Members of ASUI wandered the long white halls of the Idaho State Capital Building, speaking with legislators about a new bill that could promote more opportunities for high school graduates.
The Idaho Launch Grant and the In-Demand Career Fund, House Bill 24, would promise graduating seniors $8,500 to any public or private institutions in Idaho. The scholarship would also be applicable for a four-year, two-year or trade school. While modeled after the Idaho Opportunity Scholarship, it removes the GPA and income-based requirements.
“The only hard requirement to get this $8,500 is a little clause about Next Steps Idaho or an equivalent career pathway,” Matthew Reiber, policy advisor for the governor, said. “They have to complete a career pathway program which is essentially a personality test that you take in high school that says you may like these jobs, or you may not like these jobs.”
The bill, if passed, would also be valid at community colleges, private institutions and career and technical programs in the state.
Reiber said the bill is still early in the process as it has yet to have a proper committee hearing, having just received its bill number.
“I will say we’re in a very politically precarious situation,” Reiber said. “There’s widespread support for the bill, but we just have to be careful how we talk about it.”
Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield expressed her support for the new scholarship, as it would help to promote more opportunities for Idaho students.
“We don’t want to get them prepared and get them ready in thinking about jobs that they want to do, and then just have that stop,” Critchfield said. “Many times, if not most of the time, the financial side is a barrier.”
A statement from student body presidents Tanner McClain of University of Idaho, Caden Massey of Lewis and Clark State College, Adam N. Jones of Boise State University and Flora Koenig of College of Western Idaho has been pivotal in pushing the need to fund higher education. Here, they argue that the price tag of education is outpacing the growth of wages and the impact of inflation.
“Idaho high school graduates are too often placed in the difficult position of either accepting more money from an out-of-state institution or rolling the dice on taking out federal student loans to continue their education,” the joint statement reads.
McClain said that he is happy that the Governor’s Office has created new legislation for the scholarship program and that Idaho is taking steps to put education on the forefront.
“Idaho has a 37% go-on rate, and it is our duty as presidents to advocate for students as a whole,” McClain said.
The Legislative Ambassador’s Program put members of ASUI in front of representatives and state senators this past Monday. Here, students recounted their higher education journeys and why they stayed in Idaho.
“These are personal stories that are attached to the opportunity that our students are going to have to accomplish their dreams,” Critchfield said. “I can’t think of a better way to promote what we’re trying to accomplish in Idaho… and how we can continue to make our state even better.”
McClain said all the legislators had the same goal to create more opportunities for students in Idaho.
“Every legislator I’ve talked to has been, at least, open to talking about it and for the most part, they’ve all had very positive thoughts, and I’ve been receptive to it,” McClain said. “I haven’t met a legislator who is just blatantly anti-higher education. They all want to accomplish the same goal of creating opportunity for students.”
Sen. Melissa Wintrow has been an advocate of higher education for more than 30 years, working as the assistant director of gender studies and the first director of the BSU Gender Equity Center.
“Education is life-changing and is one of the most important things we do,” Wintrow said. “I think we’ve seen a recent attack on higher education because there’s a certain faction of those who seem to be intimidated by it or think it’s may be too liberal.”
In 2021, the Idaho Senate passed HB 387, a budget cut of $2.5 million to all four-year public universities, due to concerns about social justice agendas. BSU had the most extreme cut of the four-year institutions, where $1.5 million was slashed from their budget.
“You see attacks on educational groups that support diversity and inclusion programs,” Wintrow said. “I think a lot of the attacks that we’re seeing now, on the budget, are linked to people’s disagreement with the lack of support of assisting students from historically marginalized communities to be in higher education.”
Daniel V. Ramirez can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @DVR_Tweets