School funding formula could be reformulated

COEUR d’ALENE — Before the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers spent years unsuccessfully trying to rewrite Idaho’s 30-year-old school funding formula.

Now Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield has taken up the task again — and put it on a fast track.

“We’re basing a lot of the formula off these outdated ways of gathering information,” Critchfield said last week. “Before we got dropped into COVID, we were already feeling the restriction of that.”

The last few years have underscored how classrooms and the students who fill them have changed since the 1990s. In a post-pandemic Idaho, for example, a funding model based on physical seat time makes less sense than it once did.

“We’ve proven that a lot of learning takes place in a lot of different ways other than being in a seat for 990 hours,” Critchfield said.

A committee of education leaders and lawmakers trying to rewrite the funding formula is expected to meet again Aug. 31, just one day before Critchfield’s 2024-25 budget request is due to Gov. Brad Little.

Much of the conversation has focused on a funding formula that allows for flexibility.

Critchfield wants to build the budget around a new formula, which she’ll present to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee in January. She’d also like to see the Legislature make whatever changes are needed to implement the updated formula.

It’s an ambitious goal. But Critchfield believes it’s achievable.

“I am confident that we’ll be able to find something that’s really going to work for our kids,” she said.

On another front, Gov. Little signed into law this year a bill requiring high schools to offer a financial literacy class, fulfilling a new graduation requirement. The law went into effect July 1 and affects the class of 2024 and beyond.

The state will offer a waiver option only for this year’s seniors.

“We’re hopeful that districts will make it work, but if you cannot make it work for this year’s seniors, we’re not going to hold up a kid from graduating,” Critchfield said.

Critchfield said teaching financial literacy is an important part of preparing and empowering Idaho students, some of whom are already working, for life beyond school.

“If we can support a generation of students who have a healthy financial attitude about money, that’s good for our economy,” she said.

Critchfield also pointed to the Idaho Career Ready program, a new initiative that aims to incentivize school districts to create programs that prepare students to meet regional industry and workforce needs.

The program represents an opportunity for school districts that may have wanted to offer a certain program but faced obstacles related to equipment or space.

The initiative will prioritize rural districts, as well as school districts that have engaged with a business or industry partner.

“The grant allows a district to apply for something that is specific and unique to their community,” Critchfield said. “The goal is to see diversity around our state.”

In North Idaho, for example, Critchfield said districts might seek to develop forestry-related programs that expose middle school and high school students to industries that are flourishing in their own backyards. Meanwhile, in southern Idaho, there might be more emphasis on manufacturing.

“We want it to be customized to your regional and local needs,” she said.