The good, the bad and the ugly of this Idaho legislative session for Gov. Brad Little | Opinion

Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke were in Idaho Falls on Friday to tout the accomplishments of the 2023 legislative session.

They are substantial, some of them historic, especially when you step back and look at where Idaho is now compared to when Little first took office in 2019.

But backsliding on equal rights, especially for the LGBTQ community, stands out as a black eye on this otherwise impressive record.

In 2011, when he was lieutenant governor, Little chaired a transportation infrastructure task force that identified a huge deferred maintenance backlog. An especially big problem was thousands of decaying bridges across the state. As of now, the state expects to have funding to shore up two-thirds of that maintenance backlog.

When Little took office, Idaho was in the bottom 10 states in terms of starting teacher pay. Now it will be in (or at least near, depending on what other states do) the top 10. Few, if any, governors in America can brag about a turnaround that significant.

This year’s big achievements — getting starting teacher pay above $47,000 a year, adding nearly $400 million to public education and passing a grant program that will allow Idaho students to get up to $8,000 to pay for community college, all while cutting taxes — will mean vastly better lives for coming generations with a better education, less debt and better job prospects.

Another historic year for education

This year’s session is the latest in a series of advances in education funding during Little’s term in office, including $300 million last year plus nearly $50 million for early childhood literacy.

Increases in teacher pay will pay especially large dividends in areas like Idaho Falls, which are near the border.

In eastern Idaho, teachers have long bled across the border to higher-paying jobs in Wyoming and Utah after gaining a few years of experience. The problem was so bad that former Sen. Jeff Siddoway, an extremely conservative Fremont County Republican and the chair of the Local Government and Taxation Committee, famously vowed to block the passage of any tax cuts until it was addressed during the 2015 session.

Now the osmotic pressure will be reversed, as starting teachers make more in Idaho than in either Wyoming or Utah. Starting pay will be higher than in any neighboring state except for Washington, according to National Education Association data.

The Launch Program “will literally revolutionize what we’re doing post-K-12,” Little said.

And that’s probably not an exaggeration. Right now for a kid who can’t afford college, who doesn’t have a family with a history of college or technical education, the easiest path is to take a low-paying job with limited possibilities for advancement. Now becoming a high-paid welder will be just as easy.

“Now we have a vehicle to deliver career technical so that we do the same for plumbers, welders, HVAC technicians, auto mechanics that we do for teachers and lawyers and accountants,” Little said.

Luck or skill?

It’s tempting to think that Little just got lucky.

He inherited an economy with 7% annual growth, unheard-of in much of the country. It took a hit in 2020 during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic but quickly rebounded to 12, then nearly 14%. Numbers like that are usually only seen in rapidly industrializing countries.

The economic boom has meant huge budget surpluses that could be used to slash taxes while making investments in schools, child literacy programs, roads, bridges, water infrastructure and many other priorities.

But it’s not just luck. Little — a lifelong policy wonk — has been singularly effective in making the most of these good times. Setting an investment-focused agenda means that this economic boom — which is temporary, as are all booms — will lay the groundwork for higher sustained levels of economic growth and higher standards of living over the coming decades.

Every school district, every graduating senior, every kid who is getting ready for school and has a better ability to read is going to benefit from the policies that Little has championed.

The campaign against transgender people

Well, almost every kid.

Because the other thing that is growing to shape Little’s legacy — something he has not championed but to which he has consistently acquiesced — is Idaho’s growing and incessant legal persecution of transgender people, especially children.

A yearslong, nationally coordinated campaign of hatred has made Idaho one of its test beds. In 2020, Little signed an obviously unconstitutional bill to prevent transgender people from getting identifying documents that match their gender and a likely unconstitutional bill that banned transgender athletes from participating in sports. This year, he signed a bill that would make it a felony for a doctor to provide the standard of care to transgender children, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Several transgender kids testified before the Legislature that this care is the reason they’re alive today. A wealth of data shows that people with gender dysphoria, children particularly, have astronomically high rates of serious depression and suicidality. This is not a matter of “wokeness,” but of their lives.

I asked Little what these kids should do, now that the health care they rely on has been made a crime.

He urged families with transgender children who rely on gender-affirming care not to leave the state.

“Those families that might think about moving ought to think about their … educational opportunities, better jobs, a better way of life and a safe community,” he said.

Which is a bit like throwing gold at a drowning man.

The importance of justice

The achievements of Little’s term in office are undeniable and will make countless lives better. But to really be great, he has to develop a passion for justice that matches his deep understanding of policy.

When the government intrudes into the most intimate personal decisions that these families have to make — decisions they do not come to lightly and that have overwhelming implications for their children’s mental and physical well-being — those families won’t care much about better job prospects or scholarships or safer bridges. Little has a duty to protect those families from infringements on their rights.

But Little hasn’t lifted a finger to help them, even as they have become the prime targets for extremists bent on making biblical law into the law of the state.

I did not hear him articulate a clear reason on Friday why he did not stand up for them. I have never heard him clearly state a reason.

Most of Idaho’s families will benefit materially in significant ways from the agenda Little set and negotiated to completion this session. A few will be torn apart.

And all of us live in a state that is a bit less free than it was in January.

Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman based in eastern Idaho.