Officials warn state college funds can’t be sliced further

BOISE – Idaho still spends just under 1 percent of its state budget on its two community colleges, a percentage that hasn’t changed in 22 years – even as the percentages going to public schools and four-year colleges and universities have dropped.

“I think they have a good message,” said state Sen. John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, who’s co-chairing an interim legislative committee looking into expanding community college services statewide.

Leaders of Idaho’s two community colleges often frame their budget pitches to lawmakers around the good deal they offer – education for lots of students, tailored to communities, at low cost. But state education officials are warning that the existing state money pie for community colleges can’t just be split up further. If the state adds more colleges, it’ll need to put in more money.

“I think there’s a … concern among existing community colleges that we first do no harm,” Dwight Johnson, executive director of the state Board of Education, told the legislative interim committee at its first meeting Monday. “As we move forward, it will require additional resources to be successful.”

State support for four-year colleges and universities has dropped from 15 percent of the state budget in 1986 to 10.4 percent this year, the legislative committee was told. For public schools, it’s gone from 51.7 percent to 44.4 percent. But community colleges held steady at 0.9 percent.

Kent Propst, North Idaho College community relations director, watched the committee meeting from the audience. “I think there’s a widely held regard for the work the community colleges do and the impact they have on their communities as far as economic development,” Propst said.

He added that as the state looks to expand, he doesn’t expect lawmakers to dip into NIC’s funding to pay for expansions elsewhere. “I’d hope that’s not even part of their thought process,” Propst said. “It’s a small amount of money to the state. To us, it’s a substantial part of our budget.”

NIC’s budget of about $33.4 million a year includes $10.4 million from the state general fund.

Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, who serves on the interim committee, said he wasn’t surprised to learn that the portion of the budget going to community colleges had stayed the same. But Clark said he thinks it should have grown more.

“There hasn’t been a lot of movement,” he said, “so how do you pay for all these students?”

Idaho’s two community colleges are funded by a mix of state funds, local property taxes, tuition, and some state liquor funds.

Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, another panel member, said he thought community colleges had held onto their share of the state budget, in part, because they never requested big increases. The state hiked funding for four-year colleges, he said, then had to pull the money back when it hit economic downturns. “The universities got hit pretty hard,” he said.

Cameron, whose district includes the state’s other community college, the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, said if Idaho adds more community colleges, it should ensure that it can continue to fund them in the future. The state would be ill-advised to open colleges in economic good times that it would have to close when budgets get tight, he said.

Much of the interim committee’s first meeting was focused on options for the Treasure Valley, home of the state capital and the largest metropolitan area in the nation without a community college. Boise State University is supposed to provide community college services to the area but lacks the open enrollment and low tuition that characterize community colleges. Plus, BSU is focused on its mission of becoming a research university.

“Certainly, you look at those occupations that are going to be most in demand over the course of the immediate future, community colleges offer training better than any other arena for those occupations,” Goedde said. “So if they were important in the past, they’re going to be more important in the future.”

Propst said it’s clear lawmakers recognize community colleges as “a very strong and enviable product.”

“People want colleges like NIC and CSI in their backyard, as they should,” he said.