Education News

The governor has said creating a state trust fund that would provide tuition grants is a key priority for his administration, as tuition has risen steadily and as state support for public universities declines.

"The Company," a class devoted to teaching both soft skills, such as how to get along with co-workers and greet clients, to hard skills, like creating spreadsheets, filing, banking and planning the perfect business trip.

Northface University says it can produce more useful job hires than Ivy League schools in barely half the time.

"I don’t know where these kids go to school," counselor Katreena Whitted, a 22-year-old University of Maryland graduate, said, laughing. "They know a lot more than I do."

New solutions are needed to improve public education without dramatic
increases in funding

The Rocky program is the only bachelor’s degree aviation program in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.

The Biology Youth Research Program, a volunteer program operated by ISU biological sciences department graduate students, provides research opportunities for up to 10 high school students during summer sessions and the fall and spring semesters

National statistics referenced in the July 13 editorial in the IR make it clear that Montana is far behind the nation in capitalizing on the ability of two-year colleges to provide low-cost, no-nonsense education that will move the economy forward.

"Privatization or privately financed public universities is the 800-pound gorilla that’s vastly exaggerated," said David Breneman, professor and dean of education at the University of Virginia.

State support for operating expenses at public colleges and universities in fiscal 2004 topped $60 billion. It’s unlikely that schools could replace those funds with either collective endowments or increased tuition revenue, Breneman said.

All Idaho students, from kindergarten through high school, will have access to a new federally funded computer program that aims to help teach standards-based curricula.