The Legislature’s DOGE Task Force on Wednesday recommended folding the state’s STEM Action Center into the Workforce Development Council. 

The move — along with other consolidation plans — could save the state about $300,000. The STEM Action Center is currently a standalone agency under the governor’s office with a $6.3 million annual budget.

Members of the DOGE Task Force unanimously voted to recommend consolidation Wednesday. The interim committee doesn’t have authority to make policy and spending decisions, only to recommend them to the full Legislature, which reconvenes in January. 

The STEM Action Center and Workforce Development Council have worked together in recent years, including on a teacher externship program launched in 2019, executive director Wendi Secrist told the task force. Secrist is the executive director of both agencies, and consolidation plans predated DOGE, which legislative leaders created earlier this year.

“We looked at the staff, time, the resources spent and we evaluated whether we thought that those results were commensurate with the investment that we were making in the programs,” she said. 

Agency leaders concluded that one of the STEM Action Center’s five programs — a STEM school designation that comes with a financial incentive — should be discontinued, two positions should be eliminated and the agency should be consolidated into the Workforce Development Council. Altogether, consolidation would save about $300,000, Secrist said. 

DOGE members supported the ideas, but they also had criticisms. Republicans questioned a lack of metrics showing the agency is helping to grow the workforce in STEM fields and wondered whether the agency should be eliminated. 

“We really…should need to see tangible results as a result of the program,” said Sen. Todd Lakey, R-Nampa, co-chairman of the task force. “Do we have more Idaho students that are going into science and engineering to support our tech industry in Idaho?”

Secrist said it’s difficult to track outcomes from STEM Action Center’s programs, which focus on younger students in kindergarten through sixth grade. But the Workforce Development Council has “pretty solid metrics,” she said. 

“The dollars that we spend, that we invest, we are looking at are these helping individuals get jobs in Idaho?” she said.

Moving forward, lawmakers will want to see “additional measurables” that illustrate the effectiveness of the STEM Action Center, Lakey said.

DOGE punts decision on college housing commissions 

Also Wednesday, DOGE members punted a decision on whether to recommend eliminating dormitory housing commissions (DHCs), which are “largely obsolete,” according to Jennifer White, executive director of the Idaho State Board of Education. 

Created in 1957, the DHCs were designed to help community colleges fund facilities when “financing tools were limited,” White said. Today, the colleges rely on other tools such as state funds, bonding alternatives and philanthropic donations, White said. 

But there’s a problem: North Idaho College has an existing $7.2 million bond, used to fund a recreation center, that’s owned by a DHC. The bond is payable through 2046.

While DHCs are “independent body politics” that aren’t directly controlled by the state, it’s unclear where North Idaho College’s bond liability would go if the Legislature eliminated statutes authorizing DHCs.

“We are so sensitive to ensuring that Idaho’s bond rating and credibility remain protected, so I think we want to proceed with caution,” White said. 

DOGE members agreed, and voted to hold off on DHCs. 

“My recommendation would be get rid of it,” said Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle. “But I do think we’re going to have to figure out a way to extend some aspect of that one bond that’s actually out there.”