Idaho
State leaders push millions toward meeting workforce demands and student interests
Editor’s Note: Idaho is one of the nation’s fastest growing states. There are more trade careers and healthcare opportunities than ever before. And education leaders are beginning to pay attention. With the support of a grant from the Education Writers Association, reporter Darren Svan embarked on a months-long investigation into career technical education programs, industry partnerships, employment trends and accountability. Today’s story looks at what’s happening in Idaho’s CTE landscape.
From state-of-the-art engineering labs to cluttered automotive shops with dismantled diesel engines, Idaho is shifting millions of dollars toward classes that prepare high school students for industry jobs.
Industry leaders are encouraged by the state’s career-focused renaissance, because there was not enough being done to close the gap between industry needs and the labor force graduating from secondary and postsecondary institutions. Idaho’s workforce is increasingly shifting toward skilled trade jobs. Construction, welding, automotive, machining and healthcare expect double-digit growth.
Meanwhile, state and education leaders have grown to accept that most Idaho young adults aren’t interested in higher education. The rate at which Idaho high school graduates continue their education has hovered near 40% for years. To answer this need, the state has begun diverting funds toward preparing high school graduates for the workforce.
“I think they’re all listening,” said Doug Sayer, founder and chief business officer of Premier Technology, a dynamic manufacturing company in Blackfoot.
State leaders increased career technical education (CTE) spending by $60 million this school year, a 315% jump over last year. The 2024 increase comes from two sources: Superintendent Debbie Critchfield’s $45 million Idaho Career Ready Students (ICRS) grant program and a $15 million infusion by the Legislature.
Bonus to the investment: Idaho teenagers like CTE programs – and they’re good at it.
CTE students are more engaged, graduate high school at higher rates and use industry-recognized credentials to land good paying jobs.
In Idaho, 94% of CTE concentrators (a junior or senior in a capstone class) graduated in 2023, compared to 80% of all high school seniors. And 95% of those graduates found a job, attended college or went into the military.
“High school was just something to get done,” said Mountain Home High School graduate Cristobal Orozco. “I didn’t enjoy any part of regular classes. If I went to college, it was gonna be for mechanics or welding. Other than that, I wasn’t interested in it.”
What attracts students like Orozco is the relevant, hands-on nature of career technical classes. They’re drawn to programming robotic arms, designing a company website, building a house from the ground up, diagnosing an automotive problem, rebuilding a transmission, managing a fish hatchery, welding tractor equipment and helping people with medical needs.
Orozco said, “My three years of auto mechanics taught me the basics of how everything works.”
What’s happening in Idaho high schools
Certified high school graduates are repairing cars, welding boats and handing out medications in local pharmacies.
Orozco, 20, used welding to attain financial stability in Jerome. He plans to buy his own home next year. The son of Mexican seasonal farm workers, he’s a valuable Daritech technician, experienced in pipe fitting, electrical, mechanical, fabrication and welding.
Orozco had no interest in traditional academic subjects. Welding and auto mechanics kept him engaged, while providing a career path through multiple semesters of hands-on experience and several industry certifications.
At the Albertsons in Mountain Home, Aspen Everett, 19, is happy she chose the pharmacy technician option during high school.
“My teacher said that it would be a good opportunity to get a job right after high school,” Everett said, who was married last year and plans to pursue a degree in nursing while continuing to work in the pharmacy.
Mountain Home High School’s health professions program was recognized as the exemplary program of the year. Both the certified nursing assistant (CNA) and pharmacy programs have a 100% pass rate for industry certification exams. A majority of Mountain Home CNA graduates work in their profession while finishing a two- or four-year nursing degree. The remaining usually enlist in the military and work in the medical field.
The latest data ranks Idaho third among neighboring states for the percentage of high school students enrolled in CTE classes. More than 80% of students in Utah and Oregon are in programs, while Idaho sits at 71%, which is 72,000 students for the 2022-23 school year. Wyoming, Colorado and Montana are all below 60%.
Most high schools from the Treasure Valley to the Magic Valley report waitlists in their most popular programs. At the Meridian career technical center, there are 20 students waiting for a spot to open in welding; 48 for automotive repair; 26 for collision repair; and 10 for introduction to small gas engines.
“I can’t even add another program because I have no room,” said Beverly Hott, the CTE coordinator for Idaho Falls, Firth, Ririe and Shelley school districts. Her Career Technical and Education Center in Idaho Falls is one of 15 in Idaho, providing programs to students from multiple high school boundaries.
To meet the coming job demands, regional career technical centers like the new Portneuf Valley Career Technical Education Center in Pocatello will offer 21 career pathways, seven of which lead directly to an industry job after high school. PV-Tech used a local plant facilities levy and federal money to purchase the old 78,000 square-foot Allstate building. The state provided a $6.5 million ICRS grant to complete expansion and renovation. The center expects to be fully operational next year.
“I don’t know very many people who don’t want kids to succeed, because they’re smart enough to realize this is the next generation that’s working in America,” said Rhonda Naftz, Pocatello-Chubbuck School District’s longtime career technical education administrator.
Idaho’s industry needs
Premier Technology has 400 employees who generate $100 million annually through engineering, project management, manufacturing, machining and other services. The company could double in size but can’t because there are not enough trained workers.
“I’m so frustrated,” Sayer said. “They don’t have in their pipelines the graduates and the students to even come close to filling the demand.”
According to research from the Idaho Workforce Development Council, welding should expect double-digit job growth in the next five years in areas like Tungsten inert gas and fabrication welding. The demand for welders in Idaho is 64% above the national average and the median salary is $45,000.
The median salary for licensed pharmacy technicians is $38,300. Over the past five years, Idaho’s growth rate surpassed 30% and that’s expected to continue. There were 746 job postings in the last 12 months, the council reported.
In the heart of the Magic Valley, Jerome is home to Idaho Milk Products, a large-scale factory billowing steam with plenty of pickup trucks in the employee parking lot. But behind the factory’s facade is a diverse company looking for local talent in accounting, finance, sales, marketing and engineering.
“The biggest problem is that people look at these factories and they think this is where they are milking,” said Steven Christiansen, vice-president of human resources and organizational development. “They don’t realize that every one of these companies is a microcosm of a normal university or company.”
Idaho Milk Products actively courts local students with an outreach program that starts with being an industry partner for high school career technical programs, summer apprentices and college internships. The company started 15 years ago and employs 225 workers.
“We want to be the preferred employer for those kids that are suited to work in our industry,” Christiansen said. With a shortage in maintenance, electrical, utilities and mechanics, companies like Idaho Milk Products are developing their own workforce, and increasingly relying on high schools to create an interest in the trades.
“So if I can get that person that says ‘Hey, I want to go to that career tech program in the high school to learn sanitary welding, I can immediately go find a job in a very, very profitable profession,’” Christiansen said.
Data analyst Randy Schrader contributed to this report. EdNews photographs by reporter Darren Svan.
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – A controversy is brewing as the City of Idaho Falls reviews its alcohol ordinance.
The goal is to consolidate four existing ordinances for beer, wine and liquor into a single law and ensure compliance with state code.
However, at its meeting last Thursday, the Idaho Falls City Council unanimously voted to remove the proposed ordinance from its agenda, in order to receive and consider additional public comment.
The proposed ordinance would:
1. Require commercial establishments selling, dispensing or permitting consumption of alcohol – including beer, wine or liquor – to have an alcohol license, alcohol catering permit or a charitable event permit.
2. Business events with 20 or less employees consuming alcohol at the business would be allowed.
3. Require alcohol servers to complete training every three years.
4. Individuals who violate the law could be charged with a misdemeanor.
Idaho Falls City Council President Jim Francis said the changes were the culmination of months of collaboration between law enforcement, business owners and city attorneys.
“We wanted to provide a safe environment – the primary point here – for public gatherings,” Francis said. “We recognize that certain antiquated elements of the current code are overly restrictive and needed to be addressed. We wanted to make the code more accessible to the public. We needed to address over-pouring issues. We wanted to reduce penalties where possible for violations, particularly the first offenses, and yet make the code clear enough to be enforceable consistently by law enforcement.”
But City Council Member John Radford said the changes represent an overreach by city government.
“I believe it’s a bad policy. What problem are we solving in the name of trying to solve a non-problem?” Radford said. “We’re becoming big brother around alcohol in your private property. I’m concerned that landlords will be at risk of being charged with a misdemeanor if they knowingly, which I made sure that was in there, because that is what we’ve been talking about, allowed people to drink in our business. We will be outside the norm of Idaho cities. This is a big step, and I don’t think the public has weighed in on this.”
At a City Council Work Session on June 1, Idaho Falls Chief of Police Bryce Johnson cited an increase in alcohol-related crime – particularly downtown – as a reason for the changes.
“DUI is there, but this would include sexual assaults, assaults, batteries, disturbances, urination, public vandalism, shooting – all sorts of crimes,” Johnson said.
But business owners are concerned about the potential impact on commercial enterprises.
“The ordinance doesn’t address the real problem – which is people drinking … at one event and then showing up in a bar or restaurant already hammered and causing problems anyway,” ” said Terri Ireland, representing the Idaho Falls Downtown Merchants Association. “The industry is really well-regulated by state and local laws already.”
The City of Idaho Falls began the process of updating its alcohol ordinance in January 2026, seeking input from community stakeholders.
Multiple community members spoke out about the ordinance.
For more in-depth information, you can read the full 39-page proposed alcohol ordinance here.
BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — A simmering dispute between Idaho’s top elections official and the U.S. Department of Justice escalated this month after federal officials warned Secretary of State Phil McGrane about possible prosecution tied to non-citizens voting in Idaho.
The Justice Department sent a letter earlier this month threatening McGrane with prosecution. The warning came amid a broader conflict between the Trump administration and McGrane, whom the administration has sued over his refusal to provide unredacted voter rolls to the federal government.
Idaho’s chief of civil litigation, James Craig, responded on July 10. In a letter first reported by the Idaho Statesman, Craig pushed back on the federal warning, writing, “Insinuations of criminal violations of the federal election laws are not well taken,” and asking the department to “stop threatening your friends in Idaho.”
Craig also requested that the lawsuit against McGrane be dismissed and criticized the Justice Department for sending its letter directly to McGrane rather than to the Idaho attorney general’s office.
The attorney general’s office said the state has already referred 15 cases of possible non-citizen election violations to the Justice Department but is not aware of any of them being prosecuted. Craig’s letter ends by asking the department to do so.
The Idaho Legislature won’t eliminate property tax next year. My bold prediction. There will be a few bills introduced, a lot of chatter on talk radio and online, and then action will be kicked down the road. If it looks like a winner in the 2028 Election, it’ll sail through in session a few weeks before the 2028 Primary. Wet an index finger and raise it in the air. Then vote.
As an old Libertarian (with a capital L), I’m familiar with the basic argument. If you own it, why do you have to pay rent? The answer always comes back to, “It’s the best system we have to fund local governments”. Forms have been in place since colonial times, even if scattered geographically. The idea gained steam in the years after the Civil War when a handful of economists blamed property ownership for growing poverty in cities. Property accrued value as space became a premium. So-called reformers believed the tax would balance economic inequality, and appealed to noblesse oblige.
Your Taxes Get Sprinkled Like a Good Rain
I live in Twin Falls County, where we have 78 taxing districts that rely on the current system. If you ask what can replace it, you’re called a Republican in name only (RINO) by compatriots. Obviously, not everything funded by the tax is a waste. First responders and snow plows come to mind. It makes me think of the calls to gut the federal government, but while maintaining Social Security and Medicare. The former makes up nearly a quarter of the budget. Medicare is only 14 percent, but additional health spending brings the tab to another quarter. Historian Niall Ferguson grew up in Scotland, and he summed up Great Britain a couple of weeks ago. People want more, not less, welfare spending. Are we different?
Before anyone in Boise wipes out property tax, legislators need to consider what voters want to stay, and how to fund it otherwise. If they don’t, they’ll see a backlash at the ballot box. Just because I say I want taxes reduced, I didn’t mean the programs that benefit me! The answer won’t be available over 90 days next year.
More than 20 years ago I hosted a weeklong series on tax alternatives. Among the proposals we examined were Flat Tax, Fair Tax, and Automated Payments Tax. People are most familiar with the first. Everyone pays a flat percentage. Say 12 to 15 percent. Of income, I guess. Of course, we need to define income. Professor Gad Saad is leaving Canada for a job in the United States and has to pay an exit tax based on his estimated assets. Estimated is the dirty word! That’s left to bureaucrats.
This Requires Study and Gaming Outcomes
Go ahead and adopt the flat tax, and please the conservatives, however. Many people, even on the right, have paid very little when it comes to present income confiscation. See how they react when they get a wake-up call. The Fair Tax is a national sales tax of 23 percent. Or it was the percentage proposed 20 years ago. That sounds large, but when you consider your overall tax burden right now, if it replaced what currently exists, you would be better off. This isn’t to say that local governments wouldn’t institute their own taxes. If you live in a blue state or city, that’s a given. Proponents argue that citizens have the option of not paying taxes if they choose not to buy. Obviously, you need to buy some things, unless you’re destitute and living exclusively on handouts.
Automated Payments Tax (APT) is a 1 percent charge on every transaction. A company buys steel to build trucks; it pays 1 percent on the steel. And on every other purchase. The dealer buys the truck for his lot and pays one percent. You buy from the dealer and pay one percent. An economist at the University of Indiana told me it would cover the federal budget. We had that conversation in 2005, when the national debt wasn’t even a quarter of what we see today. None of these plans address the debt, but if state and local governments are creative, maybe we can find something that replaces property taxes.
What we’ll get is a commission from the politically connected who’ll meet once a month for bagels and orange juice. In three years, they’ll provide a solution that works best for them.
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