There’s a goal that drives much of what Idaho does in its education system. That goal is for 60 percent of 25-to 34-year-olds to get post-high school education by the year 2020.
That goal gets a lot of attention but, you don’t often hear that it’s broken down into categories. Mike Rush, executive director of Idaho’s State Board of Education says there are three different goals within the larger one.
“We know that we don’t need 60 percent of our population with Baccalaureate degrees,” Rush says. “There are other levels of post-secondary education that are equally, in fact in some cases even more in need.”
After high school, the state wants 33 percent of students to get Bachelor’s degrees, 20 percent to get an associates, and 7 percent to get a one-year certificate. We know how many young people have Bachelors (25 percent) and associate’s degrees (10 percent) because the U.S. Census Bureau keeps track. But we don’t know how many Idaho workers have a one-year certificate. So the board plans to conduct a survey this summer.
“I don’t think the certificates are going to make a huge difference,” Rush says.
State Board of Education researchers estimate 4 percent of Idaho’s current crop of 25-to 34-year-olds have one-year certificates. If true, the state will be able to say about 39 percent of young workers have post high school training. That’s a long way from the 60 percent by 2020 goal, but closer than the 35 percent the state can claim now.
Copyright 2013 Boise State Public Radio