Holding onto hope for NIC, Kootenai County

POST FALLS — What is the danger of a one-party state?

Professor, author and Constitutional scholar David Adler said Idaho is on its way there.

"What you see is the effort to squelch dissent, to deny the right to vote, to attack education, to marginalize people who don't fit into that majority view," Adler said Saturday, speaking to more than 220 people during the Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee's Hijacking Democracy Symposium.

"You find a complete assault on democracy," he said. "That's the problem. We see that not only in Idaho; we see that in other states and it's reflected in the pernicious laws passed that make it very difficult for people to vote.

"Once you've gained power in a one-party state, the effort to dislodge that regime becomes very, very difficult. We can't ever let a state become a one-party state."

Adler was a key speaker and moderator during the two-session symposium, held at the Red Lion Hotel Templin's on the River in Post Falls.

The fate of North Idaho College, concerns about the actions of Idaho's elected officials, political intimidation and calls for community members to stand up to the bullies who are actively dismantling Idaho and Kootenai County's institutions were among many topics discussed during the more than four-hour event.

The morning session, "Hijacking Democracy: Cause and Effect in Idaho and Nationally", included a panel featuring Reclaim Idaho's Luke Mayville and Idaho House of Representatives Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, who both joined remotely, as well as former candidate for U.S. House District 1 Kaylee Peterson, Adler and North Idaho Pride Alliance's Sarah Lynch.

The afternoon panel, "Case Study: North Idaho College/Local Issues and Challenges," featured education advocate and former NIC employee Teresa Borrenpohl, president of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations and NIC Trustee Emeritus Christie Wood, Coeur d'Alene City Councilman Dan Gookin and NIC Workforce Training Center senior administrative assistant Sarah Martin.

Panelists fielded audience-submitted questions, including queries about who actually owns the land beneath the beleaguered NIC, which is facing challenges to its accreditation due to board governance issues, and what can be done to rectify its situation.

Adler asked the NIC panelists how dangerous the accreditation issue truly is at this time.

Wood said NIC's accrediting body, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, has leapfrogged over probation status to "show cause, the most serious you can get."

"It is incumbent upon the college, the administration — not the faculty, staff and students who are doing everything they can every day to support that college — it's the board members, the upper administration that works for the board members, that are being called upon to prove they have met the standards," Wood said. "They have not, and they continually do not meet the standards, even though this community has told them time and time again, 'We demand you meet the standards.”

"I'm not especially hopeful that the college will retain accreditation," she continued. "We're working against a lot of really negative forces."

Martin said if accreditation goes away, jobs will be lost not only on campus, but in the community as a whole.

"The students, of course, they're not going to have a place to go to get their education, but the students going to NIC are also people that work in our community at The Resort and other entry-level-type positions. It's going to be harder to fill positions," she said. "Employers already have a hard time finding employees and retaining them."

A number of industries will be impacted without a flow of NIC students to fill their jobs, she said, especially health care around the region that relies on NIC's nursing students.

"It has a ripple effect that I don't think people understand how severe this is," Martin said. "The ripple effect that this could have could be detrimental to the economy."

Panelists called on attendees to support NIC through their businesses and stand up to the bullies.

Adler said if moderate Republicans don't want to claim membership in a party with the likes of U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, or the local legislators who "attack education, destroy the wall separating church and state, among other things, then your answer is to leave that party and join the Democratic party," he said.

"Make it the party that reflects your views, that's what a democracy is all about," he said. "What the great goal should be is to marginalize those in this legislature and across the state who would undermine our democracy."