It’s Time to Go On, Idaho
More than ever, Idaho students need education beyond high school. The message isn’t just for seniors graduating from high school, it is also for adults who never finished their degree, and it is for employees already in the workforce who need to go back to school to gain the skills they need to enhance their earning power.
The fact is, the United States — and that includes Idaho — is not graduating students from college at a high enough rate for our citizens and our country to maintain its competitive status in the world economy. What is also alarming is that, for the first time in our history, according to the Lumina Foundation, this generation of students in the United States is at risk of being less educated than the generation before it.
Idaho is not alone at all. In fact, many states have a dismal dropout rate. Their students never make it to college because they don’t make it through K-12. That is not the case in Idaho. But what is equally unacceptable is the fact that, according to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, Idaho is 43rd in the percent of its 9th graders who make it through high school and through college. We don’t finish.
We can change that, and we must change that. It doesn’t mean that every citizen needs a bachelor’s degree. It simply means that our students need to go on to apprenticeships, go on to associate degrees, go on to certificates, go on to professional technical training, and go on to better jobs and a better quality of life.
In the weeks and months ahead, our Foundation will be using the Idaho media and our web site — and we invite other sites to link in to ours — to build awareness statewide of the need for higher education, the personal benefit of learning beyond high school, what it takes to go on to higher education, how to make it through the system, how to be college ready, how to find the money to afford college, how to know the high-demand, high-pay, high-growth jobs, and much more.
That’s our goal as a foundation, and we are proud to be a part of a new alliance of business and education stakeholders, the Education Alliance of Idaho. Gov. Otter has provided leadership to make this a priority for his administration, and he is joined by State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Luna. The Idaho Business Coalition for Education Excellence (IBCEE) spearheaded the formation of the Alliance. This is a first for Idaho, and we believe it signals that Idaho is ready to tackle this challenge.
It will take all of us, and we invite you to sign up for our e-Blast and visit our web site for more in the coming weeks on what you can do to help you, your student, or your fellow Idahoans go on to an education that will help them, their families and our state become a national leader in educational excellence.
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