Committee advances proposal to move K–12 discretionary funding toward weighted student formula

The Senate Education Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1096 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation after the bill's sponsor, Senator Woodward, described a plan to move a portion of K–12 discretionary funding into a weighted per-student distribution that adjusts allocations based on student attributes.

Senator Woodward described the measure as an incremental approach to revising Idaho’s K–12 funding formula. The bill would start by shifting the discretionary portion of the public school budget (described in committee materials as about 13% of total public school support) into a weighted per-student model that assigns additional weights for student attributes including economically disadvantaged students, English language learners, special education, small schools, gifted-and-talented and at-risk alternative students. The sponsor said weights stack for students with multiple qualifying attributes.

Key provisions described in the committee discussion include a two-year ‘‘hold harmless’’ period (for fiscal years 2026–2027) to prevent districts from immediately losing funding under the new distribution and language that directs excess funds into a public education stabilization fund if appropriations exceed required distributions. The sponsor and Department of Education financial staff said the bill itself is a policy change and does not itself appropriate the additional dollars some districts would need; separate appropriations decisions remain the responsibility of the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Department staff and multiple school and education stakeholders testified in support and outlined impacts, especially for districts serving students with high-cost needs. Brian Darcy, administrator of Idaho Educational Services for the Deaf and Blind, emphasized costs tied to assistive technology and specialized staff for that low-incidence, high-need population. Small-district superintendents and board members objected to the change as written, saying the two-year hold harmless could leave some rural districts facing steep funding reductions when the hold-harmless period ends; Cambridge superintendent Anthony Butler said his district would face an estimated roughly $70,000 reduction in discretionary funding under the new weighting after the hold-harmless period.

Senator Woodward and Department officials said they intentionally excluded moving a math-and-science statutory requirement into discretionary funding to limit immediate losses for some districts and that the legislative budget-book agency request to JFAC (the appropriations committee) contains the dollar amounts needed to fully resource the model, separate from the policy bill. Committee members pressed staff for clarity on which existing line items would be collapsed into discretionary funding and whether professional development and other program dollars would remain sufficient for small rural districts.

After extensive questions and public testimony from school administrators, advocates and a classroom-level coalition, a motion to send Senate Bill 1096 to the Senate floor with a due-pass recommendation carried by voice vote; no roll-call tally appears in the committee transcript.

The policy bill replaces portions of the statutory funding language with weighted-student terminology and establishes the distribution mechanism; funding levels and additional appropriations would be decided in the budget process.