Public Parks More Important Than Schools in Idaho?

Parks over schools

Dems: Gov. falls short on education

Governor Kempthorne had an opportunity in his final State of the State address on Monday to leave a well-funded education system as his legacy. But he chose a different legacy, proposing to spend $33 million on the state park system.

"It would be lovely to create world-class parks, but not when we don’t have world-class school facilities," said Rep. Nicole Lefavour (D-Boise) following the speech. And though Kempthorne earmarked $27 million to raise teachers’ starting pay to $30,000–"which is forward progress" said Boise Superintendent of Schools Stan Olson–it’s still just a few thousand above the state’s definition of poverty-level wages for a family of four.

BY JILL KURAITIS

Full Story: http://www.boiseweekly.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A157301