Front burner

Education was the centerpiece of Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s state of the state address last week, and that unexpectedly included an element little-heard from in Idaho SOS speeches for a generation: Higher education.

Higher education has been on state policymakers’ back burner for a long time. Up to this year, it has gotten only peripheral mention in Otter’s state of the states; the biggest references have been to his support for local creation of the College of Western Idaho). But...