Last year , Idaho Gov. Brad Little announced that he would cut spending on higher education by 3%. The House bill including these cuts passed in March. Little says the holdback is necessary so that the state’s budget can be balanced — “Idahoans expect their state government to operate efficiently and effectively, and the balanced budget we approved for the current fiscal year delivers on both fronts.”
These cuts present issues for those planning to get a valuable degree here. Yes, Idaho has seen historic growth in the number of students entering its post-secondary schools, but Little’s cuts threaten to hurt the quality of that education as higher enrollment with fewer professors places undue pressure on educators. Like Boise State University is doing, the University of Idaho is decreasing its number of faculty positions due to the cuts, leading to, as Idaho Education Newsreports, “larger class sizes, less individualized learning time and fewer research opportunities for undergrads.”
This likely lower-quality education has an unfortunate historical precedent. Two of the most famous pieces of literature about Idaho exhibit the state as one that people leave to receive competent post-secondary educations — Wallace Thurman’s “ The Blacker the Berry” (1929) and Tara Westover’s “ Educated” (2018)…