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College of Eastern Idaho urges $2 million ongoing, warns CTE wait lists and campus capacity constrain regional workforce
Summary
College of Eastern Idaho President Lori Barber told JFAC CEI has expanded credit and workforce training sharply since 2017, is capacity constrained with hundreds of CTE applicants unable to enroll, and would use a portion of a $10 million CTE fund and a requested $2 million ongoing allotment to expand faculty, equipment and student supports.
Lori Barber, president of the College of Eastern Idaho, told the Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee that CEI has experienced rapid growth since 2017 and is running up against facility, faculty and equipment limits that are preventing the college from placing hundreds of applicants into career‑technical programs.
Kevin Campbell, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, told the committee CEI grew from about 700 students when it was Eastern Idaho Technical College to roughly 3,600 degree‑seeking students and more than 14,000 workforce‑training students. Campbell said CEI’s FY2024 appropriation was $7,003,700 and that FY2025 appropriation rose to $7,700,000.
Why it matters: CEI argued that filling CTE and health‑care pipelines will require new instructors, updated equipment and expanded student support; the college asked the committee to consider a share of a statewide CTE funding pool and specifically requested at least $2,000,000 ongoing from the state to expand capacity.
Most important points
- Growth and demand: Barber said CEI’s workforce training division provided more than 14,000 trainings in FY2024 and that CEI has seen large relative growth in credit headcount since 2017. She told the committee CEI’s nursing enrollment expanded from 35 students in 2017 to an ability to accommodate 220 today.
- CTE wait lists and capacity: Barber said CEI could not place “465” students who wanted CTE seats in fall 2024; she and committee members characterized that as a significant unmet local workforce demand. Barber attributed the limitation to insufficient faculty, aging or missing equipment (welding, diesel, fabrication), and insufficient student support capacity.
- Industry partnerships: Barber described local employer partnerships that have increased capacity in some fields. She said Idaho National Laboratory (INL) provided instructors that allowed CEI to nearly double cybersecurity enrollment, and that local businesses such as Teton Toyota partnered on micro‑credential and on‑the‑job training pathways for automotive technicians.
- Costs and compensation: Barber told the committee CEI loses candidates for campus positions to local employers offering higher pay and said bringing a subset of adjunct and full‑time faculty to local K‑12 average pay would require additional recurring dollars (the college provided a figure to the committee during the hearing).
- Funding request: Barber asked JFAC to support the postsecondary package in the budget—$25,000,000 total for postsecondary institutions with $10,000,000 designated for community and technical colleges—and said “an increase in our general fund allocation from that $10,000,000 of at least $2,000,000 ongoing would be absolutely transformational.”
Committee requests and next steps
- Committee members asked CEI to specify which programs and faculty lines would be funded by EWA or other enhancements; Barber enumerated needs including additional science and math faculty to support CTE prerequisites (anatomy/physiology, microbiology, math) and new equipment for welding and mechatronics.
- Representatives and senators encouraged continued industry partnerships and requested follow‑up data on how earmarked CTE funds would be allocated across institutions.
Quotations
- “CEI’s workforce training division provided over 14,000 trainings serving 54 local employers,” Lori Barber said, summarizing FY2024 activity.
- “We had 465 more students who wanted a place that we didn’t have a chair for,” Barber said of fall 2024 CTE demand.
- “An increase in our general fund allocation from that $10,000,000 of at least $2,000,000 ongoing would be absolutely transformational,” Barber said.
Context and background
Campbell said CEI is Idaho’s newest community college (formed after a 2017 county referendum). Barber emphasized CEI’s regional role: the college serves Southeast Idaho’s growing employer base, including INL and expanding health‑care and manufacturing employers, and she framed the budget ask as an investment in Idaho’s workforce.
Ending
No formal votes were taken during the CEI presentation. The committee signaled interest in the governor’s proposed CTE funding pool and asked staff and colleges to provide program‑level plans and cost estimates to inform appropriation decisions.
