Governor Otter supports making EITC a community college
In Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s state-of-the-state address, the governor focused a significant amount of his speech on improving Idaho’s education system. One of those areas of improvement was making the Eastern Idaho Technical College (EITC) a community college for the eastern Idaho area.
“So today I’d like to invite the people of eastern Idaho to advance their ongoing discussions about making Eastern Idaho Technical College a full-featured community college,” said Gov. Otter in his speech. “I encourage serious public consideration of the benefits and opportunities that a local community college can provide to that region of Idaho.”
As part of his budget, Gov. Otter proposed including $5 million to help pay for the transition. The governor’s proposal is especially exciting for those pushing to take the tech school to the next level.
“We were thrilled to to hear Governor Otter’s remarks today in the state-of-the-state address,” said Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper, a major advocate for the change. “It definitely gets the conversation going, and it certainly helps with his promise of $5 million to help jump-start the start-up costs.”
Casper says there are a lot of benefits to having a community college in eastern Idaho, the biggest being affordable college education.
“Higher level educational courses are offered and available in eastern Idaho, but they’re offered for the most part at university level prices,” said Casper. “Community college pricing is considerably more affordable for Idaho families.”
Right now EITC only teaches trade skills. Dr. Rick Aman, the president of EITC says making his tech college a community college would really add a new higher education option to the region. “The first two years of that bachelor’s degree could be done at a community college at about a third of the cost of strictly going to a university.”
Aman says a community college is also helpful for new students who aren’t sure they want to move far away from home to a big university, or aren’t sure what they want to study. “You’ve gotsmaller classes, less expensive tuition, and it’s less intimidating for a lot of students to come to a smaller campus than to begin at a large university.”
Community leaders say the change to a community college would benefit everyone in the area, not just students fresh out of high school. “If you’re in the workforce its an opportunity for us to partner with existing businesses to have workforce development and have continuing education,” said Mayor Dana Kirkham of Ammon. “If you’re in the golden years, it’s an opportunity for a cultural enhancement where you can audit classes and just learn about things that you’ve always had an interest in.”
Kirkham and Casper both mentioned the economic benefits of having a fully functioning community college. They say the college would bring in more money spending students, and would allow for more teachers to live in the region. It would also help employers like the Idaho National Laboratory to fill positions easier.
“We have some tremendous opportunities with a community college to design training programs that provide those entry level technicians and provide that wonderful training bed for the kinds of employees that the Laboratory needs,” said Casper.
The next step for the region would be to decide on a community college tax district. Historically based on county boundaries, tax districts are the regions that vote to pay more in property taxes to fund the community college. In return, anyone living within the tax district gets significantly cheaper tuition at the community college.
Aman says he imagines it will at least include Bonneville County, but it could also include other nearby counties like Jefferson or Bingham counties if voters support the idea.
