Panel Urges 9 Percent Hike In Higher Ed Funding
The state Board of Education’s Finance Committee is recommending at least a 9 percent increase in state support for the universities and Lewis-Clark State College in the 1996-1997 school year.
The committee on Friday proposed setting the higher education budget at no less than $187 million, which would trim nearly $7 million from the amount the four schools sought.
But in forwarding its recommendation to the full board, the committee left unresolved the fate of $1.8 million for continued expansion of engineering education at Boise State University and $500,000 to expand health education opportunities at Idaho State University.
It will be up to the full board to decide whether to include those spending proposals in the budget plan it submits to governor this fall and to lawmakers next winter. Including the entire amount and pushing the total request to $189.3 million would result in a proposed 10.7 percent hike.
The schools had sought a 13.3 percent boost in support.
The budget proposal could also be eventually adjusted for the state employee pay increase adopted by the Legislature. It is currently calculated on the assumption that the increase will match this year’s 5 percent.
The committee blueprint does include more than $3.6 million to begin bringing faculty salaries at the four schools up to the average being paid at similar institutions in the region. That amount would provide another 3.5 percent average pay increase on top of whatever general pay hike is approved.
So-called salary equity has been a major concern of the board’s as the universities try to recruit quality professionals for their classrooms and academic offices. Problems have also arisen over what is called salary compression when newly hired faculty members are being paid nearly as much as veteran professors, whose paychecks have been eroded over the years by inadequate annual pay increases.
The four schools would also have access to a pool of $2 million that the committee recommended be created to finance expanded use of high technology for post-secondary students both in and out of the classroom.
The committee also laid out a $40.8 million building program for 1996-1997 that makes the top priority $1 million for further work on the $12.3 million Agricultural Biotechnology Facilities project at the University of Idaho.