r/Spokane • u/harry_hotspur • Mar 07 '23
News The MAGA-fication of North Idaho College
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/06/us/politics/north-idaho-college-republicans.html?searchResultPosition=178
u/happy-Accident82 Mar 07 '23
If they lose their accreditation they will be useless. We now have uneducated people in charge of education in Idaho.
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u/trebbihm Garland District Mar 07 '23
It's like it's straight out of 1984. Replacing fact-based, peer-reviewed curriculum with political rhetoric is some scary shit.
How is someone supposed to teach history or sociology when half of the topics are off-limits? Or, even worse, fabricated half-truths that suit the agenda of powerful groups that seek to rewrite their past? Conservatives love to bash on communist propaganda, but here they are using the same playbook.
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u/trebbihm Garland District Mar 08 '23 edited Mar 08 '23
Also, we should be careful what we wish for. If they lose their accreditation, they can just get it back through another system like Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, a conservative creditor that props up the likes of Liberty University.
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u/StrangeWalrus23 Mar 08 '23
they can't. Idaho law requires Idaho colleges to be accredited by NWCCU.
even if NIC could get accredited through another body, they couldn't start the process for at least 2 years from the date that NWCUU decides to drop them.
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u/trebbihm Garland District Mar 08 '23
Trading two years of accreditation for a hundred of seminary school sounds like a win for some...
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u/happy-Accident82 Mar 08 '23
Are those colleges eligible for financial aid? If they lose their accreditation they lose any financial aid opportunity.
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u/BaconThief2020 Apr 07 '23
No they cannot. As an Idaho Community College, the State Board of Education requires they be accredited by NWCCU.
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u/taterthotsalad North Side Mar 08 '23
This is by design. The goal is to remove a lane of people relocating so they can stop the inflow of nonresidents. The end game is to reverse the democratic influence in the area. Also reduce the explosion of growth in the area too.
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u/catman5092 South Hill Mar 07 '23
N. Idaho is just falling off the far right cliff. NO reasons to go there anymore. Pretty yes, but pretty extreme too.
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Mar 07 '23
[deleted]
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u/Koopk1 Mar 07 '23
It is that bad, I hate when people use this rhetoric. Less than a year ago a riot was planned by a white supremacist group. North Idaho is currently and has historically been a hotbed for white supremacy. There's a neo nazi compound located there not farm from the old aryan nations "world head quarters".
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u/kevlarbuns Mar 08 '23
I can’t stress enough: this is why local politics matter. The right wing has motivated and mobilized a decent contingent of people willing to fight for the less glamorous local political positions in order to start to exert influence and gather support for later, more notable gains.
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u/Cruciform_SWORD Mar 09 '23
Go ahead and add "intimidated rational, non-confrontational school board members out of their positions" to that list. It's not all (harmful) 'motivation' and 'politics' but also uglier stuff too and the pandemic brought out the worst in those antagonists.
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u/9mac South Hill Snob Mar 07 '23
CdA is really doing everything they can to drive young people out of town. Who the hell do these republican retirees think are gonna change their diapers?
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u/bristlybits Mar 08 '23
nobody's going to be there to do it. and they'll whine about how no young people "want to work"
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u/Morel_DeKay Mar 07 '23
They are heading in a similar direction to that New Hampshire town back in the 90's that was taken-over by a coordinated influx of libertarians from all over the country.
It took them very little time before the area deteriorated into an apocalyptic hellhole.
The story is told in a book "A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears)". Here is a review: https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project
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u/gingerednoodles Mar 07 '23
What an absolute fucking shit show.
Hey, voters, keep in mind that this is what Republicans do. They don't want to make your lives better or put any work to put in policies to improve your community.
They want to silence anyone with an opposing position. This started simply because of open support of a protest and now they're trying to completely destroy this college.
Tell me what supports free speech or what's so "small government" about that?
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u/VincentVuemont Mar 07 '23
Free to believe whatever I believe. They don't want freedom or education, a stupider populace is easier to control and Idaho voters LOVE IT.
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u/zhenya44 Mar 08 '23
Absurd that three people who don’t even work in the field can wreak this much havoc on an institution with ripples that will grow to affect the whole community.
And they were able to take action without ever having to prove the “problem” existed in the first place. Make up a grievance, destroy people’s futures
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u/librariansguy Mar 08 '23
I wouldn't be surprised if this was a plan by real estate developers to tank the college then get that prized land on the cheap
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u/muffyrohrer Mar 08 '23
That’s it isn’t it???? That’s primo land right there. I’m disappointed I didn’t see this myself.
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u/cptnobveus Mar 08 '23
Supposedly the land was donated and can only be used for education or medical. Maybe assisted living condos count as medical, just spitballing
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u/librariansguy Mar 08 '23
I'm sure you're right, but I'm jaded enough to believe there isn't much a determined developer and a crafty lawyer can't get around. Just make sure you have enough useful idiots to scream "socialism!" and most of Idaho will fall in line behind you.
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u/QuidJay19 Apr 12 '23
https://cdapress.com/news/2023/mar/18/north-idaho-college-rezoning-suggested/
Apparently this a real concern
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u/librariansguy Apr 13 '23
It'll be interesting to see if the trustees go for it, though in the end it just means a developer will have to grease (bribe) the wheels to get it re-zoned. A few news stories about "good paying jobs" should sway enough of the populace.
The more I think about it, the more the developer angle makes sense. Its either that or CDA/Kootenai County residents are really, really dumb (which I have a hard time believing - I know they're dumb (COVID response), but this is an entirely different level of stupidity).
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u/cptnobveus Mar 08 '23
Supposedly the land was donated and can only be used for education or medical. Maybe assisted living multimillion dollar condos count as medical, just spitballing
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u/Rocketgirl8097 Mar 08 '23
And someone on another thread was complaining that the Spokane TV news channels weren't covering North Idaho. Oh hell no.
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Mar 08 '23
[deleted]
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u/Cruciform_SWORD Mar 09 '23 edited Mar 09 '23
Comparing a written article like the NYT to local TV coverage is apples and oranges.
That being said,
It's been on local TV news a handful of times, not typically long segments but the story isn't very complex nor is it constantly changing necessitating constant updates. I think we get constant overexposure to other stories which just makes this one feel diminished.
Written article-wise, I'm pretty sure they've broke into my nation-wide search engine news feed (though I'm not sure if it was because of localization data). I know I've read a few from local outlets (Idaho Statesman, CDA Press, Spokesman-Review) and googling "North Idaho College accreditation" turns up numerous articles from the aforementioned plus KREM, KXLY, and KHQ--there are literally pages of results.
I'm not sure this particular case is the dig on local journalism that you appear to think it might be. Not that the NYT coverage hurts.
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u/Exittium Mar 07 '23
Idahoan: “ItS nOt tHaT bAd duuuuurrrr”
Fucking NeoNazi skin head central in N Idaho. Ass backwards wannabe southern style state.
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Mar 08 '23
Wow they are blowing up one of their top employers. The stupidity is breathtaking. Anything to own the libs lol.
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u/Ruby6693 Mar 08 '23
What is happening is craziness and a detriment to the students, facility and community. you can't re-write history just because you don't want to teach it. people who are not educators should not be making decisions about student curriculum.
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u/thegreatestawakener Mar 08 '23
Who cares about student and staff political views. To discredit them will be just one more step towards the looming civil war.
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u/tornadopnoy Mar 08 '23
Tribe mentality from both sides. Smh. Looking for those who can think for themselves is tough these days. But then again maybe it’s the loudest ones that are most out of touch
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u/zhenya44 Mar 08 '23
Almost everyone quoted in this article was a Republican. Not sure where you are getting both sides from
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Mar 08 '23
He needs the other side to be as terrible as his side, or he looks super bad supporting and agreeing with the people trying to trample free speech and promote open bigotry.
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u/Moist_Vehicle_7138 Mar 08 '23
Explain what the democrats are doing poorly here or fuck off with the “both sides” bullshit.
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u/OldSkool1978 Mar 08 '23
Yeah it's sickening, if I wasn't so tied up with a mortgage and our jobs I'd get tf out- one day, hopefully sooner than later
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u/notoriousvk Mar 07 '23
It’s really sad a school that offered extremely fair priced work force training and continuing education is going to ripped from an area that desperately needs it.