When the Idaho Freedom Foundation yanks the strings, most lawmakers jump | Opinion

To hear Idaho businesses tell it, they can’t find enough skilled workers for all the jobs out there.

The state doesn’t have enough trained truck drivers.

It can’t hire enough nurses.

Or doctors.

Or welders.

Or engineers.

And the intake at the job training pipeline is going in the wrong direction.

Last year, Idaho’s “go-on rate” — which measures how many high school graduates continue their education — dropped to 37%. That’s down from 50% in 2017. Maybe it’s a temporary dip due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it has never come close to achieving the state’s 60% goal.

Access is the most common explanation.

The cost of post-high school education and training has soared beyond the reach of many Idaho families.

So here’s one solution: Take about $80 million from Idaho’s overflowing treasury. Combine it with the $22 million that now provides about 3,000 students with Opportunity Scholarships. And create an Idaho Launch program that provides $8,500 grants to 12,000 young Idahoans, enabling them to get the training they need for the better-paying jobs that go unfilled in the state’s economy.

What’s not to like?

It has political support.

This key component of Gov. Brad Little’s education program was part of House Bill 1, which passed 55-15 in the House and 34-1 in the Senate during last year’s special legislative session.

And voters ratified the entire package by nearly 80% during the Nov. 8 election.

So why did the wheels nearly fall off Tuesday?

Little’s Idaho Launch program was before the House Education Committee, where it barely survived on a 10-7 vote.

Put another way, if three House Democrats — Steve Berch, Sonia Galaviz and Chris Mathias, all of Boise — hadn’t joined Republicans such as Lewiston’s Lori McCann, it would have died on a deadlock.

What’s the common denominator?

The Idaho Freedom Foundation.

The IFF has rated Idaho Launch a negative 6 on its freedom index. The Freedom Foundation reserves that kind of rating for a handful of issues — like something that gets in the way of a medical debt collector and IFF board member Bryan Smith’s ability to gouge people who can’t pay their medical bills.

Vote the wrong way and a legislator’s IFF ranking will descend into the depths of liberalism — which doesn’t necessarily intimidate Democrats. But it worries Republicans, who are fearful of being challenged from the right in a closed GOP primary.

McCann, whose IFF score comes in at 38.5%, wasn’t intimidated.

Neither was House Education Committee Chairwoman Julie Yamamoto, R-Caldwell, who earned a 53.7% Freedom Index rating last year.

But what about those House Republicans who were willing to cast aside the future of Idaho young people because the IFF’s talking points include the usual diatribes about “pure socialism” and “crony taxpayer handout(s) to big business”?

Reps. Judy Boyle, R-Midvale, and Lance Clow, R-Twin Falls, already have mediocre IFF scores — 74.2% each. Here’s guessing they weren’t looking to take another hit.

They voted no.

So did IFF’s acolytes on the Education Committee — Ron Mendive, R-Coeur d’Alene (IFF score: 91.8%), Tony Wisneiwski, R-Post Falls (IFF score: 95.9%), and Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls (IFF score: 88.5%). They followed the IFF party line.

As did two freshmen lawmakers — Dale Hawkins, R-Fernwood, and Elaine Price, R-Coeur d’Alene, — who were endorsed by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, which just happens to be chaired by the IFF’s board chairman, Brent Regan.

If it had been left to them, Idaho’s young people would have less hope of getting ahead in life — and Idaho’s businesses would either import skilled workers from outside the state or do without.

But at least these GOP lawmakers know their conservative credentials would remain untarnished.

See what happens when the IFF’s puppet master begins yanking on the strings? — M.T.

Marty Trillhaase is the opinion page editor of the Lewiston Tribune, where this editorial originally appeared.