If President Donald Trump is successful in scrapping the U.S. Education Department, Idaho will be ready, Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke said Tuesday. 

“We’ll do it better, we’ll do it cheaper, we’ll do it more efficiently,” he told about 400 people at the Coeur d’Alene Regional Chamber luncheon at The Coeur d’Alene Resort. 

Trump is preparing an executive order to eliminate the Education Department, according to numerous news reports Tuesday. It would need congressional approval.

Bedke, responding to a question, cited Debbie Critchfield, superintendent of public education in Idaho, as saying the state “is ready to go. We can do this.” 

The Education Department’s annual budget includes $15 billion for the education of students with disabilities. Bedke said Idaho would not walk away from its obligation for special needs students. 

He said property owners would likely pick up more of the tab for schools if federal funds stop coming for education. 

According to Idaho Education News, in the 2024-25 school year, 79% of public school funding was from the state, while 11.8% was from local taxes, and 9.4% was from the federal government. That comes out to $2.9 billion from the state, $450 million from local taxes and $351 million in federal money. 

“If they don’t send the money, then that’s going to shift the responsibility back to you, the taxpayer, and we’re going to have the hard questions. What do we spend our money on and how are we going to prioritize?” Bedke said. 

The lieutenant governor was filling in for Gov. Brad Little, who was called to Washington, D.C., for a meeting. 

Bedke said Idaho is the fastest-growing, least-regulated state in the country, thanks to a string of pragmatic governors like Phil Batt, Dirk Kempthorne, Butch Otter and now, Little. He said “common-sense leadership” has found its way into Idaho policies. 

“That foundation laid through decades is the reason the state is doing so well now,” he said. 

Bedke said Idaho enjoyed a budget surplus of more than $1 billion for three years straight until it ended the 2024 fiscal year with a budget surplus of more than $50 million.

“We’re doing OK this year, too, not at the billion-dollar level,” he said. 

Bedke said that since 2019, lower tax rates meant Idahoans kept $4.6 billion instead of giving it to the government. 

“That money is at work in your pockets, not the state of Idaho,” he said. 

He said Idaho needs welders, mechanics, electricians and truck drivers. 

“Our economy is booming, and the good jobs are shifting to the trades,” Bedke said. 

He said the Trump Administration’s new Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk is nothing new in Idaho. He said the state has always been fiscally conservative and was focused on the “toolbelt generation” long “before it became a headline in the Wall Street Journal.”

Bedke said Idaho will work well with the federal government under President Trump. 

He said he recently received a call from the White House about being a liaison in the Pacific Northwest with other elected leaders to work with the federal government. 

“That kind of blew me away,” he said. 

He said communication between the federal and state governments is on the verge of a big change. 

“I think Idaho is well positioned to step up into the areas where arguably the federal government should have never been,” he said.

Bedke said it was a breath of fresh air that the federal government reached out. 

“I took that as a compliment to what we’ve been doing,” he said. “But that’s how we’ve been doing business in Idaho for all these years. That’s just what we do.”