Legislative fiscal staff outline OPI’s $255 million HB2 request; superintendent seeks $5 million for third-year math and $700,000 for ACT testing

The Appropriation Joint Subcommittee for Education heard a detailed fiscal analysis of the Office of Public Instruction’s (OPI) House Bill 2 budget request and follow-up elected-official requests on database modernization, teacher licensure funding and implementation of new math standards.

Julia, fiscal analyst with the Legislative Fiscal Division, told the committee that “OPI’s 2027 biennium House Bill 2 budget request is approximately $255,000,000 or about 10% above the fiscal year 2025 base.” She outlined program-level highlights, fund shifts and decision packages that underlie that request.

The fiscal analyst said recent inflection points in OPI funding included the elimination of block grants beginning in 2017, a temporary rise in federal COVID SR funding in 2020, and a 2023 fund shift tied to House Bill 587 that moved revenue associated with the 95 school equalization mills from the general fund to the state special revenue guarantee account.

Why it matters: the state-level program funds OPI’s central administrative functions and systemwide services; local assistance (primarily K–12 base aid) represents roughly 83% of OPI’s spending and most HB2 dollars flow to local school districts. The committee’s review focused on (1) how OPI will pay for ongoing costs created by one-time federal investments (for example, the teacher licensure platform), (2) a database modernization subscription (PowerSchool), and (3) superintendent-requested changes to support assessment, math standards implementation and agency capacity.

Key program details and requests

- Teacher licensure (DP 616): Julia described a fund switch request that would move 2.5 positions and their associated…