The Office of the State Board of Education asked the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee to consider a FY2026 budget that includes continued staff growth, new information-technology positions and a one-time $15 million workforce capacity grant proposed by Governor Little.

The request was presented by Kevin Campbell, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, and discussed with Josh Whitworth, executive director of the State Board of Education (OSB). Campbell told the committee that OSB’s budget is organized into three divisions — OSB Administration, IT and Data Administration, and School Safety and Security — and that the office currently has 84.25 authorized full-time positions with eight vacancies. He said the office’s five-year average authorized full-time position count is 55.95, which he described as “skewed low” because several functions have been recently transferred into OSB.

Campbell said the OSB administration division has a base budget of about $45.1 million and 49.75 FTP; IT and Data Management has 27 FTP and an $8.9 million base; School Safety and Security has 7.5 FTP and a $1.3 million base. He noted that trustee and benefit payments — including transfers such as the Empowering Parents grant and transfers to higher education institutions — are the largest spending category, representing about 86.7 percent of the office’s expenditures.

Why it matters: committee members pressed OSB leaders on the scale and pace of centralization. Several legislators said they want assurance that bringing units like IT, internal audit and risk management under the State Board has produced net efficiencies and that transfers of positions were offset by reductions elsewhere.

Whitworth, the OSB executive director, said the transfers were intended to reduce duplication and provide systemwide coordination. He told the committee centralized internal audit allows the office to “make sure that our institutions are spending the money” effectively and that centralized risk management standardizes policies across institutions. He said IT and data were centralized by prior legislative decision and that the office now supports a large technology footprint for K–12 and higher education systems, serving roughly 300,000 students.

On the governor’s single largest FY2026 enhancement, Whitworth described the proposed public workforce capacity grant as a one-time $15 million program to “allow institutions to build infrastructure capacity if it relates to workforce training and in-demand careers and incentivize institutions to partner with local community members to raise funds.” Under the proposal, funds would be awarded to institutions that raise private dollars to match the state investment: a 1:1 match for Boise State University, Idaho State University and the University of Idaho, and a 1:2 ratio for Lewis-Clark State College and the four community colleges. Whitworth and committee members said additional details — including an eligibility list of programs and expected outcomes — should be provided before the committee takes final action.

Committee members also questioned other FY2026 requests described by the analyst and director: five new OSB positions (a systems/infrastructure engineer, a database engineer, an education effectiveness program manager, an education policy analyst and an Empowering Parents program analyst), a behavioral threat assessment teams implementation for K–12 (the director said this item requires legislation and has a sponsor), and a revision to base funding for Independent Study Idaho.

Independent Study Idaho was described in committee as a flexible, self-paced program used by a few hundred people per year and funded primarily by student fees (about $160 per credit). Whitworth said the program’s fee-funded model has been strained by costs and student outcomes; committee members asked for more student- and outcome-level data before deciding whether to increase general-fund support.

Several legislators asked for an IT plan and for comparisons of contractor costs versus the proposed in-house hires. Senator Cook and others requested documentation showing current contractor expenditures and backlog estimates tied to the requested infrastructure positions. Whitworth said many IT roles are currently contractor-supported and that in-house staff would be more cost-effective and provide broader institutional support.

On DEI and student fees, Whitworth and board members said services tied to historically marginalized communities are funded by student fees and not by state appropriations; committee members asked OSB to provide clearer breakdowns in follow-up materials.

Other items discussed included a $30 million ongoing Empowering Parents grant that was enacted in FY2024 and the FY2025 transfer of a $5 million broadband program into OSB. Whitworth said most position transfers were net-zero from other state units and that some recent transfers (school safety and IT) brought several additional personnel into the OSB payroll.

Looking ahead: committee members requested additional documentation on which FY2026 requests require enabling legislation, an IT strategic plan, contractor cost details, enrollment and outcome data for Independent Study Idaho, and a refined eligibility/outcomes list for the workforce capacity grant.

Ending: Whitworth said OSB will deliver requested follow-up materials and stand ready to answer further questions in the work group process.