Politically, Idaho and Utah are two peas in a pod — conservative, pro-business, entrepreneurial. Yet given a choice, businesses relocating or expanding look to the Beehive State more often than to Idaho. How come?

Simply put, Utah’s workforce — as a whole — is better educated.

“A common theme with our top-ranked states is an expanding, educated workforce,” Forbes magazine wrote in September in its annual survey of the best states for business. “The three states that followed (No. 1) Virginia in the rankings (Washington, Utah and Colorado) also ranked in the top four along with Virginia in our labor supply category, which looks at high school and college attainment, as well as net migration and projected population growth.”

Forbes says Utah has the second-best workforce in America, after Colorado. Idaho ranks 17th.

And it really doesn’t have a lot to do with how much taxpayers spend on education.

Utah ranks last in the nation in per-pupil spending on education, just $5,683. Idaho is second-to-last at $6,625.

Yet 28 percent of Utah adults have a four-year college degree. In Idaho, it’s 22.5 percent — lower than any other Western state except Nevada.

Part of the reason for Utah’s success is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which 60 percent of Utahns are members (Idaho is 27 percent Mormon). The church puts great stock in education — including the arts — and operates 33,000-student Brigham Young University.

Twin Falls native Bruce Bastian, a software billionaire, is a product of Utah higher education. Bastian was a music major at BYU, but when he lost his spot in the school’s marching band he decided to go after a master’s degree in computer science. Bastian and his instructor at BYU, Alan Ashton, developed WordPerfect, an important word-processing application that was the direct predecessor of Microsoft Word.

Bastian may have done as well had he stayed in Idaho, but the point is that the culture of education — and especially higher education — is stronger in Utah than in the Gem State.

Sixty-three percent of the 104 members of the Utah Legislature hold four-year degrees from a college in their state. In the Idaho Legislature, it’s 28 percent.

There are probably as many “steeples of excellence” — former State Board of Education Chairwoman Janet Hay’s phrase — in Idaho schools as in Utah’s, but in the Beehive State the quality of workforce is pitched as the No. 1 selling point to potential businesses.

That has to happen in Idaho before it can compete on equal terms.

It’s attractive to potential employers that the Gem State has low electricity costs and that its citizens have a strong work ethic and earn less than the national average.

But that won’t cut it when the next Hewlett-Packard comes calling.

It’s not enough that institutions such as Boise State University produce quality graduates with the skill sets employers need. There must also be a continuing commitment to excellence — including education funding — from the governor on down to school board members in communities such as Bliss or Three Creek.

That commitment isn’t there yet, and until it is Utah will be a tough act for Idaho to follow.