Idaho

Idaho should consider bringing transparency to college costs and data on in-demand careers • Idaho Capital Sun

Published

2 years ago

March 4, 2024

Idaho should consider bringing transparency to college costs and data on in-demand careers • Idaho Capital Sun

Is the cost of college still worth the price?

According to the Education Data Initiative, the average student loan debt in the United States currently totals $37,338. The average student borrows more than $30,000 to pursue a bachelor’s degree. And more than 45 million Americans have student loan debt.

High school students considering whether it is worth it to pursue a college degree usually consider two major questions: how much debt will I incur, and how much will I make when I finally achieve graduation and a career? Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to easily find the answers, which can result in students taking out large college loans for careers that might not provide the adequate salary to pay down the loans.

Many colleges and universities have been criticized for offering classes and degrees that put students little in the way of career benefit. At the University of Houston, you can obtain a degree in foresight – or the ability to predict the future. A Georgetown, you can take classes called “Philosophy and Star Trek.”

A recent survey by the Wall Street Journal found that 56% of Americans believe a four-year college degree isn’t worth the cost. Depending on the career choice, they may be right. Attendance at universities throughout the region and nation show precipitous declines.

Between 1963 and 2021, cost of attendance at a four-year college rose 165%. Increases can be found in both public institutions, where the average cost is now $19,374, and private, where students can now pay $45,920. Interestingly, private, for profit colleges have been successful in lowering their costs, from a peak of $31,709 in 2004, to $27,470 today.

It is not a given that the cost of college must increase, however. Consider the example being set by Purdue University.

Purdue University has kept its tuition frozen for 13 years – at less than $10,000 per year. Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels – who became president of Purdue – says it has been a top priority to keep the number affordable for families. As a result, student loan borrowing at Purdue has decreased by 40% since 2012.

Now, 11 graduating classes at Purdue have never experienced a tuition increase.

Daniels says the key has been an effort to manage expenses, and asking alumni for more contributions. But as Purdue has kept tuition frozen, student enrollment has increased, allowing the university to more easily balance its books.

While we are hopeful that other higher education officials can learn from the Purdue example by adopting policies that make tuition more affordable, policymakers can also help provide data that informs a student’s decision on which colleges to attend and degrees to pursue. One option to make the decision easier is a concept Mountain States Policy Center is calling a Career Transparency Act or CTA.

The act would require the state to make a variety of statistics and information publicly available to high school students considering a college path. The information would include:

A listing of the state’s future workforce needs;
Starting wage information and education requirements for the top 25 high demand jobs in the state;
A listing of the 40 baccalaureate degree programs with the highest average annual wages following graduation;
A listing of the 20 associate degree programs with the highest average annual wages following graduation;
The cost of obtaining the degree or certificate at state institutions of higher education, including;
- Tuition and fees
- Room and board
- Books and supplies
- Transportation
- Other costs
The median wage earned by students who graduated with the certificate or degree;
The median student debt of those who graduated with the certificate or degree;
Progress on repaying student loans by those who graduated with the certificate or degree; and
The percentage of students who withdraw from the institution and do not enroll in the program at another higher education institution.

With this information readily available, students could better understand whether the long-term career benefit would be worth such a large financial burden.

Policymakers may not be able to control all college costs, but they can help inform better career and financial decisions by students considering higher ed. Identifying workforce needs, a listing of wages, clear information about the cost of obtaining a degree, and more should all be made readily available via a Career Transparency Act.

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Idaho

‘Unrelenting’: Statehouse reporters recap 2026 legislative session in Idaho Falls – East Idaho News

Published

7 minutes ago

April 19, 2026

Press Room

‘Unrelenting’: Statehouse reporters recap 2026 legislative session in Idaho Falls – East Idaho News

IDAHO FALLS — Two prominent Idaho Statehouse reporters say this past legislative session was “unrelenting,” chaotic, largely driven by budget cuts, and they see the Legislature getting more powerful.

Kevin Richert and Clark Corbin recapped this past legislative session at a forum on the ISU Idaho Falls Campus on Thursday.

Richert is a senior reporter at Idaho Education News, with more than 30 years of experience covering education policy and politics. Corbin is a senior reporter at the Idaho Capital Sun who has covered every Idaho legislative session, gavel to gavel, since 2011.

The event was hosted by the City Club of Idaho Falls, which “exists to sponsor and promote civil dialogue and discourse on all matters of public interest” and strives to be “nonpartisan and nonsectarian,” according to its website.

Budget cuts

Both Richert and Corbin said this session was driven by budget cuts. Corbin said this was due to a lack of revenue stemming from past income tax and the adoption of new federal tax cuts.

“Cuts for almost every state agency and state department dominated the legislative session,” Corbin said. “We’re talking about 4% budget cuts for most state agencies and departments in the current fiscal year, and we’re talking about an additional 5% budget cuts for almost all state agencies and departments starting next year — fiscal year ’27 — and continuing permanently.”

RELATED | Gov. Little signs so-called ‘crappy bill’ to cut state budget

Richert said he thought higher education was taking the brunt of budget cuts. “It’s not a question of whether tuition fees are going to go up at the universities; it’s a question of how much,” he said.

When asked what the future would hold, Corbin said the budget cuts aren’t likely to go away, and their effects will be felt over time.

“There could always be a change of leadership in the House, but they do expect the budget crunch to continue in the next year’s legislative session,” Corbin said.

‘Radiator capping’

Richert said he has one word to describe this year’s legislative session: “unrelenting.”

One thing that made it feel that way was that some bills were recycled over and over, he said. For example, Richert said the Legislature saw five different versions of a bill that proposed cuts to the Idaho Digital Learning Alliance.

“We had multiple bills that came from the dead,” he said.

The journalists said this is partly due to a tactic called “radiator capping.” The term means to replace the entire car — the bill’s text, in political terms — while only keeping the radiator cap: the bill number. By rewriting a bill on the House or Senate floor while maintaining its number, failed bills can effectively bypass the committee process.

“Those are the changes they tried to make on immigration bills, on union bills this year,” Corbin said. “It made it extremely difficult for the public to have any idea what was going on, to have any opportunity to participate in the legislative process and share their opinions.

A more powerful, more chaotic Legislature

Richert said Idaho’s annual legislative sessions are trending longer, commonly going into the early part of April, and producing a record number of bills.

“There are rumblings that this Legislature, as a body, is wanting to expand its reach over more and have even more power over the other branches of government to the point of — are we trending towards more of a full-time professional legislature?” Richert said. “We’re a long way from there.”

“The legislative branch of government, particularly the Idaho House of Representatives, is the most powerful I’ve seen it in 16 years of covering state government,” Corbin said.

He added that this year’s legislative session was unlike any he’s experienced.

“The overall temperature in the building was bad,” Corbin said. “It was divisive. It was chaotic. People were not hiding their feelings of disgust for each other. These traditional ideas of decorum and respect very much fell by the wayside.”

Richert said Gov. Brad Little vetoed very few bills that came across his desk, and the ones he did weren’t high-profile.

RELATED | Idaho Gov. Brad Little issues 5 vetoes. Here are the bills affected

“I think the governor behaved like he was very concerned about the supermajority-controlled Legislature, and I think that that Legislature, in turn, asserted itself and took control of the agenda this year,” Corbin said.

Are legislators representing Idaho?

Corbin said some bills this year also focused on the LGBTQ+ community, such as a bathroom restriction for transgender individuals, and a bill that banned the City of Boise from waving a Pride flag.

RELATED | Idaho governor signs bill to criminalize trans people using bathrooms that align with their identity

RELATED | Boise removes LGBTQ+ pride flag as Idaho governor signs bill to fine city for its display

When asked if these were what Idahoans wanted, Corbin said it doesn’t necessarily appear so to him, based on his review of Boise State University’s annual public policy survey.

“For years and years, I’ve heard concerns about affordability of housing, access to housing, managing the growth of the state of Idaho, having quality public schools available for our young people — that also generates a workforce pipeline for some of our businesses,” Corbin said. “I’ve heard about paying for wildfires. I’ve heard about having good roads, supporting access to public lands, public recreation, those are the concerns I hear from Idahoans.”

“But the Legislature spent a significant amount of time over the last two, three, four years placing additional restrictions on LGBTQ communities, placing restrictions on what teachers can and cannot teach in their classrooms, what school boards can and cannot do,” Corbin continued. “They talked about requiring a moment of silence every day to begin the public school day, where children could pray or read the Bible.”

RELATED | Gov. Brad Little signs public school ‘moment of silence’ bill into law

Corbin said it may be his own opinion, but perhaps it is easier to “make a bunch of noise about what’s going wrong and (distract) people with social issues” rather than focus on harder issues that Idaho faces.

“I think what you saw on the policy space is a reflection of the fact that you had legislators thinking about reelection, and legislators with time on their hands — and that’s not always a good combination,” Richert said.

Accountability

When asked how people can keep legislators accountable, Corbin said it can be done by following the state Legislature through trusted news sources, going to community events and voting.

“This is a great year to practice accountability, because all 105 state legislators and all statewide elected officials are up for election this year,” he said.