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College of Eastern Idaho urges funding to expand CTE capacity, cites 465‑student CTE wait list
Summary
College of Eastern Idaho President Lori Barber told JFAC that the college’s workforce training and CTE programs are capacity constrained and asked the committee to support a targeted increase; CEI said an ongoing $2 million increase from a $10 million community‑college CTE bucket would be "transformational."
Dr. Lori Barber, president of the College of Eastern Idaho, told the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee that CEI has rapid growth and that capacity limits in facilities, faculty and equipment are preventing the college from serving hundreds of students who want career‑technical education.
"In fall 2024, we actually had 465 CTE students who wanted a space in one of our CTE programs," Barber said. She said the college tried to redirect some applicants to general education or prerequisites but could not place those students in their chosen CTE programs.
Kevin Campbell of the Legislative Services Office told the committee CEI’s FY2024 appropriation was $7,003,700 and that CEI typically spends 100% of its state appropriation. Campbell said CEI’s five‑year average annual base budget growth is about 7% and that the college’s workforce training division served more than 14,000 trainees in the most recent fiscal year.
Barber described partnerships with local employers that have expanded capacity in some areas: Idaho National Laboratory (INL) provided instructors that helped expand cybersecurity enrollment, and Teton Toyota partnered on a micro‑credential/apprenticeship pathway for automotive technicians that pairs on‑the‑job training with coursework. At the same time, Barber said the college is losing employees to higher private‑sector pay. She said an analysis shows 20 full‑time faculty are paid below the local K‑12 average (around $62,000) and that bringing adjunct and full‑time faculty to comparable levels would cost about $2,260,000.
Barber asked the committee to support the $25 million in the postsecondary budget that includes a $10 million ongoing bucket for community and technical colleges; she said "for CEI, an increase in our general fund allocation from that $10,000,000 of at least $2,000,000 ongoing would be absolutely transformational." The college said it would use funds for faculty to teach prerequisite science and math courses, updated equipment for welding and fabrication, and expanded nursing and allied‑health capacity.
Why this matters: CEI officials said Southeast Idaho employers are growing and need technicians and health‑care workers. Barber said the college’s single campus has grown from serving about 1,000 credit students in 2007 to nearly 4,000 credit students in fall 2024 on the same physical footprint, creating parking, classroom and equipment bottlenecks.
The committee requested more detail on how EWA and enhancements were calculated across institutions. No formal appropriation votes occurred during the CEI presentation.
