College of Western Idaho cites rapid enrollment growth, EWA cap and program wait lists in budget briefing to JFAC

College of Western Idaho President Gordon Jones told the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee that the college is seeing sustained enrollment growth and program-specific capacity limits as it presented its FY2026 base budget request.

Jones said the college is seeing broad increases across academic, career‑technical and dual‑credit programs, adding that "we are up this year 13% in our academic enrollment." He told the committee CWI has "almost a hundred people on our nursing waiting list" and "a 1,000 students total on wait lists across all of our programs," with particular pressure in nursing, automotive technology, welding, cybersecurity and agricultural sciences.

Why it matters: committee members pressed on how funding formulas and state policies affect the college's ability to add capacity. Jones and Legislative Services Office analyst Kevin Campbell explained that the enrollment workload adjustment, commonly called EWA, produced a larger calculated amount for CWI but the State Board's 3% cap reduced what the college could actually receive.

Campbell, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, reviewed CWI's budget history and told the committee the FY2026 request appears at page 1081 of the legislative budget book. He noted a five‑year average annual growth in the college's base budget of 6.6 percent and said CWI typically spends 100 percent of its state appropriation. The FY2024 appropriation to CWI was listed as $20,816,700 in the materials provided to the committee.

Jones described how the cap affected the college's EWA figure: "For us, it would have been $493,000 but, because of a 3% cap, you're seeing the amount that we were able to put in that allowed us to stay to that 3% cap." The amount shown in the FY2026 request is $265,000 as the ongoing EWA addition the college is requesting.

Committee members asked for itemized follow‑up. Representative Petzke requested a breakdown of the three capacity constraints Jones described — facilities, faculty (including accreditation ratios), and student support services — and the co‑chairs and staff asked Legislative Services Office to provide comparative EWA impacts across institutions.

Jones also described the college's role in workforce training and said targeted investments have allowed CWI to develop programs such as EV technician training that place graduates into high‑paying jobs. He framed community colleges as a lower‑cost pathway: "At the 2‑year level, no degree we offer costs more than $10,000 and almost everything we prepare individuals for pays $50,000 to $100,000 in our local Southwest Idaho economy," he said.

The presentation noted past enhancements for CWI, including $1.1 million in FY2024 for nursing capacity, STEM capacity, outreach and compensation equity changes (CEC). Jones and staff emphasized that some funding items — health insurance and CEC — are prioritized ahead of EWA in budgeting, which can reduce the EWA amount available after those mandatory items are applied.

The committee did not take formal action on the CWI presentation during the hearing; members directed staff to supply additional data for further work group review.

Looking ahead: President Jones concluded by urging the committee to consider longer‑term structural spending choices for higher education funding and reiterated that CWI will continue to serve Idaho students with the resources it receives.