We applaud University of Idaho President Chuck Staben for taking a leading role in the effort to get more of the state's students to consider education after high school.
Largely as a result of impetus from Staben, the State Board of Education approved a program that will send letters to all 20,000 Idaho graduates telling them what state college or training program is ready to accept them.
Today, only half the state's high school graduates get any further education in the 16 months after they get their diploma. What's wrong with that? For one thing it is the lowest "go on" rate of any of the 50 states.
The other, more important problem is that there are almost no remaining jobs - and certainly none that pay well or have a career path - that can be done without some post-secondary training or education, leaving Idaho with a growing population, some 10,000 a year, of under-trained, under-educated residents.
Until now, the burden has been on the soon-to-be graduate of an Idaho high school to initiate the process of filling out all the forms each state school demanded of them in the process of applying. The new rule is intended to eliminate a lot of that paperwork - or at least the repetition of it.
It also is intended to send the message to students - especially those whose parents may not have attended college - that college is a real possibility for them.
Staben, as president of one the smaller public, landgrant research universities in the country, is under pressure to grow enrollment for a number of institutional reasons. A bigger institution, for one thing, will find it easier to pay higher salaries to faculty and staff. That will encourage them to stick around and develop more programs of significance that will attract even more students.
We like Staben's broad approach to this issue, one that looks first to the needs of the students and the state before considering the university. By doing so, he has found a broad base of support across the state and from other schools for an effort that should benefit all.
