Legislative finance panel approves State Board of Education funding changes, removes $5 million in workforce grant

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Oct. 25 approved a set of budget adjustments for the Office of the State Board of Education, including a supplemental for a credit-mobility grant and a larger FY2026 package that adds staff, hardware and other items while removing a previously proposed $5 million in-demand workforce grant.

The committee approved a supplemental adjustment for fiscal year 2025 tied to a credit-mobility grant, and later approved the FY2026 program maintenance motion that added one full-time position and $360,700 in new spending across the general and dedicated funds. The panel also approved language changes tied to reappropriation authority by roll call.

The motion to add a FY25 supplemental tied to the credit-mobility grant carried unanimously. Kevin Campbell, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee the grant is a $40,000 award covering January 2025 through January 2026; the motion on the floor sought an additional $20,000 for FY25 from the miscellaneous revenue fund. After the roll call the committee recorded unanimous affirmative votes from both chambers for that motion.

Representative Petzke moved the FY2026 package, describing specific line items in the request: 1.0 full-time position and $144,200 for a database engineer; $10,000 for a software support contract; $35,000 for cybersecurity testing; $12,500 from a dedicated fund for marketing; $20,000 from a dedicated fund for the credit mobility grant; $99,000 from a dedicated fund for replacement vehicles; and $40,000 for OITS hardware. Petzke summarized the motion as “an additional 1 FTP and $229,200 from the general fund and $131,500 from dedicated funds for a total of $360,700.”

Representative Petzke also explained the FY26 motion reflected a change from an earlier JFAC position: “The difference between this motion and the one that we did previously in JFAC is that this removes entirely the $5,000,000 that was going towards, in-demand (grants) that were at wait list capacity,” Petzke said. That removal prompted several lawmakers to register concern about impacts on students and workforce pipelines.

Senator Melissa Wintrow, speaking in opposition to removing the $5 million, said the decision would harm students and the direct-care workforce: “This is a travesty that we're not incentivizing and really taking initiative here,” she said, adding the state faces shortages in home- and community-based healthcare workers.

Senator Ward Engelking and other members pressed the panel’s rationale and consequences. Engelking said students were already waiting for slots in programs such as nursing and engineering and warned the cuts would delay students’ graduations.

Supporters of the compromise pointed to other appropriations elsewhere in the budget. Representative Horman said the committee had funded $10 million to address wait lists in technical schools through a different budget and pointed to permanent building fund allocations and college appropriations the panel had approved.

The FY2026 motion passed with a combined roll-call result of 17 ayes and 3 nays. Committee members later voted by roll call to approve the language associated with reappropriation authority; that vote carried with 18 ayes and 2 nays. Following the votes, the motions were recorded to move forward with a due-pass recommendation from JFAC.

The committee did not adopt the earlier $5 million in-demand grant as part of the package; proponents said the amount had been removed because it failed earlier on the House floor and the committee was preserving other priorities in a constrained package.

The actions will be reflected in the committee’s final report and the included language will require the usual follow-up by staff for implementation and reporting.