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JFAC funds State Board of Education initiatives, rejects larger workforce grant proposal and asks for credit-mobility and outcome reports
Summary
The committee approved a package for the Office of the State Board of Education that includes a FY2025 supplemental, FY2026 program maintenance additions and language directing reports on credit mobility and outcome-based funding; a substitute motion to raise the workforce capacity grant failed.
The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee approved funding and policy language for the Office of the State Board of Education (OSBE) on March 11, advancing both a FY2025 supplemental and FY2026 budget adjustments while rejecting a larger substitute proposal for workforce grant funding.
The committee first approved a one-year supplemental of $20,000 from the miscellaneous revenue fund to support a credit-mobility grant, covering a grant period running January–December of the current year, with the motion offered by Representative Petzke and seconded by Senator Woodward. The motion passed on roll call.
For FY2026, Representative Petzke moved a program-maintenance package that added one full-time position (database engineer) and multiple line items, including $144,200 for the database engineer, $10,000 for a software support contract, $35,000 for cybersecurity testing, $12,500 for marketing the CTEL Now program, $20,000 for a credit-mobility grant, $99,000 for replacement vehicles, $40,000 for OITS hardware and $5,000,000 ongoing from the general fund as trustee and benefit payments for a public-private workforce capacity grant. Representative Petzke described the motion as a compromise emerging from the working group.
Senator Wintrow offered a substitute motion to increase the workforce capacity grant to $15,000,000 (and to change the totals accordingly). The substitute motion failed on roll call (the transcript records the substitute receiving 2 ayes and 18 nays). The committee then returned to and approved the original motion as presented by Representative Petzke; members described it as a compromise intended to prioritize capacity-building items while reining growth in the OSBE budget.
The committee also approved language on the screen that: (1) specifies the use of the newly appropriated workforce-capacity funds and associated criteria for awards; (2) requests a report from OSBE regarding credit and transcript mobility; (3) includes two sections addressing outcome-based funding in higher education (one for colleges and universities and one for community colleges); and (4) sets reappropriation authority and other conditions. The language passed on a roll-call vote with 14 ayes and 6 nays and will be incorporated into the committee’s bill language.
Discussion vs. action: Committee discussion referenced university waiting lists for high-demand programs, workforce needs in engineering and health professions, and prior deliberations in the work group about the size of an initiative proposed by the governor. The transcript shows members debating the balance between tax cuts and investments in workforce capacity; the substitute motion’s failure indicates the committee did not adopt the larger $15 million workforce grant.
What happens next: The committee forwarded the OSBE budget package with a do-pass recommendation and adopted policy/reporting language directing OSBE to return data on credit mobility and outcome measures in the coming year.
