Idaho lawmakers have only one job each and every year: deciding how much money to take out of the economy to run whatever government program they decide to fund. Media distractions to the contrary, this is the job, and lawmakers aren’t very good at it. They’re focused on evading responsibility so they upset no one – or at least, none of their donors. So when public money is spent against Idahoans’ interests, lawmakers can claim plausible deniability and say they’re not responsible.
Case in point: Idahoans are deeply concerned that they’re the ones funding the instrument of our country’s demise. We are the ones on the hook because we’re paying taxes and fees to indoctrinate young minds at Idaho’s public colleges and universities. But chairmen of the House and Senate education committees didn’t bring up the issue when they met recently with the Legislature’s budget panel, JFAC.