College of Western Idaho reports strong enrollment growth, warns of capacity limits and EWA cap

Kevin Campbell, a budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, opened the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee briefing with budget figures for the College of Western Idaho (CWI), noting the college’s FY 2024 state appropriation and recent base-budget changes. "In FY 2024, the appropriation to CWI was $20,816,700," Campbell said, and he pointed committee members to CWI’s FY 2026 request in the legislative budget book.

CWI President Gordon Jones told the committee that enrollment at the Meridian-based college has climbed rapidly and that demand is concentrated in career-technical programs. "Growth continues...we are up this year 13% in our academic enrollment," President Jones said. He told JFAC CWI reports nearly 22,000 credit students and that more than 30,000 students were served in the 2023–24 academic year; at other points he noted the college now serves "over 31,000 individuals." Jones said career-technical education (CTE) fields such as nursing, automotive technology, welding, cybersecurity and agricultural sciences account for much of the increase.

The college described capacity constraints tied to three factors: classroom and lab facilities, faculty numbers where professional ratios are fixed by accreditation, and student support services such as academic advising. "We have, I believe it's almost a hundred people on our nursing waiting list. The statistic I have here is we have a 1,000 students total on wait lists across all of our programs," Jones said. He added that for some health programs accreditation limits class size — "you have to have no more than 10 students in the classroom per instructor" — which cannot be changed by the institution.

Campbell summarized recent budget history for CWI and said EWA (the enrollment workload adjustment) has been a significant variable in recent years. In FY 2026 CWI requested an ongoing addition of $265,000 in the EWA. Jones explained why the number in the budget book was smaller than the formula output: "The EWA number you're seeing...would have been $493,000 but, because of a 3% cap, you're seeing the amount that we were able to put in..." He said healthcare and cost-of-employee compensation (CEC) increases must be applied before EWA in the maintenance budget and that institutional growth beyond the 3% cap is therefore not fully reflected.

The committee pressed for more detail. Members asked for a program-by-program breakdown of capacity constraints (facilities, faculty, and support services) and for LSO and DFM to show how the 3% cap and EWA were applied across institutions. Jones and Campbell agreed to provide further detail to the committee.

Committee members also discussed CWI’s use of recent enhancement funding. Campbell noted FY 2024 enhancements totaled $1.1 million for increased nursing and STEM capacity, outreach and additional CEC; in FY 2026 CWI requested $265,000 ongoing for EWA. Jones described how modest enhancement dollars allow CWI to be adaptive to local workforce demand, giving electric vehicle technician training (including a donated Tesla used for hands-on instruction) and mining technician programs as examples. "We're the first program in the Northwest that does that," he said of the EV technician training.

The hearing included questions about tuition and compensation. Jones said CWI has not increased tuition in eight years and that no two‑year degree CWI offers costs more than $10,000, adding that many program completers earn $50,000–$100,000 locally. He also said CWI faculty and staff pay lags comparable four‑year institutions by roughly $10,000–$20,000 and that community college faculty typically teach heavier course loads.

The committee asked LSO and DFM to provide a cross-institutional EWA analysis and for CWI to return with a detailed breakdown of the three capacity-constraint categories to inform priority-setting in the budget process.