Joint Finance Committee presses State Board of Education on staffing growth, reviews $15 million workforce grant request

BOISE — The Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee on Jan. 30 heard a detailed presentation on the Office of the State Board of Education's (OSB) FY2026 budget that prompted lawmakers to press the board's executive director for follow‑up information on IT staffing, program eligibility for a governor‑proposed workforce grant and the scope of the Independent Study Idaho program.

Analyst Kevin Campbell of the Legislative Services Office opened the presentation, identifying the office and its statutory basis: “My name is Kevin Campbell. I am a Budget and Policy Analyst with the Legislative Services Office.” He told the committee OSB is organized into three divisions — administration, IT and data management, and school safety and security — and that the office currently has 84.25 authorized full‑time positions with eight vacancies and a five‑year average authorized count of 55.95.

The questions from committee members focused on why the centralized office has expanded and whether services now performed centrally would be better funded or delivered directly by institutions. Joshua Whitworth, executive director of the State Board of Education, responded that consolidation was intended to reduce duplicated functions across institutions and improve system‑level efficiency, invoking the board's emphasis on “systemness” and centralized risk‑management and audit functions. “Bringing that centrally allows us to focus and make sure that we're doing standard policies across all of those,” Whitworth said.

Why it matters

Committee members said the growth — from roughly 60 FTP in recent years to more than 80 — and multiple new line items warrant further detail before funding decisions. Representative Petzke asked whether OSB is spending money more effectively as a centralized unit or…