Review editorial.

An alliance of Idaho business leaders, parents, educators and politicians outlined a path to better schools Wednesday. But the headline was in what they didn’t mention.

Nowhere did they address how to pay for it.

Nor did they discuss Idaho’s rejection of early childhood education.

That’s not to minimize what the Education Alliance of Idaho proposed. Idaho must encourage more of its high school graduates to enter and complete college. Public schools should boost math and science courses, advanced placement courses, dual-enrollment and professional-technical programs. Idaho needs more rigorous academic standards as well as more assessments of students and instruction.

Of course, many of these reforms are woven in recent efforts to raise graduation standards as well as No Child Left Behind and the Idaho Standards Achievement Test.

But what’s the point of improving K-12 if you leave early childhood education unaddressed? Idaho is outside the mainstream in its refusal to spend money on pre-kindergarten programs. It has the weakest day care regulations in the country.

Some of its legislators openly pine for the days of Ozzie and Harriet when mothers stayed at home. Such longing puts Idaho out of touch with the way children are raised at a time when mothers work outside of the home and many of them are single parents.

Invest in helping a disadvantaged child become prepared for kindergarten today and you reap the dividends later. Rob Grunewald, of the Federal Reserve Bank, of Minneapolis cites research that shows kids who got a better start in their youngest years were more likely to own a home, earn a middle-class income and have some money put aside as adults.

In contrast, those who don’t get this help stand a better chance of failing in school, dropping out, engaging in risky behaviors and winding up in dead-end jobs, on welfare and in prison.

For every dollar a state puts into pre-kindergarten programs, it will save $7 to $16. More successful students become more successful adults who pay more in taxes and require fewer social services. The state saves money because it won’t need to spend as much on remediation in the schools, prisons or social programs.

Not only are Idaho’s leaders unwilling to invest in early childhood education, they’re not going to invest new money in education at all. In fact, public schools will be lucky to get the $112 million state schools Superintendent Tom Luna says he’ll need to just maintain the current level of effort. Tax revenues continue to decline, the federal stimulus and state rainy-day funds are running dry and state leaders say tax increases are off the table.

What the Education Alliance of Idaho outlined was, at best, a hope. At worst, it’s a distraction, suggesting to the casual observer that Idaho is building better schools when in fact it’s not.