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Committee reviews Scholarships and Grants program budget; Board plans follow-up on performance measures
Summary
The Office of the State Board of Education presented the Scholarships and Grants program budget; the board says it will develop and deliver more outcome data on scholarships and the rural and underserved teacher incentive program.
Kevin Campbell, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, reviewed the Scholarships and Grants program, administered by the Office of the State Board of Education. The program administers five awards: the Opportunity Scholarship, the Bridal and Underserved Educator Incentive Program, the Armed Forces and Public Safety Officer Scholarship, GEAR‑UP/PELL related programs, and the Idaho Work Study Program.
Campbell said the program is small in FTP (1.35) and that nearly all spending — about 99.5% — is trustee and benefit payments (grants and scholarship awards). The largest past appropriations were the Opportunity Scholarship and later funding for the Bridal and Underserved Educator Incentive Program. For FY2026 the board requested $1,375,000 for the Bridal and Underserved Educator Incentive Program plus $124,000 for a software engineer position the program says is needed to maintain public-facing scholarship databases and customer interfaces.
Josh Whitworth, executive director of the State Board of Education, said the office will return with more outcome data. He told the committee the office will look at whether programs such as the rural incentive are meeting recruitment and retention goals and provide information on which districts receive incentives and retention outcomes. Whitworth said some program functions are handled by other State Board staff and that available funding for an open software-engineer FTP is currently insufficient to hire for a permanent position.
Committee members asked for clear measures: Representative Miller and Co‑Chair Horman asked for data on cohort completion, placement and retention for the rural and underserved educator incentives and for outcome measures tied to Opportunity Scholarship recipients. The board committed to returning with more specifics and clarified that some programs have higher applicant demand than available funds.
No formal votes or appropriation decisions were recorded during the presentation; staff indicated the requests would be considered as part of the committee’s budget process.
