Professional Technical Workforce Education is at the top. It is the No. 1 objective of the No. 1 goal for North Idaho College. That should be reassuring. The college spent eight months working with community members to develop its five-year strategic plan, and at the very top of the list is Professional Technical Education (PTE).

The PTE program is important because it includes the skills-based learning so desperately needed in our region. Idaho's PTE Web site states it is "devoted to preparing students for occupations requiring other than four-year college degrees as well as training workers already in the workplace." Think hands-on skills such as auto mechanics, electrical, welding, plumbing and carpentry. But also think technical training, computer skills, health care support careers and more.

We must have a diversely educated employment population to keep and recruit businesses that offer stable, career-level jobs for our citizens. If we have a workforce of only academically prepared people, we will turn away technical and manufacturing companies. We need balance, and right now the scales are tipped.

Many business leaders in our community have pushed, prodded and pulled until the PTE program at NIC is finally in the spotlight. The state allocated nearly a half million dollars for PTE statewide last year, but to help bolster these important programs, Sen. Jim Hammond and Rep. Frank Henderson, both of Post Falls, worked diligently to secure an additional $250,000 for the six Idaho PTE schools this year. They were successful.

The College of Southern Idaho, a community college in Twin Falls, took the extra state money and added even more than usual from its general fund to give its PTE program a big boost.

But NIC behaved quite differently. It took the additional $42,000 of state money for PTE but cut its own general funding for the program by $33,000, leaving NIC's PTE spinning in place and well behind the efforts of southern Idaho.

I asked NIC Trustee Vice Chair Christie Wood last month when we met for coffee why the budget for PTE was cut when it is the No. 1 strategic goal? She said she was unaware of the cut and would look into the question, yet just weeks later, she voted along with the whole Board to approve the budget, PTE cuts and all.

The Press reported last Sunday that NIC President Priscilla Bell was granted a 5 percent salary increase, which, along with additional benefits, raises her compensation package to $179,250, including $1,000 per month for housing. Trustee Christie Wood called this decision "a great show of confidence."

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Where is the college's confidence in PTE, its No. 1 goal? Where is its confidence in the students who now face a tuition increase? President Bell received 5 percent more pay, but the students will pay 7.4 percent more in tuition. And the promise of expanded PTE offerings will not be supported by actual budgetary strength.

NIC's new Strategic Plan lists values that include "serving the community," "ensuring access to education and training" and "maintaining accountability." All nice words, all good intentions, but the actions of the NIC board send a different message.

Our community has clearly voiced that PTE is of utmost importance. The students need cost-effective access to this type of education and training. Yet, with NIC's budget cuts for PTE coupled with tuition increases and more money funneled to executive compensation, the board's accountability comes seriously into question. Its actions do not match the words on its plan. Or as Benjamin Franklin said, "Well done is better than well said."