Something fairly unusual happened at the Idaho Statehouse recently. Lawmakers on Idaho's budget committee got a report saying the State Board of Education misspent nearly $2 million.
It was money lawmakers had set aside to fix Idaho's troubled K-12 data system, known as Idaho System for Educational Excellence (ISEE). Most people haven't heard of ISEE, but it’s the system that quietly collects data on hundreds of thousands of Idaho students. The system is out of date, and replacing it has been a top priority for years, but now the project is basically on pause after federal officials pulled back major funding.
Now this report, about how the State Board of Education used that money, is raising questions about oversight, transparency and what happens next.
Kevin Richert, Senior Reporter and Blogger with Idaho Education News, has been following this story and he joined Idaho Matters for an update.
Read the full transcript below:
GAUDETTE: From the studios of Boise State Public Radio News. I'm Gemma Gaudette. This is Idaho Matters. Something fairly unusual happened at the state House recently. Lawmakers on Idaho's budget committee, known as JFAC, got a report saying the state Board of Education misspent nearly $2 million. And this wasn't just any money. It was money lawmakers had set aside to fix Idaho's troubled K through 12 data system, which is known as Idaho System for Educational Excellence, or ISEE. Now, if you haven't heard of ISEE, don't worry about it. Most people haven't. It is the system that quietly collects data on hundreds of thousands of Idaho students. And the system? Well, it's out of date. And replacing it has been a big priority for years. But now the project is basically on pause after federal officials pulled back major funding. This report about how the state Board of Education used that money is now raising questions about oversight and transparency and what happens next. Kevin Richert, who is the senior reporter with Idaho Education News, has been following this story from the start, and he's joining us now to help us make sense of all of this. Kevin, good to have you with us.
RICHERT: Thanks for having me on Gemma.
GAUDETTE: Okay, so, Kevin, start by walking us through what legislative budget writers heard in November. What exactly did the new report reveal about this $1.8 million that was apparently misspent?
RICHERT: Yeah, the number was a new thing for me, and I think it was a new thing for members of the of the Budget Committee. This was a report that was compiled by Legislative Services Office. That's legislative staff. Um, completed this audit, and they found that, uh, the state board had taken $1.8 million. That was supposed to go into ESI, into upgrading this, uh, school data system and used it for other projects that were outside of the scope of what the budget bill that the legislature passed. It was outside of the scope of what the budget law called for spending.
GAUDETTE: Okay. So the state board actually used use this money though, Kevin, for other approved programs, things like dyslexia resources, STEM initiatives, even I think math remediation. So why does that still constitute misspending under the legislature's rules?
RICHERT: It gets a little bit complicated. And the problem that the state board seemed to run into was in one year, it was 2024, as I recall, the language that the legislature had put into the budget law that year was very restrictive. It said that the money that we're talking about here shall only be spent on ESI. It cannot be moved into other projects. These other projects, as you mentioned, the Dyslexia Handbook, some of the other projects that they worked on, these were all initiatives the legislature had signed off on and but they did not allow this money from this budget law to go into those programs, it was limited only to spending it on ESI.
GAUDETTE: Okay, so we've heard about ESI, but I think a lot of folks probably don't understand how it functions. So can you explain what this data system is supposed to do and why has upgrading it been such a priority?
RICHERT: Yeah, I'll try to simplify it because, uh, but but it's really important. I mean, when we talk about a data system, I know people's eyes glaze over on this. So the Ido system for educational excellence has been this, uh, this data bank that the state has maintained for K-12, uh, for over a decade. Uh, it was started basically after the Great Recession. Um, and it's supposed to be a receptacle that collects student data, school data, um, and collects it and maintains it and allows comparisons over time. Um, but what it has done over the years has basically become a it's never lived up to what the state hoped it would be. It's not it's not interactive. It's not a data system that parents could go to or legislators could go to to find out how schools are performing. Uh, it's kind of a the data goes in and it lands in IC, and from there it's a little bit harder to get it out. Uh, so it's never really performed that kind of a function that similar systems in other states have been able to perform. So that's why it's such a high priority. If you talk to the governor, if you talk to the members of the state board, if you talk to key legislators, they'll say, we need access to this data and we need access to this data in a way that makes sense, so that we can look at it and we can try to draw some conclusions and try to make some policy decisions that are driven by data, as opposed to policy decisions that maybe are driven by instinct or ideology. So it's really important. It's really important to education leaders. And I think by extension it's important to parents. I think it's important to taxpayers to have a system that, you know, everyday citizens could go on to and, you know, look at some data and try to, you know, try to check and see how they think the schools are doing.
GAUDETTE: Mhm. So, um, Kevin, federal officials pulled back more than $8 million earlier this year. How does that play into this project of upgrading ESI.
RICHERT: It's basically brought the project to a standstill. So the whole premise of upgrading ESI and the whole plan for upgrading ESI goes back to the pandemic. Um, the governor and legislature agreed on the idea of using pandemic aid to fund the ESI upgrade. Uh, it was, you know, the state was awash in pandemic aid, uh, coming from the feds, including, uh, pandemic aid that was earmarked for education. So the IC upgrade became one of the projects that Governor Little wanted to use pandemic aid funding for. Um, without the money from the pandemic, there really is no funding source to continue the IC project. So what happened earlier this year was the feds, uh, said your time is up, basically on spending this money. We're going to pull it back. Pull back $8 million plus state board has doesn't have $8 million to spend on, uh, keeping this project going. So right now the upgrade is at a standstill.
GAUDETTE: Okay. So, um, I want to talk a little bit more about when Jfac got this report because Representative Wendy Horman, as you reported, said, and I'm quoting, there likely will be an audit. So what's driving lawmakers, um, desire for deeper insight here, Kevin? Is it just about misspending or is there something else going on?
RICHERT: I think it's a bigger thing than just this instance. I think you've got a legislature in general and Jfac in particular, that really wants to have more, uh, more control, more oversight, more, more of a sense of how money is being spent, I think by members of Jfac don't want to simply be seen as an ATM here, where they provide funding for state agencies and walk away from it. This is a this is a committee that I think has become a lot more, um, has really kind of embraced and tried to carve out an oversight role. So I think what you've got going on here, um, I see is definitely an example of why this committee wants to have a better handle on how money is being spent. But there's a lot more at play here than than just this project and just this $1.8 million significant as that may be.
GAUDETTE: So, Kevin, the report did make clear that this misspending, um, does predate Jennifer White's arrival as the new executive director for the state Board of Education. So I'm curious about what her response was when, you know, when this was revealed to Jfac members.
RICHERT: I think her response was was pretty forthright in the sense that she said, look, this you know, you know, this money went into other projects that you have approved in the past, but it shouldn't have and it won't happen again. Um, Wendy Horman, the co-chair of the budget committee, went out of her way in that committee hearing to say, this is not Jennifer White's doing here. This is a problem that she's inherited because she just took over that job in April. Um, so I think you've got the, you know, you've got the budget committee saying this is not Jennifer White's fault, but it is her job now. You know, several months into the into the position is executive director of the state board to get this thing fixed.
GAUDETTE: So, Kevin, we've talked about this on the program, um, before, and that is the fact that Idaho is heading into a tight budget year. Um, I mean, we have a budget shortfall. So Jfac is already talking very openly, um, about having to make cuts because we are constitutionally supposed to have a balanced budget. So how might this almost $2 million issue, um, shape, you know, the broader budget debates in the, in the legislature when the session begins next month, in January?
RICHERT: I think it gives legislators and not just on Jfac, but starting on Jfac, because they are the committee that writes the budget bills. I think it gives them a, uh, impetus not just to sharpen their pencils about how much money is being spent and where, but also sharpen the scrutiny that they, uh, that they focus on, uh, that they directed state agencies to, to check to see if the money is being spent as intended, if it's going into areas, uh, that, that had been approved. I think this comes at a time where with money scarce, you're going to have a lot more scrutiny over how that money is being spent.
GAUDETTE: Mhm. So Kevin, does this conflict highlight maybe a deeper power struggle like between budget committees and policy committees in the legislature? I mean, or is this simply about tightening procedures because I'm wondering if, you know, if Jfac might feel as if state agencies have been kind of loosey goosey with, with their spending?
RICHERT: I think there's a couple of power struggles to watch as this goes forward. I think it's definitely a push and pull between the legislature and the executive, the executive branch and the state agencies that fall under the executive branch. I think this legislature is wanting to exert more influence over how money is spent, where it is spent, um, not just simply providing a a pot of money and leaving it to the agencies to to spend it. So you've got that separation of powers issue going on. And there's also, uh, there's also some push and pull within the legislature itself. You know, Jfac is the budget committee. They are charged with writing agency budgets and and carving up the money that goes out. But you at the same time, you have committees at the state House, like the education committees, the House and Senate education committees who want to exert more control over education policy. Uh, and those committees tend to be in conflict sometimes. You know, the policy committees, like the education committees, may feel like the Budget Committee is overstepping its bounds by trying to write too much policy into the budget bills. So there's a lot of conflict within the legislature, in addition to the separation of powers, conflict that you would expect between the legislative and executive branches.
GAUDETTE: Okay, so last question, Kevin, and let's talk big picture here. I mean, we've already talked about the fact that there has been years of delays, you know, millions of dollars spent on trying to upgrade ICI. Is there any confidence that the state will eventually get a functioning modern student data system? I mean, because, as you said, you know, this is about making data driven decisions which are critically important when it comes in particular to K through 12.
RICHERT: Education eventually is kind of the key word. And that's a really subjective word, right. Eventually something will probably happen, I think. I think there's two too much, um, too many important people at the state House who really want to see something done here. Uh, legislators, the governor, the state Board of Education, I think is generally an agreement, uh, that this system is too old. It hasn't really lived up to its promise. It's we got to do something about it, and we probably should have done something about it a while ago, but eventually does not mean immediately. Uh, I would be really surprised to see any kind of movement in terms of solving the IC problem, uh, this next legislative session, because there just isn't any money. I mean, even in a good year, I think it would be difficult to, uh, to come up with several million dollars to put into a data system. It's just not a very, uh, it's it's not very sexy. It's not very it's not one of those kind of education projects that people get really excited about doing, even though it's an important project. So even in a good year this would be a tough sell. But this is a really tough year, so I think it's even harder sell. So again, I would be really surprised to see any major movement this next legislative session in terms of trying to get this project back off of the ground.
GAUDETTE: All right. Well, Kevin, really appreciate your time today. We've been talking with Kevin Richert, senior reporter with Idaho Education News, discussing a report showing that the state Board of Education misspent nearly $2 million and how legislators are moving forward. Of course, you can catch all of Kevin's reporting on this on Idaho education news website.
