Committee hears competing views on Senate Bill 2131 to change TrainND funding formula

The Senate Workforce Development Committee on Thursday heard testimony on Senate Bill 2131, which would change how state funds are distributed among the four TrainND workforce training quadrants and would, if codified, fix a new funding formula in law.

The bill would set a distribution model of 60% allocated evenly across the four TrainND regions, 20% distributed by contact hours and 20% by unduplicated participants, a configuration supporters said would correct a long-standing disadvantage for the northwest quadrant. Senator Todd Beard, a District 23 lawmaker and TrainND employee, told the committee the change was the result of an interim study and asked the committee for a “do pass” recommendation on SB 2131.

The bill matters because TrainND is the state’s network for college-level workforce and technical training and the new formula would change how limited state training dollars are divided among Williston State College (northwest), Lake Region and Devils Lake (northeast), Bismarck State College (southwest) and North Dakota…