West Views: Opinions from newspapers in Idaho and the West commenting on Western issues

R-E-S-P-E-C-T for the West

The Denver Post

The Rocky Mountain West - reliably Republican in presidential politics during the Reagan era - is now a battleground. And we love it.

When we voted knee-jerk Republican, the GOP took us for granted and Democrats wrote us off. Now empowered as swing voters, we can demand attention from the federal government for our special needs. ...

Like all Americans, Westerners grumble at the rising cost of gasoline and home heating. But we also host the nation's greatest storehouse of natural resources and worry about how the rush to drill for gas and oil, mine uranium and eventually perhaps produce oil shale can affect our fragile environment and precious water resources. And we can't wait for both parties to address those issues. ...

Just six years ago, Republicans held the governorships of all eight Rocky Mountain states. Today, Democratic governors sit in five of the statehouses: Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Democrats believe they have a fighting chance of carrying four of those states - all but Wyoming - plus Nevada for Barack Obama. ...

In the end, we don't really expect McCain to lose his home state. But he can't take it for granted, either. As (Arizona Gov. Janet) Napolitano noted, swift growth (since McCain's last Senate race in 2004) means that "one in four Arizonans has never voted in an election with McCain on the ballot." ...

The key point politically is that even if McCain sweeps all eight Rocky Mountain states, he will have to put major resources into a region the GOP once took for granted. In a fall campaign where McCain, relying on public financing, is likely to be heavily outspent by Obama, money spent in the West can't be used in Florida, Ohio or other battlegrounds.

It also means that no matter who wins the White House, the West will no longer be ignored.

Med school will take time

Idaho State Journal, Pocatello

Steven Daley-Laursen, the interim president of the University of Idaho, wants to make one thing clear. He is unequivocally in support of the WWAMI program, which provides seats at the University of Washington Medical School for students from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.

And he is skeptical about the proposal of Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas to establish a distributive system that would utilize doctors and health care facilities statewide to teach medical students in clinical settings. ...

It is no secret that regional and some professional interests doubt that a system of medical education - not to be confused with a bricks-and-mortar medical school - is the best way to go. But the Vailas plan has gained some support from persons who have taken the time to examine it. ...

(Discontinuing the WWAMI program) would be foolish, since it's probable that Idaho may be decades away from establishing its own system of medical education. Without WWAMI and a comparable link with the University of Utah, Idaho would be up the creek to educate doctors. ...

You can't continue to argue which is the better medical education plan for Idaho until someone puts a pencil to the potential costs. But one thing everyone can agree upon: Idaho is 49th among states in the number of doctors relative to population, and the way things are, that won't change soon.

Rural Oregonians rise up

The Oregonian, Portland

We weren't too surprised this week to hear leaders of rural Oregon talking about "the tyranny of the majority." ...

Rural Oregonians have much to be mad about these days. Gov. Ted Kulongoski's decision early this year to pull the plug on the Office of Rural Policy was a mistake. ... It seemed to send a signal from the highest level: Salem doesn't care.

Then came the failure by Oregon's congressional delegation to salvage anything from the sundowning of county timber payments. In recent years, Uncle Sam has shipped hundreds of millions of dollars to rural Oregon to offset revenue lost by reduced logging on public lands. That money paid for cops, libraries, parks, roads, schools - in short, for civic services core to rural life.

People in rural parts of our state ... remain deeply mired in systemic mud. Hunger. Housing. Health care. And don't even get them started on jobs. Or the critical lack of access to capital. Or how their roads and bridges are falling apart. And their forests are going up in flames.

Too many urban decisions ignite wildfires of unintended consequence that ravage rural communities. That's because for too many Oregonians, the postcard parts of this state remain playgrounds and are seen that way. As they drive home, they might do well to remember just how much of this state's wealth, plywood to pinot noir, remains tied up in rural lands. ...

It's easy to blame urban Oregonians for having destroyed life as rural Oregonians wanted to live it. But rural leaders better be careful calling for too close an accounting of how public money is allocated in this state.

By some estimates, a billion dollars or more of state taxes collected from urban Oregon are sent around the state to pay for rural schools. There's nothing wrong with that policy. Every child in this state deserves an equal - and good - education.

Yet it must be plainly understood that Oregonians are in this together, and there's no future in deepening the political divide in this state. Rural Oregon needs help. But it doesn't need to blame Portland for all its problems.

Support educational options

Idaho Press-Tribune, Nampa

When the Idaho Charter Commission approved Nampa Classical Academy last week, it provided local parents with another option for educating their children. ... The school promises a "classical education" and on Oct. 4 will give a presentation to the public on what that is. ...

We don't think "one size fits all" is appropriate when it comes to education. For whatever reason, some students just may not do well in traditional public schools. ...

This is not to disparage the hard work that public school teachers and administrators do. There are hundreds of excellent public school teachers in the Valley working many hard hours to provide the best education they can for students, and they do a super job.

But sometimes a different methodology and environment can be just what a specific child needs to not only learn, but to want to learn, to have an enthusiasm for education.

If that methodology can be found in a charter school, we should do all we can to promote it.

That does come with a caveat, however. Any time public dollars are being spent on a school, that school needs to be operated with responsibility and accountability. There needs to be strong oversight.