Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education‑scholarships topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State Board’s scholarships and grants budget requests focus on educator incentive and IT staffing
Summary
The State Board of Education's Scholarships and Grants program requested funding for the Bridging and Underserved Educator Incentive, and for a software engineer post to maintain scholarship systems; analysts noted timing variability in scholarship payments and said nearly all program spending is trustee/benefit payments.
Kevin Campbell of the Legislative Services Office presented the Scholarships and Grants budget to JFAC on Feb. 24 and said the program — administered by the Office of the State Board of Education — is largely trustee and benefit payments rather than personnel spending.
Campbell said 99.5% of the program’s spending is trustee and benefit payments and roughly 0.5% is personnel. The program houses five state scholarship and grant programs, including the Opportunity Scholarship and the Bridging and Underserved Educator Incentive program. Spending varies by award cycles and applicant counts, Campbell said.
Scholarships and Grants requested $1,375,000 for the Bridging and Underserved Educator Incentive program for fiscal 2026 and a $124,000 request for a software engineer. Director Josh Whitworth of the State Board of Education said some customer service and helpdesk functions are supported by staff in other State Board budgets; he confirmed the program maintains public databases and user interfaces that need maintenance and security work and said the program needs additional IT capacity to handle a backlog of work.
Committee members asked about performance measures and outcomes, including retention and recruitment effects of the rural/underserved educator incentive program and whether the Opportunity Scholarship and other programs meet intended goals. Whitworth said staff will bring more outcome data to the committee and cited initial data indicating Launch and other programs have contributed to higher post‑secondary attendance.
Why it matters: the requests affect how the state funds targeted scholarships (for educators and opportunity recipients) and the committee sought outcome data linking awards to recruitment and retention in rural and underserved districts.
