An interim legislative committee charged with updating the complex formula through which Idaho divvies up its state funding to schools and school districts across the state is meeting today. This morning was spent on recaps and reports on efforts thus far and the committee’s charge, along with a presentation from the state Office of Performance Evaluations, which will review how current public school funding works.

“If we are talking about rolling up some of these line items into a new formula, we need a solid understanding of each of those line items,” said Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, the House co-chair of the interim committee. An example might be funding for additional math and science teachers, she said. She thanked the OPE staff and said she’s looking forward to the results.

Sen. Chuck Winder, R-Boise, the Senate co-chair, said, “I think it’s important to remember that as we go forward, we’re going to have to have a lot of stakeholder input. I think there’s going to be a need to probably go to some other parts of the state to listen. I think that’s going to be one of our greatest challenges, is to actually go out and listen to the superintendents, listen to the teachers, listen to the parents, in different parts of the state. Our task is to try and figure out a formula that works for all the districts, and that’s not going to be easy. We need to understand what their needs are, and what the shortcomings are of the current formula.”

The current formula tries to adjust for differing needs and costs between Idaho’s widely varying districts, from tiny, rural districts to big urban ones. The panel, in addition to a bipartisan group of 10 senators and representatives, also includes state Superintendent of Schools Sherri Ybarra and another member of the state Board of Education, Linda Clark, as voting members.

Today’s meeting is on a lunch break now, but will reconvene at 1 p.m. MT; you can listen live here, and see the committee’s full agenda packet here. This afternoon’s agenda includes a presentation from the Education Commission of the States; another from state Department of Education official Tim Hill on the timing of state payments to school districts; another presentation from Hill on information that’s now collected and published regarding dollars per student; plans for a survey of school districts; and finally, a committee discussion on “next steps,” which is scheduled to run until roughly 3 p.m. The committee is meeting in Room WW17 in the garden level of the state Capitol.