BOISE (AP) - A proposal by the University of Idaho to expand its law school with a branch campus in Boise would take about eight years to implement and require heavy support from state lawmakers.

The northern Idaho university, based in Moscow, would need an extra $6 million a year to expand and fully operate a law school branch in the state capital. More than half of that money, or $3.4 million, would need approval from Idaho lawmakers.

The plan doesn't sit well with one Idaho state senator, who said he'll fight it.

"I'm going to do everything possible to make sure they don't get one dime to relocate the law school, or any part of it, to Boise," said Sen. Gary Schroeder, a Republican who sits on the Senate Education Committee.

Schroeder lives in Moscow, where the university currently operates the state's only law school. Plans to open a Boise branch have drawn concern among Moscow community leaders, Schroeder said.

"Most of us have no doubt that this is the beginning of a piecemeal movement to move the law school to Boise," he said.

In a proposal the state Board of Education will consider next week, UI College of Law Dean Don Burnett argues that the law school cannot remain competitive if it stays solely in northern Idaho. If the university fails to expand statewide legal education, another school will, Burnett said.

Concordia University, a private Lutheran university in Oregon, has also proposed bringing a law school to Boise.

The University of Idaho plan to open a Boise branch campus shouldn't be read as an attempt to relocate the College of Law from Moscow, Burnett said.

"That is simply not accurate," he said.

The state Board of Education governs the university and trustees hesitated in April to approve plans for a University of Idaho College of Law with two locations. Instead, the board voted to allow the university to draft more detailed plans.

Trustees also asked the university to show that expanding legal education to Boise wouldn't harm programs on the Moscow campus, where the state constitution requires legal education to be based.

"The constitution issue wouldn't come up unless you were relocating the law school to Boise," Burnett said, "or you had relocated enough of it that the Moscow school became a shell of itself."

The proposal that will be considered next week includes plans to improve the 35-year-old Menard Law Building in Moscow, Burnett said. Each campus is expected to serve about 250 students after the Boise branch is fully developed.

"This proposal seeks to overcome past divisions over Moscow versus Boise, to demonstrate how statewide legal education can be made better," he said.