State Board of Education budget pitch centers on workforce grants, IT and school safety

Kevin Campbell, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the Joint Finance Committee the Office of the State Board of Education (OSB) budget includes significant recent growth and several large enhancement requests. "Today, I'm presenting you with the budget for ... the Office of the State Board of Education," Campbell said, opening the presentation.

The presentation identified three OSB divisions — administration, IT and data management, and school safety and security — and said OSB currently has 84.25 authorized full-time positions with eight vacancies and a five-year average authorized full-time position count of 55.95. Campbell said a recent $30 million ongoing Empowering Parents grant, added in FY2024, accounts for a notable portion of the office's growth.

OSB Executive Director Joshua Whitworth, introduced by Board President Dr. Clark, described the logic behind a larger central office. "One of the primary motives of the board's directive is to look at system inefficiencies where that might exist," Whitworth said, adding that centralizing functions — audits, risk management, IT and school-safety work — allows the board to standardize policy and support institutions and districts that lack local capacity.

Whitworth and Campbell highlighted the largest single FY2026 enhancement in the governor's request: a one-time $15 million public–private workforce capacity grant. The proposal would…