In my column last week describing my trip home from Coeur d’Alene, I mentioned that a few items of consideration were approved by the general delegate assembly despite my dissenting vote. I would like to editorialize about one of them.
As you may have read, one of the platform planks that received a passing vote at the recent IDGOP state convention addressed government support of public education beyond high school. More specifically, I quote from Article III Education, Section 6 of the IDGOP platform as suggested for amendment: “We strongly support professional technical and continuing education programs that provide career readiness and college preparation, but do not support using taxpayer funding for programs beyond high school”.
At first read, I felt a sense of contradiction. How does one “support” something but disavow the funding of such? The testimony supporting this platform plank was simply, “Let’s get the government out of public education!” This drew cheers from the general assembly who were caught up in the fervor of the convention momentum. No in-depth analysis or debate of the meaning of this statement was offered. A voice vote was called for with loud shouts of “aye” and “nay” from the delegates. Voice votes have an inherent weakness in that decibels can fool the chairman without an actual headcount taken. Quicker than fast, it was declared as a “pass” and we moved on to the next item.
Thankfully, a platform plank is not state law. It’s just part of the Republican platform for guidance to legislators in the coming sessions. You can be assured that next session, with every education funding bill, including budgets, the votes cast by every Republican legislator in both chambers will be scrutinized for possible censure by their respective county central committees around the state. Censuring is another topic I am firmly against for reasons that are numerous and will cause me to exceed the word limits of these editorials if I opine further. I’ll add that to my list of future columns.
A vote for ongoing funding of any Idaho higher education institution or the Launch program will be interpreted as a violation of the party platform. On the contrary, I view a vote for taxpayer funding of education to be an investment, not a subsidy. Subsidies can be misappropriated into a situation where it becomes an entitlement whose recipients are without gratitude. Acknowledging that every government entity is guilty of such entitlements, I do not feel that is the case with this particular type of taxpayer funding.
We all know the cost of post-secondary education has skyrocketed in the past few decades. Students cannot afford such education without the funding provided by states to their land and space grant colleges and universities. These students will be our future teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and nurses. Some of these students will choose trade schools and be our vital auto mechanics, truck drivers, welders, and construction experts to build roads and sewer plants that we all will use and appreciate. Society as a whole will benefit from the education and training provided by these higher institutions. A high school diploma is no longer sufficient for many jobs… we need both forms of alumni to fulfill society’s needs.
Some of the expenditures of the government with our tax dollars are truly wasteful, I will agree with that statement. But I quote Oliver Wendall Holmes Jr, a former SCOTUS member, who said, “Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society”. Taxes spent on the education and training of the masses are well spent, in my opinion. A founding father, John Adams agrees with me in his stance that, “the education of every rank and class of people, down to the lowest and the poorest” had “ to be the care of the public” and “maintained at the public expense”.
A question that was not thought of and therefore not asked was, “Will this plank if followed through by legislation, affect the programs currently in place for high school students to concurrently earn college credit via online classes?” If so, that eliminates a very affordable and successful method for students, especially in rural schools, to earn or at least progress toward a post-secondary degree.
I mentioned taxpayer funding of post-secondary education as an “investment”. We all want a positive return on our investments whether it be a 401K or our tax payments. I cannot quote you a percentage of the return on this education investment, but I assure you it is worth every dollar. We are benefiting from it in ways both silent and readily apparent. I continue to support public education from K-12 and through the university and community college levels. Even though our elected officials have let us down and given us reason to doubt them on many occasions, I will trust them and share my opinion with them on the topic of supporting public education…until they irrevocably break my trust. If need be, I will “censure” them with my vote at election time. Or I will thank them and say job well done when they do what I feel is the right thing by supporting the higher education goals of our youth.
Todd Thomas was born and raised in Preston. He’s currently serving his fourth term on the Preston City Council and works full time as a physical therapist. He can be reached at [email protected].
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