Idaho Public Lands
The public lands in Idaho have been in great controversy since the federal takeover in the early 1900s, and subsequent takings by various components of the federal administrative state. Idaho has great potential to develop its’ public lands using the 3 R’s… Responsible stewardship, following the State motto: Esto Perpetua, (it is forever). Recovery of Idaho’s federally administered Public Lands. Replace taxes with revenue from public resource productivity and commercial use.
The history of the federal taking, the constitutional facts of life, the several possible avenues for recovery of what was taken, and what Idaho can do with them once they are recovered is a complex story. As a primer of the possibilities I offer my contribution to the discourse on what will be a long process to achieve:
The Constitutional Facts of Life:
Can the Federal Government own Public Lands?
Justice
Social justice? How about just plain justice? When the justice system works; when people have meaningful access to it; when the integrity of the officials who operate it remains sound; when the constitutional principles which form it are followed, the people have justice. No need for progressive adjectives to bend justice in another direction.
Education
Always the cry of more money for schools, but what is the real solution? Certainly, a free people are an educated people and the State has a constitutional duty to provide public education. But how is it working? Perhaps we need a fresh look and a new paradigm.
What I think makes the difference is the relationship between teachers and their students. Teachers make education happen and administrations are (or should be) there to support teachers in the task of delivering learning opportunities to young minds.
We need to take off the straight-jacket from our teachers, administrators, and communities that must presently meet externally imposed criteria, such as national and state test score requirements. We need to look at what works best for each given community in Idaho and let the community decide through its school board, what the curriculum should be and how success and failure can be measured and improved.
Education is more than half of state and county budgets. It is how we create our future through bringing knowledge to the next generation. Does the product, our future citizenry, measure up to the costs it took to produce them? Will competition help improve the end result? Can Charter Schools offer a viable option? Will school vouchers help or hurt the educational process? What alternatives deserve greater consideration at the education table?
The greatest education is when the student learns how to learn. From there, self-education begins a lifelong journey. And getting young minds to that point should be the primary goal of education.
Monopoly by License
A disturbing trend is the ever-growing list of professions that have become subject to state licensing requirements. This creates professional monopolies controlled by the state, violating free-market principles and suppressing competition that often brings lower costs and higher quality goods and services to the Idaho people. These licensed professions are often lobbied for by special interests to gain state control and eliminate options and opportunity in the marketplace. This is the very definition of fascism: the union of corporate and state power, and a violation of an expressed principle of republicanism: “We believe the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations.”
The solution is to eliminate those professional licensing requirements where there is no clear and essential public safety issue. Instead, allow the formation of private associations of professionals who may certify and police the conduct of their members, establishing and maintaining reputations. Competition promotes innovation and opportunity. Licensed monopolies suppress competition. As an example, currently the medical profession is dominated by the AMA and state board certification. If privatized, chiropractors, naturopaths, and other alternative practitioners could gain equal standing through their own parallel associations, integrative medicine could make a giant leap forward, and quality and affordability would improve with the state licensed, near monopoly gone.