State Board of Education office seeks $15 million workforce grant, adds IT and safety staff in FY2026 request

Kevin Campbell, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that the Office of the State Board of Education (OSB) is requesting a package of ongoing and one-time enhancements for fiscal 2026, led by Governor Brad Little’s proposed one-time $15 million public–private workforce capacity grant.

The workforce grant would fund institutional capacity projects tied to workforce training and in‑demand careers. Campbell said funds would be matched by private dollars at a 1:1 ratio for Boise State University, Idaho State University and the University of Idaho, and at a 1:2 ratio for Lewis‑Clark State College and the four community colleges.

The OSB budget matters because the office now houses functions moved into a central office in recent years — including IT and data administration, internal audit, risk management and the school safety and security program — and it controls transfers and grants that affect both K‑12 districts and higher‑education institutions.

Campbell described the office as comprised of three divisions: OSB administration, IT and data administration, and the school safety and security program. He said OSB currently has 84.25 authorized full‑time positions with eight vacancies, and a five‑year average authorized FTP count of 55.95 (Campbell noted that the five‑year average is skewed low because of recent transfers into OSB). He said the school safety and security fund receives $300,000 annually from the public school income fund, per code, to support annual assessments for consistency with the Idaho Safety and Security Advisory Board guidelines.

Josh Whitworth, OSB executive director, described centralization of audit and risk functions and the logic for consolidating IT under the board: “One of the primary motives of the board’s directive is to look at system inefficiencies where that might exist,” Whitworth said, adding that centralized audit and risk management let the system apply consistent policies across institutions and allow shared technical support for roughly 300,000 students.

Committee members pressed OSB leaders on several points. Representative Carole Petzke asked why the centralized office has more staff than a few years ago and whether funds would be better spent at institutions. Whitworth replied that many positions moved to OSB as net zero transfers from other entities, and that centralized teams can deliver efficiencies and systemwide policy recommendations, citing internal audit, risk management and the school safety program as examples.

Senator Rebecca Cook asked for outcome data tied to IT requests and maintenance backlogs, and questioned the value of Independent Study Idaho, noting the program’s small participant counts over several decades. Whitworth said Independent Study Idaho is a flexible, self‑paced delivery option funded largely by student fees (about $160 per credit) and that recent fee revenue has not kept pace with program costs; the budget request includes a revision to base funding for that program.

Other items in OSB’s FY2026 request include 14 ongoing enhancement requests (five proposed positions: an IT systems and infrastructure engineer, a database engineer, an education‑effectiveness program manager, an education policy analyst and an empowering‑parents program analyst), funding to implement behavioral threat‑assessment teams in K‑12 schools (a proposal Whitworth said requires legislation and is in sponsor hands), replacement vehicles and computers as one‑time requests, and proposed changes to the funding model for Independent Study Idaho. The board’s FY2024 package previously included a $30 million ongoing Empowering Parents grant and transfers of IT and audit staff from institutions; FY2025 included a $5 million broadband program transfer from the State Department of Education.

Committee members requested follow‑up materials: a list of which FY2026 requests require enabling legislation, a written IT plan that shows current contractor costs and backlogs, performance metrics for Independent Study Idaho, and details on which positions were net transfers versus new hires. Whitworth and Campbell committed to provide additional information and data to the work group.

The committee did not take formal votes on OSB items during this session; members directed staff to develop written follow‑ups before budget decisions.

Looking ahead, the committee’s work schedule will move statewide decisions (revenue forecast, benefits and change‑in‑employee compensation) and then agency program maintenance budgets; OSB items will be considered in that context.