Governor Little visits Highland High School

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - Governor Brad Little was in Pocatello Wednesday afternoon.

He visited Highland High School to talk about some of his priorities for the legislative session and is showcasing how much Idaho accomplished during the last year.

The governor talked to students and teachers and answered questions about the accomplishments of last year and what’s ahead for this  legislative session. 

"I think it's really an incredible opportunity for them to be able to meet, sit here and mingle with the governor of the state. That's an opportunity that doesn't exist for most students," Highland government teacher Pamela Fleichman said.

"For me, it's really important to have our age to have a voice and to be able to know what's going on and to be able to have mature conversations, be able to talk with the older generations as I'm coming up and getting ready to vote and things like that," Highland student Makayla Lambson said. "It's really exciting to be able to know what's going on."

"We hear about Brad Little all the time and, you know, actions that he's putting in but it's good at but face to actions is kind of heard of some of the programs that he's put in and already benefited me in my education," Highland student Issac Stosich said.

Governor Little assured the future leaders Idaho is in a better place now than it's ever been.

"We've got one of the strongest economies," he said. "We're first for income growth over every state. We're a top five state for employment growth. We've got record reductions and red tape. We've got record investments in education, and this is a good setting to talk about those."

Governor Little says while much has been done, there is still much more to do. One of his main concerns this legislative session is to continue to fund our schools. One proposal is a new bond initiative that's outlined in his Idaho Works plan.

"This one goes directly at helping school districts either pass a bond for a major renovation a bond for a new school, a bond for significant maintenance. This legislation will do all of that," he said.

Another thing on the governor's radar getting more students involved in the Idaho Launch Program.

"Launch makes as you all know, up to $8,000 for two years to every single graduating senior right now. There's 22,000 of you in the state that will get your diplomas in May, and over 12,000 of them have signed up," Governor Little said. "Our biggest need dire need in idaho is in the healthcare field, one out of 10 high school seniors have signed up to be somewhere in the healthcare field and of course, Idaho State is where a lot of that those educational opportunities take place."