It’s the last week of school for many districts in Idaho, and June is a crucial month for administrators planning for next year and teacher unions negotiating salaries.
The current formula for sending funding to schools throughout the state is based mostly on average daily attendance, rather than the total number of enrolled students. But Idaho State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield said that needs to change.
“Asking schools to absorb rising costs within a flat budget functions as a de facto budget cut, even if it’s not labeled that way,” Critchfield said in an emailed statement. “We are continuing to ask local education agencies to make deeper cuts without providing a funding structure that is aligned with the actual needs of students, staff and communities.”
Critchfield will hold listening sessions across the state to hear from the public on how to modernize the funding model for Idaho public schools. The tour kicks off Thursday, June 4 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Lincoln Auditorium at the Idaho State Capitol, with events planned for Idaho Falls, Coeur d’Alene and a virtual meeting on June 25.
“Our goal for this process is to create a modernized funding formula that better reflects current realities and addresses longstanding unmet needs,” Critchfield said.
Jennifer Swindell is the managing editor of Idaho Education News, and she’s followed changes in Idaho school policy for years. Along with reporting, the organization aggregates publicly available data such as test scores and district funding into easier-to-use databases, and she said a lot has changed over the decades.
“We have 77 charter schools in Idaho right now, and 25 years ago, we had none,” Swindell said. “Charters are a choice, hybrid learning’s a choice, you could homeschool for part of the year and then that public school is required to take your kids back in and out as you see fit as the parent.”
A funding system based on attendance isn’t set up for hybrid learning, she said.
“What if a kid goes four hours a day and is home four hours a day doing online learning? How do we account for that in the funding model? Well, we don’t right now, it’s all off, so it needs to be modernized,” Swindell said.
The Idaho Education Association – Idaho’s largest union representing public school teachers – also said Idaho’s funding formula was designed for a very different time.
“While our schools continue to meet the needs of today’s students, the formula lacks the flexibility to support structures necessary to keep pace with the growing demands of services we are legally and morally obligated to provide, including things like special education,” said Julie Sarasqueta, a Communications Specialist for the IEA.
After the listening sessions tour, Critchfield said the Idaho Department of Education will convene a working group to help shape recommendations for a modernized public school funding formula. That work will include a financial analysis, and the development of draft legislation to be shared with the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this fall as part of the conversation leading into the next legislative session.
