Testifying at the Feb. 14 JFAC public hearing on the state budget, I said that, as a member of the governor’s education task force, I don’t see how Idaho will reach the goal of 60 percent of high school graduates earning a post-secondary degree by 2020 unless the state invests much more in public schools than Gov. Otter has proposed.

In a news story afterward, Sen. Steven Thayn asked why none of the public testimony addressed funding sources. Actually, several of us did exactly that.

We noted that the alternative executive budget from Idaho’s former state economist, Mike Ferguson, of the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy, shows how Idaho could double the amount of education funding that Gov. Otter has proposed for next year without raising taxes. The only difference is truly making education the top priority, rather than putting an unnecessary excess into rainy-day funds and giving yet another tax break to corporations and top earners.

Sen. Thayn should understand that members of the public are not budget writers. By testifying, we simply tell legislators what we want prioritized. It is the governor’s and Legislature’s job to figure out how to make that happen. Mike Ferguson has done that.

MIKE LANZA

Co-founder, Idaho Parents and Teachers Together

Boise