Presentation of Idaho reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

With additional major funding provided by the estate of Darrell Arthur Kammer in support of independent media that strengthens a democratic and just society.

And by the Hansberger Family Foundation.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

And donations to the station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

Six weeks into the legislative session and the budget fights continue, and the conversation isn't just about the direct impacts of program cuts, but how other things might be affected down the road.

I'm Melissa Devlin.

Idaho reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week, College of Western Idaho President Gordon Jones sits down with Logan Finney to discuss how budget cuts will affect the college and what those ripple effects might be.

Then Dr.

Mary Barinaga, Assistant Dean for Regional Affairs for Idaho WWAMI and Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News join me for updates on budgets, medical education, special ed and more.

But first, on Tuesday, Governor Brad Little spoke to reporters about issues facing the state this legislative session.

And no surprise, the conversation mostly focused on the budget.

During the hourlong conversation, Governor Little said he was concerned about the lasting impact of proposed cuts that lawmakers are considering, but that after he had delivered his proposed budget in January, the matter was mostly out of his hands.

I laid out my priorities.

I shipped them to the legislative body under the Constitution.

They're all in their court now.

And, we're.

And that's why things like this are important.

I asked the governor about whether he was willing to use his veto power or his authority to call lawmakers back for a special legislative session to shore up funding needs if he thought they fell short.

In his answer, he pointed out that this being an election year complicates matters a bit.

It would be nicer if I had better line item authority, because some of the some of the things that I am not delighted about are embedded in other things we absolutely have to have, you know, and dependent upon the timing of when they get there.

I’m going to go out on a little bit of a limb and those bills, those critical bills that are, as you stated, come late and filling deadline has passed and legislators want to go home.

And I do something that's going to add two weeks to the session.

Their ability, my override options doesn't look very good.

We'll have much more on the budget later on in the show.

Governor Little also fielded questions about immigration enforcement in Idaho, including the detention of about 400 people in Wilder, including children, in October, while executing a warrant related to illegal gambling.

Many of those people were U.S.

citizens or lawful permanent residents, but were still detained for several hours.

The governor on Tuesday said he prefers that the federal government focus its resources on dangerous criminals, and that they must still honor due process.

I think that I think that they need to be very careful that they're not violating due process or as it's happened all over the country, the judiciary steps in this that you have to do... We got a we got a lot of criminals in this country, and they gotta focus that money on getting them out of this country This comes two weeks after a group of Republican lawmakers unveiled a slate of legislation that, among other things, would compel hospitals, schools and other entities to track how many undocumented people are enrolled in public schools, check into hospitals and more.

We want an audit of how many people are in our state that are taking up rooms in jails, county jails, state prisons.

Now, I think we already have the number for the state prisons that came up in our Jpac review.

We have 300 in the state prisons.

We don't know how many they're spread around in the other areas of the state.

Mind you, everything I'm talking about cost you the taxpayers money you're paying for this.

So we have unlawful unemployment, employment of unauthorized aliens that's going on in the state.

There's been different numbers.

Two years ago, I think it was.

I ran a memorial in in the, in the House and the committee meeting for that memorial.

The dairy industry admitted that 70% of their employees would fail.

And I, nine other.

Think about that for a minute.

70%.

That's one industry.

We also have a concealing, harboring and sheltering bill.

We ran this last year.

It didn't get out of committee.

We've made some changes.

We hope that makes the difference.

That full press conference is available online at youtube.com/idahoreports.. At the press conference, lawmakers stressed that these bills aren't meant to target people based on race.

But one attendee said that actions like this still have a negative impact on Idahoans of color, regardless of their legal status.

if they are caring about their community and they're caring about the well-being of citizens, how about the citizens that are afraid?

How about the citizens that live in fear every day, including myself, of that real possibility of ice pulling up just like I see on all over social media, all over the news, pulling up in a van, popping out real quick like that.

And we know it's happening.

And part of an ice watch group, I have personally seen Ice agents myself, and we know they operate now.

They operate fast so that it's really hard to get a picture of them.

It's really hard to get a video of them.

They show up and they do their business and are gone.

And, there's not a lot of activity in Boise right now.

And, you know, obviously I care about the areas outside of Boise.

Boise is my home.

I never want to see that in the streets of Boise, but it's already in Idaho.

And after the situation in Wilder, you know, that should click with people.

In my opinion.

That was Idaho.

This came before the ACLU announced their lawsuit against state, local, and federal law enforcement for their actions during the Wilder raid, charging violations of due process and equal protection.

On Wednesday, producer Logan Finney sat down with ACLU of Idaho Executive Director Leo Morales to discuss the lawsuit.

in the operation was conducted in a way that was really a more of a military type of operation, which left individuals significantly traumatized.

And so the inner lawsuit that we filed, significant violations that the Fourth Amendment, the 14th Amendment to Fourth Amendment, unreasonable searches and seizure, prolonged detention of the individuals that were there as well.

They were also targeted because of the color of their skin and their ethnicity.

So that's 14th amendment equal protection.

So where these are some of the claims that we have.

You can find that full interview with Leo Morales online that's on The Idaho Report's YouTube channel or wherever you listen to podcasts.

While K through 12 public education has been spared from direct budget cuts, the same isn't true for higher education.

Earlier this month, the Idaho State Journal reported that Idaho State University in Pocatello is laying off 45 employees and eliminating the College of Education.

After the governor's mid budget year order to reduce spending by 3%.

And that's before the legislature's proposed additional 1% hold back for this year, and another 2% reduction for next fiscal year.

Community colleges are also bracing for additional cuts.

On Wednesday, Logan Finney sat down with College of Western Idaho President Gordon Jones.

President Jones, thanks so much for joining me today.

Thanks, Logan.

It's a pleasure to be here.

So, what are your concerns surrounding this year's proposed budget cuts?

Well, to me, when you think about the legislative process and the proposed budget cuts, as a college president, what I look at is, "where are we as a school?"

As a school, College of Western Idaho is the school that I lead, and there's really a story of growth going on here in Idaho.

We at College of Western Idaho have had, almost a dozen, 10 to 12 consecutive semesters of enrollment growth.

We know that the kinds of workforce training that we provide, and our other college colleagues here in Idaho and public higher ed, we're seeing greater and greater numbers.

And so certainly cuts, while the legislature is in charge of deciding funds and where they're distributed, it's an interesting moment because cuts in the face of growth create challenges, pressure points.

And for those of us that are very focused on workforce development, that creates limitations in what we can do, and that means limitations for Idahoans and their ability to step in and participate in this vibrant economy that we have.

So, in a lot of cases this- these cuts to me represent reduced opportunity, reduced seats for jobs that, frankly, the state needs.

And that's- I can get into various waitlists or other things we have.

But fundamentally it's, it's about the pressure that's created from that.

And whether that's matching the market and the market's growing.

The Joint Finance Appropriations Committee, the bills that they are working on right now, sending to the floor, have additional 1%, 2% cuts on what on top of what the governor had recommended.

The submission from CWI notes that those cuts would force you to freeze or eliminate open positions, delay new programs, reduce operating expenditures.

What specific programs that CWI would be- would be directly impacted with these cuts?

Well, I think there's a couple things that go on here with these cuts.

One is we have to, as I mentioned, and as you've just said, with JFAC cuts 3% plus one for this year, plus 2% is five when you add to it career technical, funding.

You know our effectively, and increases in health care, we're effectively looking at a 10% reduction in funding.

So, when you add up specific buckets you end up with even a bigger number.

And so, we of course are civil servants.

And so, we're going to obviously figure out how that gets, addressed.

But it does, it gets addressed in delayed programs and then lack of capacity.

So, I have dental hygiene assistant program.

We're having to delay that program.

That is a significant need.

And I'm not here to get into the details of oral health, but fundamentally, it is actually very important for all of us.

And those frontline health professions are there.

We have a nursing program, RN nursing.

We have 100 people per year on a wait list.

We don't have seats.

We don't have the funding to expand that.

And by the way, for those listening, over 98% of our students at College of Western Idaho, we have 34,000 individuals we served last year alone.

98- over 98% of them are from Idaho.

So, these are our neighbors.

These are our community members who are looking to step into nursing, dental assist, welding.

We have over 70 people on a wait list.

Automotive technology.

You go down the workforce career technical training programs we have, and by and large, those programs will not see any extra seats.

And we have to effectively delay or encourage others to look elsewhere or, frankly, think about plan B. So that's the concern.

Idaho Launch is another program that lawmakers are looking at trimming back.

They're proposing taking $10 million out of this year's bucket, $10 million out of that program again next year.

That's another program that is going to impact CWI as we're talking about these compounding cuts, aren't we?

Well, first of all, Idaho Launch to me, for an Idaho family, is a real enabler for people to access the benefits of accessing a job for a job market that allows them to participate in this vibrant economy.

If you're a family with a tight budget, we all have, housing, food, education... Idaho Launch is an incredible enabler that helps Idaho residents, high school graduates, step into the- step into higher ed in a way that creates that access.

We know that jobs require training.

And my view, the single greatest doorway in the single largest pipe, if you will, of producing workforce ready individuals is through our hire ed.

Our two year and four year schools are meeting, all different, all different levels of this workforce.

So, to me, launch is enabler there.

Money that comes out of that will certainly be money that prevents individuals from being able to take advantage of that.

What I would say more broadly is enabling individuals to come- needs to come with capacity, right?

And so, what I would hate to see is individuals stepping into waitlists who are attempting to access in good faith, utilizing such a great program as Launch.

And so that's to me just what I call out.

I need, whether it be our legislative community or others to think through that, as a leader of a higher ed institution, I just call out and diagnose where I see that challenge coming for us.

Sure, you don't just need students, you need the people to teach them.

Correct.

As you're talking to lawmakers, are they receptive to those concerns?

I think so.

I mean, I know when I chat with legislators, I think there's a real appreciation for the workforce preparation.

While obviously our legislative body reflects our whole state, there's a range of viewpoints that ideologically are predisposed to saying, you know, higher ed is a is critical and important.

I think on other ends of the spectrum, there's issues that say we have nothing, nothing bad about higher ed.

We just question where public the public role is in that.

I think as a president of a community college, I want to work across all viewpoints and try to at least make sure people understand that public higher ed, preparing people for the workforce of Idaho, I think is good for all.

And I want to engage in that discussion and make sure I'm able to inform and help people see those benefits, because I don't want to end up in a situation where we throw the baby, so to speak, out with the bathwater.

As you're talking with lawmakers, and just to be clear the 1%, 2%, any fund reversions, those are still proposed.

They haven't been voted on yet on the whole floor.

What are you hearing from your, from your fellow higher ed leaders in Idaho as we're game planning this and the bills are moving forward?

Well, I know I first of all I can't speak for any one institution, but I do chat with my colleagues.

We have eight public higher ed institutions in this state.

Four higher ed, four four years and four two years.

And I think the story is fairly similar to what I'm sharing, which is we all face capacity constraints.

We're all trying to meet both statewide and local needs for the workforce.

And so, an inability to match this growth moment, again reiterating, we're experiencing growing enrollment.

So, a cut is anybody can recognize that creates a collision where we have increasing numbers coming to us and the need to access that requires more seats, more teachers, more equipment in general.

I think that's a statewide thing.

It's not just specific to College of Western Idaho.

Alright well, CWI President, Gordon Jones, thanks so much for joining us today.

Thank you.

On Thursday, the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee held a press conference to address criticism of their budget setting process, including considering additional cuts from what the governor and his staff recommended.

We cut 30 million.

How much is that letter asking us to add back?

13 million.

So 17 million that we've cut they haven't asked us to add that back.

So I think we're getting as a point.

And that's part of what we're looking at.

The point is where can they really observe it before it really starts to hurt.

And so we've been told these are some things we need to add back Even if we do bring something back, it will be in that one time aspect.

That's something we'll have to determine.

If are some of these ones really being affected, or do you just, I mean, even for my, my own family when I, when we turn off Netflix or Hulu or something like that because I don't really watch it, and I don't really want to spend the money on it.

And it's sometimes I do hear, hear complaints from my family that all of a sudden that they, they freak out when you watch their favorite show and, it wasn't there.

Now, some of these ones are, in my opinion, similar similar to that.

No one wants to get cut.

No one wants to have their revenue cut back down, but no different than than what happens in the in the private markets.

If you're a business, what happens when all of a sudden revenues go down?

You start having to lay people off, you start to cut out some of the things that you actually really care about, that you, that you want, but that may not bring in, that may not be as necessary.

Joining me to discuss is Kevin Richert of Idaho Education News and Doctor Mary Barinaga, Assistant Dean of Idaho WWAMI.

Kevin, I wanted to start with you.

You were at that press conference with representative Josh Tanner and Senator Scott Grow, What were your takeaways?

Well, I think what we heard was a very at times defensive but also very, strident, defense of the process that's going on, in JFAC, and now a defense of their plans, their proposals to cut budgets this year and next.

And really, the tone and the the whole demeanor was very different than what we heard from Governor Brad Little on Tuesday when he met with reporters where the governor seemed to be, taking much more of a passive approach to the budget process, saying that a lot of this is going to have to be determined by the legislature, deferring to the legislature.

These are the two leaders of JFAC, and they seem very, adamant about asserting their role in this budgeting process.

What stood out to me about the governor's remarks on Tuesday is not only was he a little bit more passive about his role.

And he does have the authority to veto.

He does have the authority to pull people back for a special legislative session.

But he pretty much laid out a roadmap for how the legislature could get their way with budget cuts, saying, if you slow walk the budgets and you wait until the end of the session and you have the primary elections coming up and people who are going to be eager to get home, this is how you're going to be able to get lawmakers to override any vetoes that I have.

Right.

And I think what we've seen in past governors, as opposed to what we heard on Tuesday, we have had governors in the past who really couldn't care less if they kept the legislature in town longer, if they felt like they were fighting for something that they felt like they could ultimately win.

You heard a governor who basically said, if we start to veto budget bills, that extends the legislative session by two weeks is a very, very different message that we're hearing from this governor.

And it did kind of, as you said, kind of foreshadowed how this session might unfold and how this session might ultimately wrap up.

Governor Little is a different governor than Governor Dirk Kempthorne, who kept lawmakers into May and vetoed multiple bills to try and get his way on some things.

But it's also a very different legislature than what Governor Kempthorne had 20 plus years ago.

It is a different legislature.

And and the last time we saw the governor veto a bill the legislative leadership really cared about, you have to go back to a couple of sessions.

Legislature overrode him and very decisively overrode him.

You know, there was no way the governor could have vetoed the one big, beautiful bill with the immediate rollout, which he had, which he proposed.

I mean, that was a veto proof majority was very clear.

Not so clear on these budget bills.

If we got to that point, would there be the votes to sustain the veto?

Hard to say, but it sounds like you're probably not going to find out, because it does not sound like this is a governor in any hurry to veto a budget bill.

No foregone conclusions yet.

We still have a long way to go.

Doctor Barinaga, I wanted to bring you into the conversation.

One of the things we've talked about a lot this year is the disproportionate effect in some cases for higher education.

And and medical education is always a concern in Idaho, especially because we've had a decades long doctor shortage in health care professional shortage.

For those who aren't familiar with medical education in Idaho, there are multiple paths for a career in health care.

Can you briefly walk us through some of those paths?

Sure.

We talk about the physician like pipeline or the pipeline for health care providers throughout our state.

So that involves not only K through 12, but going to college and then, differentiating into different specialties.

So for some that might mean nursing school, medical school, pulmonary therapists.

There's many, many avenues to go, but it really relies heavily on that pipeline, getting those folks up to the point where they apply into our Idaho programs and, hopefully practice here someday.

So specifically with WWAMI, you know, it's Idaho resonance, it's public medical education for Idaho residents.

They do the majority of their training within the state of Idaho.

And then when they do their residency, which is required for all medical students to complete in order to become a licensed, practicing physician, we hope they stay in the state to practice as well, too.

So we have we have other medical education programs as well.

So Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine is here in the state as well too.

Those other entities also rely on a steady stream and strong pipeline of applicants that are well qualified to become physicians someday.

If we're looking at just WWAMI in a silo, what is the state of WWAMI this year?

You know, WWAMI is thriving.

We actually just finished our admissions process for the incoming class of 26.

We had a record number of applicants and interviews this year.

So very strong applicant pool.

Many of them are from Idaho universities and colleges that are applying.

And so that, you know, we just have a wonderful, group of folks, that attend, you know, public and private schools within the state of Idaho and apply.

And so that pipeline is just really important to to WWAMI and I think to ICOM as well.

And you touched on that pipeline.

We can't talk about programs in a silo in the state because cuts somewhere will affect something else.

Are you concerned that higher education cuts or K through 12.

Do you do you worry that that is going to affect WWAMI down the road?

Absolutely.

There are ripple effects.

And so something that affects, you know, K through 12 affects who goes to college and that affects who applies to our health professions programs and other programs within the state.

So yeah, and I think what I would say is the ripple effect gets amplified the longer and the worse that the budget cut can be.

So and and I should clarify, there are not proposed cuts to K through 12 this year.

But there are, of course, the higher education cuts that we've discussed before on this program, but we're definitely looking at the prospect of additional higher education cuts, in addition to the cuts that were imposed in in the summer.

And that could have multiple effects.

I mean, that that can have effects, especially on the community colleges who may be hit the hardest and may have, you know, effects on nursing programs that that we're seeing going through the two and the four year schools.

Launch cuts could also be, be a factor as well, especially when you start to talk about, you know, health professions such as nursing.

And Governor Little touched on this earlier this week when he was speaking to reporters.

Let's take a listen.

you invest a little money now to have more doctors, particularly more good doctors that are in rural Idaho, It's going to lower your healthcare costs and it's gonna increase the quality of life going forward.

but our trajectory would be, is is to get, having more, people, more skilled people in rural Idaho, to cover our medical needs.

And we're still right on the cusp of being in a very dangerous place.

Doctor Barinaga, you just heard the governor say that we're on the cusp of being in a dangerous place when it comes to health care professionals in Idaho, especially in rural places.

Would you agree with that assessment?

Absolutely.

You know, if a if a hospital is unable to be staffed by nurses, physicians, CNAs, etc., then those rural hospitals close and when people have to travel for care, they lose access to care.

And we know that people with poor access to care live sicker and they die younger.

So it's a big crisis.

We touched briefly on cuts to Launch Kevin, but we have, what the governor has proposed a transfer of $10 million.

But the legislature is also looking at additional cuts to the program.

Right.

So what it comes down to is, the governor has signed on to the idea of transferring $10 million in Launch funding, and that's basically money that was not used by students.

It was leftover money from last year's graduating class.

The the issue, I think, is going to be what you do with this year's graduating class.

And, you know, the proposal from JFAC is, you take another $10 million out of the launch fund for next year for this year's class of, high school graduates.

When you have Wendi Secrist, the Director of the Workforce Development Council, the, you know, the agency that oversees Launch, she's saying we're getting a lot of applicants.

We may have plenty of applicants for the money available.

And if you cut $10 million, we're going to have to say no to some students.

Not the only education issue facing the legislature right now, of course.

You have also written this week about special education, which has long been an issue in Idaho.

Can you bring us up to date?

Really interesting pivot seems to be happening at the legislature.

And again, it's February.

There are no guarantees.

Very little has gotten through both houses of legislature yet, but it feels like the tone that I'm hearing in the legislature about special education has changed, even over the course of this session.

On Wednesday, Senate Education Committee unanimously approved a bill that would create a high needs fund for special education.

We've talked about this before.

This is for students who maybe need a full time aide.

Maybe, a sign language interpreter.

These are very expensive services that the districts are having to figure out how to pay for themselves.

That bill passed out of that committee unanimously.

You had three members of that committee who opposed a similar bill last year voted for it in committee.

I think that you look at that vote, I think there's a pretty good chance that we're going to see a high needs program funded this year.

And there are, of course, different ways to fund programs in the state.

There, the state funds, as you mentioned, the districts have also had to find funds locally on on how to do these, not just critical, programs for these students, but also legally required.

But then there's also the question of whether the federal government is going to step in.

And that was another one of the issues that came up this session.

The legislature has signed on to a non-binding resolution is basically a letter to Congress saying: way back in 1975, you promised Congress that you were going to pay 40% of special education costs to the state.

Idaho gets 12% match right now from the feds.

It's a non-binding resolution.

Congress probably is not going to act on it, but it is a statement of the sentiment of the legislature, which, again, I think that sentiment is changing before our eyes, even.

Perhaps a signal on what's to come in the future.

All right.

Kevin Richert, Idaho Education News, Doctor Mary Barinaga, thank you so much for joining us.

And thank you for watching.

We'll have so much more online.

We'll see you here next week.

Presentation of Idaho reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

With additional major funding provided by the estate of Darrell Arthur Kammer in support of independent media that strengthens a democratic and just society.

And by the Hansberger Family Foundation.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

And donations to the station from viewers like you.

Thank you.