Otter: Ed again top priority; ‘we’re put here to govern’

Saying education will again be his top priority for this year’s legislative session, Gov. Butch Otter told reporters at the AP Legislative Preview this morning that he’s learned much in his three terms as governor of Idaho.

“Probably of all the things that I learned, really in the last 11 years, is that first off, we’re put here to govern,” Otter said. “We’re put here to make decisions, and to not do that is shirking our responsibility. And it’s got to be more than just superficial efforts to get that headline or to get that first five minutes (on the radio). I’m proud to say that I see that throughout the legislative process now. I certainly see that in my administration, that we are purposely bent on coming up with solutions. We’re purposely driven to not just say no we can’t do it, we can’t do that.”

Otter said the state’s five-year plan for improving public schools is a model for how Idaho should approach governing, and he said the recommendations from his higher education task force are designed to replicate that model.