Whew! There’s some sanity in the statehouse

Legislators currying favor with North Idaho’s broad base of conservative voters are hitting all the “right” notes, railing against abortion and for gun rights. Those are givens not just in election years, but every year. They’re Idaho staples.

The game of who can out-conservative whom, however, can go too far as incumbents pander for votes. Among the indefensible positions being championed by some legislators are not spending taxpayer money to help public school kids who are thinking about killing themselves, ensuring that parents have the right to marry off their children sometime around the arrival of puberty, and protecting religious zealots who prevent their kids from receiving proper medical attention — and the kids end up dead.

That cacophonous political noise very well might get some people elected who have no business opining on laws, let alone creating them. It can also drown out the constructive but comparatively quiet work of conscientious legislators like Paul Amador, a Coeur d’Alene Republican.

Here’s a quick, partial list of what Amador has been working on this session:

• Improving standards of child care facilities, particularly to protect infants from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

• Improving the funding formula for Idaho colleges and universities, with greater emphasis on outcomes like graduation rates and time to degree completion

• Authorizing Lewis-Clark State College to offer graduate-level programs that would help address health science profession shortages, among others

• Improving education savings plans for Idahoans using IDeal accounts

• Behind-the-scenes but critically important research and analysis of funding issues as Kootenai County’s only member of the prestigious Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee.

With elections approaching, ideological muscles on both sides of the aisle are being flexed, but don’t be deceived. Legislators like Paul Amador are actually getting things done to make Idaho better for everyone.