BOISE (AP) - Gov. Butch Otter backed recent recommendations from an Idaho education task force meant to improve the state's schools, saying his top priority in 2014 and beyond will be restoring millions in funding to districts that have suffered recession-fueled cuts since 2008.

Otter told a Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday that cuts were "necessary but unfortunate" as Idaho lawmakers scrambled to balance the state budget amid plummeting tax revenue between 2008 and 2010.

Now that Idaho's economy is recovering - Idaho ended the previous fiscal year with substantially higher tax collections than predicted early in the year - he said it's time to start repairing the damage.

"We've got to backfill some things," Otter told the gathering in Idaho's capital city.

The task force was convened last December by the governor, who directed its members to come up with ways of increasing the number of young Idaho residents with some sort of post-secondary degree to 60 percent, from just 35 percent now.

During its final meeting last Friday, the panel made recommendations that would cost about $350 million, if they were all adopted at once.

The proposals call for significant salary hikes for teachers, including a $40,000 starting pay package for beginning instructors, up from $31,000 now, as well as revamping education to focus on students' mastery of subjects, not simply grades.

Additionally, the 31-member panel suggested schools make a renewed focus on literacy skills; recommended a strategy of promoting wireless broadband in all Idaho schools; advocated for school districts to give "adequate access to technology devices" for classroom use by teachers and students; and supported new Common Core standards, meant to align reading, writing and math goals not only across Idaho, but with new standards being adopted in most other states.

Otter says such challenges - and their lofty price tag - can't be tackled in a single year, but that Idaho lawmakers should pursue them over the next five years.

"We can't do that in one year, we can't do it in two years, or maybe three- I wish we could, but we can't," he said. "But what we can do is set ourselves on a course that we accomplish so much every year, and four or five years out we accomplish the entire package. So I want to see what those prices are and what we can prioritize first."

House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, told the Idaho Statesman he was in favor of Otter's suggestion to tackle these recommendations over time.

On Tuesday, Bedke was among a group of legislative leaders who met with Otter to discuss the recommendations of the task force - and how to go about crafting legislation to put them into action.